Tyranny itself seduced you.
Its sword has mown you like reeds.
The Law is incorruptibly impartial.
The LawТs infallible in word and deed.
Disloyalty is shunned by our people.
TheyТll scorn your names. Abuse will heap.
Your sons will never know your exploit,
hidden in time, a rotten carcass buried deep!
Victims of foolish notions!
Perhaps you had a youthful vision!
Perhaps you thought you saw
your thin blood trickling,
covering the ice-caps
as if alone it could thaw
that age-old polar face.
Why, it would scarce have time to sparkle
when up thereТd gust a breath of iron winter
to murder every tiny trace!
Декабристам
Вас развратило Самовластье,
И меч его вас поразил, —
И в неподкупном беспристрастье
Сей приговор Закон скрепил.
Народ, чуждаясь вероломства,
Поносит ваши имена —
И ваша память от потомства,
Как труп в земле, схоронена.
О жертвы мысли безрассудной,
Вы уповали, может быть,
Что станет вашей крови скудной,
Чтоб вечный полюс растопить!
Едва, дымясь, она сверкнула,
На вековой громаде льдов,
Зима железная дохнула —
И не осталось и следов.
«A wise and simple life I learned to live, / I pray to God in quiet meditation, / I take long wanderings before the eve / To weary the unneeded angst and tension. With burdock rustling; and the rowan red / And yellow berries gradually fading, / I form the joyous verses in my head / That ...»
«1 It was sultry from blazing light / And his every glance — like a flame. / I only started: that is right. / Me — only this one can tame. / He bent, — in a casual, low tone... / The blood sharply left my hot face. / Let love stop — like a tombstone — / My life's even, m...»
«For the resounding glory of ages to come / For the tall race of men / I have given up both the cup at my fathers' feast / My mirth and my honour. The wolf-hound age throws itself at my shoulders / But I am no wolf by my blood, / Rather stuff me like a hat into the sleeve / Of the warm o...»
«Not everyone can sing, / Not everyone can fall / Like an apple at a stranger's feet. This is the greatest confession, / That a hooligan can have. I go unkempt on purpose, / With my head, like a kerosene lamp, on my shoulders. / The leafless autumn, your souls in darkness — / I love t...»