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!
«We are keeping an eye on the girls, so that the kvass / doesn’t go sour in the jug, or the pancakes cold, / counting over the rings, and pouring Anis / into the long bottles with their narrow throats straightening tow thread for the peasant woman: / ceremoniously, the house is filled with...»
«I’ll be late for the meeting / we arranged. When I arrive, my hair / will be grey. Yes, I suppose I grabbed / at Spring. And you set your hopes much too high. I shall walk with this bitterness for years / across mountains or town squares equally, / (Ophelia didn’t flinch at rue!) ...»
«Where does this tenderness come from? / These are not the — first curls I / have stroked slowly — and lips I / have known are — darker than yours as stars rise often and go out again / (where does this tenderness come from?) / so many eyes have risen and died out / in front of the...»
«The demon in me's not dead, / He's living, and well. / In the body as in a hold, / In the self as in a cell. The world is but walls. / The exit's the axe. / ("All the world's a stage", / The actor prates.) And that hobbling buffoon / Is no joker; / In the body as in glory, / In t...»