Unexpectedly and brightly,
moist across the blueness of the sky,
an airy arc has been erected.
Triumphant, it will soon pass by.
One arm has plunged into the forest.
Beyond the clouds the other sweeps.
Half the sky it has encompassed.
It's reached its highest point and sleeps.
This iridescent vision
is pure delight for human eyes.
It's given us for just a moment,
so catch it. In your grasp it lies!
Look again. It's paling.
One second more its colours glow.
It's gone. It's vanished just as surely
as what you breathe and live by goes.
Как неожиданно и ярко,
На влажной неба синеве,
Воздушная воздвиглась арка
В своем минутном торжестве!
Один конец в леса вонзила,
Другим за облака ушла —
Она полнеба обхватила
И в высоте изнемогла.
О, в этом радужном виденье
Какая нега для очей!
Оно дано нам на мгновенье,
Лови его — лови скорей!
Смотри — оно уж побледнело,
Еще минута, две — и что ж?
Ушло, как то уйдет всецело,
Чем ты и дышишь и живешь.
«Bending a wall round the muzzle’s spot. / The misty ice is momentarily gilded... / I am confused by your burning prison, / Formerly blue dream of spring! Wearied by vain scintillation, you / Both weep and rend yourself, trembling. / But the sun has no triumphant ray / For miracles in ...»
«I would love winter, but / Its burden is heavy... / Not even smoke can go from / It into the clouds. This incising of lines, / This loaded flight, / This beggarly-blue / And tearstained ice! But I love the snow enfeebled / From blisses beyond the / Clouds — the now sparklingly / ...»
«The grasses are tender, the tombstones / Are white, and copper rings out / Triumphantly: “The blue ice is / Broken up and it must be burnt.” The sun seems to spin, / Forgetting its long winter / Imprisonment, only I hear death’s / Summons in the Easter hymn. Why! under the snow a...»
«Oh, eve of eternal workdays, / Viscous sting of ennui... in / The dusty heat of middays the / Din and paint of the station... Half-dead Hies on the / Nailed-up kiosk, on / The spilt whitewash. / Blind, greedy and deaf. Faded green flag, white / Puffs of steam, and / The unanswered ...»