I thought of eagles for a long time
and understood such a whole lot:
the eagles soar above the clouds,
they fly and fly and touch no one.
They live on cliffs and on mountains
and are intimate with water sprites,
I thought a long time about eagles
but confused them, I think, with flies.
Я долго думал об орлах
и понял многое:
орлы летают в облаках,
летают никого не трогая.
Я понял, что живут орлы на скалах и в горах
и дружат с водяными духами.
Я долго думал об орлах,
но спутал, кажется, их с мухами.
«In my room, there is a serpent, / Slow and gorgeous to behold… / She is calm and introverted / Much like I, and just as cold. As I’m writing in the evening, / She is sitting by my side, / Her indifferent eyes won’t leave me, / Shining emerald in the night. In the dark, I sob and ...»
«There’s hardly any body left, / The tortured lips have all but withered! / I didn’t want this kind of death, / The time-frame that I chose was different. / I had an image: two big clouds / Collide together, fast and free, / And lightning’s fire plummets down, / And mighty ecstasy...»
«The earthly glory is like smoke, / I wanted much more than this. / In all my lovers I evoked / The feelings of joy and bliss. / One is still in love somewhere / With a friend from long ago, / The other stands in the city square, — / A statue of bronze in the snow.»
«Leaving behind the groves of the sacred homeland, / The house, where the muse wept in lament, / I, cheerful and quiet, found a place / Upon an island, which was like a raft / That stopped in the thick delta of the Neva. / O, these peculiar mysterious days of winter, / Sweet labor and the...»