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.
«Blessed be nights; their solitude evokes / Quiet talks to you through wisps of smoke. Many stars look down, big and small, / And a lonely mouse rustles by the wall. In my chest, I touch a tender bone / Motherland, it's yours and yours alone. In your air I'm still immersed, / I exhale it i...»
«At twilight, we stood by the pier / I said, "See that swift in the sky? / As long as you live, will you ever / Forget how it whirled in its flight?" You said: "I'll remember forever!" / And then we both burst into tears, / And love, like a wounded bird cried… / At twilight, right ther...»
«I died. Aeolus tugged and blown / At trees and shutters with his heat. / I walked on down the dusty street / Fauns walked beside me. In each faun, / I made out Pan. I contemplated: / “This must be heaven, I have made it...” From sunlight hiding, shinning softly / with russet armpit...»
«Let me go, I plead, don’t deny me! / The night is silent, scary and cold. / I am powerless here. I am dying / from your blind constant assault. On a peak, one is free to bewail / the homeland he left of free will, / but I’ve descended now into the vale — / don’t you dare to foll...»