Covered with a glory that had lost it luster,
Ringed by cretins, tricksters, hypocrites,
The two-headed eagle1 did not fall in battle
But died a horrible, degraded death.
Grinning, one man said: "He made it!"
Another sobbed: "Lord, forgive..."
But no one guessed it was a stuffed bird
They'd carried into exile, and the grave.
___
1. From the tsarist coat of arms.
Овеянный тускнеющею славой,
В кольце святош, кретинов и пройдох,
Не изнемог в бою Орел Двуглавый,
А жутко, унизительно издох.
Один сказал с усмешкою: «дождался!»
Другой заплакал: «Господи, прости…»
А чучела никто не догадался
В изгнанье, как в могилу, унести.
Я научился понемногу
Шагать со всеми — рядом, в ногу.
По пустякам не волноваться
И правилам повиноваться.
Встают — встаю. Садятся — сяду.
Стозначный помню номер свой.
Лояльно благодарен Аду
За звёздный кров над головой.
«There's Prince Diego, falling in a love, / He dozed and he laid his head midst table's stuff, / He lost his goblet, cast from silver's milk, / And freed his jacket of a crimson silk. And he is seeing the transparent stream, / And on the stream — the boat white as steam, / In which the ...»
«Here I'm alone in evening hour calm, / I'll only think of you, I feel no qualm. I'll take up book but what I'll read is "she", / And soul again is drunk, distraught with thee. I'll throw myself on old and creaky bed, / The pillow burns... No, I won't sleep, I'll tread. I'll walk to window, ...»
«All of us — righteous and sinners, / Born in prison, raised at the altar, / All of us are funny actors / In the theater of the Creator. The Lord sits on His throne, / Merrily follows the show. / Brightly on His sumptuous gown / Sparkles and golden stars glow. Oh, how easy and pleasan...»
«All deserts are one tribe, from the beginning / of time, but Arabia, Syria, Gobi — / they're only ripples of the vast Sahara / wave that roared its satanic spite. The Red Sea heaves, and the Persian Gulf, / and Pamir stands thick with snow, / but Sahara's sand-floods / run straight to...»