After plodding year after year
through towns in an alien land,
we have ground enough to despair —
and despair is where we must end.
For despair is our final refuge —
as if, midwinter, we had come
from Vespers in a nearby church,
through Russian snow, to our home.
За столько лет такого маянья
По городам чужой земли
Есть от чего прийти в отчаянье,
И мы в отчаянье пришли.
— В отчаянье, в приют последний,
Как будто мы пришли зимой
С вечерни в церковке соседней,
По снегу русскому, домой.
«They soar, they are somewhere mid-flight, / The words of love and liberation, / And I’m succumbing to stage-fright, / My lips — ice cold in trepidation. But soon, where birches, thin and humble, / Caress the windows with their leaves, — / The voice of the unseen will rumble, / An...»
«The breezy evening had commenced / In Petrov — such a wondrous town. / The red flame of the dawn shined down, / And shadows slowly grew more dense. You touched my chest and then withdrew, / Like poets touched the lyre once, / To hear a gentle meek response / To the demanding “I love...»
«It’s thus I prayed: “O satisfy / The deafened thirst of intonations!” / But never has the earth complied / To grant the earthly man salvation. Like smoke from him, who couldn’t grasp / The lofty throne of Power and Glory, / But with a prayer, kissed the grass, / And spread itsel...»
«In closeness, there’s a sacred line, / That love and passion cannot cross, — / Let lips in silence merge sublime, / And hearts explode from passion’s force. Both, friendship’s powerless and years / Of fiery bliss without rancor, / When spirit’s free and never nears / Dull sens...»