Eduard Bagritsky
So sweetly enervated I, by silence and by dreams...

Literal Translation

Silence and dreams, and a languid boredom
Have left me sweetly enervated,
I’m fond of the roosters on white dishtowels
And of ancient soot on austere icons.

Day after day goes by to the hot rustle of flies,
Each day replete with the most pious humility,
A quail murmurs beneath the low ceiling,
And on festive days there’s the aroma of raspberry jam.

And at night you languish in soft goose-down feathers,
The stifling icon lamp blinks agonizingly,
And the embroidered rooster on the dishtowel
Stretches out his neck and crows at length.

And so, O Lord, you’ve given me a modest hideaway,
Beneath a soothing roof that knows not agitation,
Where the heavy [oppressive] days, as jam from a spoon,
In thick droplets go dripping, dripping, dripping.

Literary Translation/Adaptation

So sweetly enervated I, by silence and by dreams,
By boredom creeping slowly past, and songs ineptly sung,
I love the crowing roosters on the dishtowel barnyard scenes,
The ancient soot on icons, in the parlor corner hung.

Day follows day, the flies toil on, exacerbating rustle,
My life abounds with piety, with actions cautionary,
Beneath the placid eaves above the cooing pigeons bustle,
On festive days the air is rife with jam of lingonberry.

With night’s unease I turn and writhe in goose-down feathers soft,
The stifling icon lamp’s aglitter, blinking misery,
Then one embroidered rooster in the dishtowel barnyard loft
Extends his scrawny neck, exults, and crows his reveille.

O Lord, thou hast provided me a modest warm cocoon,
Beneath a tranquil roof that holds my life in trusteeship,
Where day by viscous day seeps by, as jam from kitchen spoon,
In thick and gooey droplets falls,
With drip, and drip, and drip.

Translated by U. R. Bowie