I walk and think of various things,
For myself weave a funeral wreath,
And in this hideous world I am
A stylishly solitary man.
But suddenly I hear: war, ideas,
The last trump, the twentieth century...
And growing cold, I then recall —
I am a human being no more.
Spasmic jerking or an idiot,
Useless freak of nature —
"Up with...", yells the patriot,
"Down with...", comes the rebel's roar.
Иду — и думаю о разном.
Плету на гроб себе венок,
И в этом мире безобразном
Благообразно одинок.
Но слышу вдруг: война, идея,
Последний бой, двадцатый век.
И вспоминаю, холодея,
Что я уже не человек,
А судорога идиота,
Природой созданная зря, —
«Ур-ра!» из пасти патриота,
«Долой!» из глотки бунтаря.
«No, I will not be reconciled. / My curses are the truth. / I'll not forgive, I will not fall / Into embrace of iron. Like all who live I'll die, I'll kill, / Like all, destroy myself. / But I will never stain my soul / With justifying war. In my last hour, in murk and fire, / Let my ...»
«A strange alarm weighs on my heart, / Delirium of premonitions. / I look ahead and the road is dark / And perhaps there is no road. But I cannot touch with any words / What is living in me — and in silence. / I do not dare to feel it; / It's like a dream. A dream within a dream. O, m...»
«I offer prayers for the Devil, / O, Lord! He is your creature. / I love the Devil, for I see / My suffering within him. In torment and in struggle / He weaves his nets with care. / And I cannot help but pity / The one who suffers as I do. When our flesh shall rise again / For retribu...»
«Long centuries of centuries will pass, unsighted / Millenniums as locusts in deathy clouds descend, / And in the muttering of centuries affrighted / The same enduring firmament will watch the end. / The dumb, dead firmament—that God will not remember, / Who breathes Eternity behind the f...»