To Roman Gul
Even the graves are not tended in Russia,
Once they may have been, but I have forgotten.
There is no Petersburg, no Moscow, no Kiev,
Once there may have been, alas I have forgotten.
Neither seas, rivers do I know, nor frontiers.
But I know the Russian man's still there.
He has a Russian heart, he has a Russian head.
I'll understand him from the very first word said,
When I meet him face to face ... Then I shall begin
To see his country too, dimly through the mist.
Роману Гулю
Нет в России даже дорогих могил,
Может быть и были — только я забыл.
Нету Петербурга, Киева, Москвы —
Может быть и были, да забыл, увы.
Ни границ не знаю, ни морей, ни рек,
Знаю - там остался русский человек.
Русский он по сердцу, русский по уму,
Если я с ним встречусь, я его пойму.
Сразу, с полуслова... И тогда начну
Различать в тумане и его страну.
«I know nothing, I trust in nothing, / I no longer in life see its brighter side. / I approach my friend as if he were a lion / I need nothing else. I am bored and tired. Someone knifes someone, smothers another.. / Everywhere, cheating, lying and greed. / Would eyes not see and would ears...»
«She lies, opening her teats, strong, swollen, wide, / And at her breasts, their equal gift bestowing, / Mad Nero and meek Buddha clutch, unknowing, / As clinging twins who suckle side by side. / She holds two vessels, whence, forever flowing, / The streams of Life and Death serenely g...»
«Three times I saw him face to face. / The first time was in the gardens — / I had been sent to fetch food for my comrades, / and to make the journey shorter / I took the path by the palace wing; / suddenly I caught the tremor of strings, / and, being tall of stature, / I peered th...»
«How goest your life with another? / Any easier? One oar in the water, plink! / And off drifts the erstwhile once-lover. / Did all too soon the memory shrink Of me, the island that sails astray / (Through sky and not through watery mass)? / Souls, souls! You’re to be siblings now, hey! /...»