Willow tree, why do you bend your branches
Down to the water
And with leaves a-tremble
Like thirsty mouths
Try to catch the running stream?
Useless for every leaf to strain
And flutter above the stream,
The waters rush and plash along their way,
Gaily sparkling in the sunshine
As they laugh at you.
Что ты клонишь над водами,
Ива, макушку свою
И дрожащими листами,
Словно жадными устами,
Ловишь беглую струю?..
Хоть томится, хоть трепещет
Каждый лист твой над струей...
Но струя бежит и плещет,
И, на солнце нежась, блещет,
И смеется над тобой...
«Stars raced headlong. Seaward headlands lathered. / Salt spray blinded. Eyes dried up their tears. / Darkness filled the bedrooms. Thoughts raced headlong. / To Sahara Sphinx turned patient ears. Candles guttered. Blood, it seemed, was frozen / In the huge Colossus. Lips at play / Swelled...»
«That year! How often “Out you fall!” / That old year's whisper at my window said. / The new year makes an end of all / And brings a Dickens Christmas tale instead. He murmurs: “Shake yourself, forget.” / Mercury rises with the sun outside, / Just as the old year strychnine set / ...»
«Dawn shakes the candle, shoots a flame / To light the wren and does not miss. / I search my memories and proclaim: / "May life be always fresh as this!” Like a shot dawn rang through the night. / Bang-bang it went. In swooning flight / The wads of bullets flame and hiss. / May life be...»
«So they begin. With two years gone / From nurse to countless tunes they scuttle. / They chirp and whistle. Then comes on / The third year, and they start to prattle. So they begin to see and know. / In din of started turbines roaring / Mother seems not their mother now. / And you not yo...»