Resplendent in their biblical glory
Above the city float the flaming clouds;
The angel that tops Peter and Paul's fortress
Looks through them into centuries massed….
But my vision is clear and it’s uncertain
What lies beyond – what dreams, sunsets, cities
Will replace these – glowing gold, growing pale –
And what night will set for all of eternity!
Как древняя ликующая слава,
Плывут и пламенеют облака,
И ангел с крепости Петра и Павла
Глядит сквозь них — в грядущие века.
Но ясен взор — и неизвестно, что там
Какие сны, закаты, города —
На смену этим блеклым позолотам —
Какая ночь настанет навсегда!
«In peace lie hills and fields and dark-blue valleys, / And woods like lazy billows rise and fall; / Yet still before me, tortuous and silent, / A line, invisible, runs through them all. All the way from Ladoga* you'll trace it. / Right to the Gulf of Finland it does run; / You'll find it ...»
«The hour was late, was lost / in the loud night. / The kolkhoz lantern tossed / its yellowing light over the stones, the stream / danced quick with gold, / and by that lantern beam / a tale was told, as if, where spindrift rays / of water clashed, / the wild scenes of my days / f...»
«It's unbecoming to be famous. / It isn't that that lifts aloft. / Maintaining archives tends to maim us. / Hoard MSS and you are lost. The aim of art is self-discharge / And not the clap-trap of success. / It's shameless to be looming large / For merits which are but a guess. Live on t...»
«On shore the trees stand looking on / While midday casts the clouds on bet / Into the meditative pond / For want of any other net. And like a net the sky sinks in / The pensively expectant waters / And into it the bathers swim, / Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Then half a dozen ...»