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.
«In this birch grove of quietness / Faraway from disasters and plights, / Where at dawn there oscillates / The unwinking and rosy light, / Where as if a clear avalanche / Leaves pour down from branches on high, / Sing me, oriole, song of a hermit`s chance, / Song about my life. Having ...»
«When faints the heart for sorrow, / In life's hard, darkened hour, / My spirit breathes a wondrous prayer / Full of love's inward power. There is a might inspiring / Each consecrated word, / That speaks the inconceivable / And holy will of God. The heavy load slips from my heart — / ...»
«There`s time when all is well and even fine, / But why it`s so you can`t explain, / Maybe by reason of the rain, / The proper summer rain. The glimpse of a familiar face in crowd, / A stranger`s riant eyes, / Inside of which there runs the Garden Ring, / Inside of which there shines the...»
«Mason who wears his white-snow apron, / What are you building, for whom? / Do not interfere with us, we are so busy, / What are we building? A jail. Mason who works with his sacrosant trowel, / Who will be crying in there? / Someone but you and your opulent brother, / None of you will h...»