If from the garden, this stupid maple
Spreading his branches would fly away!
Oh, if he could behave this way,
Oh, if he only would be able!
But he 's just thickening every week,
And all is leaving, but not leaving.
What is the point to be so weak
And stay whole year like a stick?!
О, если б клён, в саду растущий,
Расправив ветви, улетел!..
О, если бы летать хотел
Безмозглый клён, в саду растущий!..
Он с каждым днём всё гуще-гуще,
И вот уж сплошь он полиствел.
Что толку! — лучше бы: растущий,
Взмахнув ветвями, улетел!
«I feel the need for someone I can pray to. / Imagine that a common lowly ant / Was overcome by yearning for a way to / Prostrate himself—as humble supplicant. At peace no more, dispirited, frustrated / So all the world appeared to him mundane. / A goddess in his image he created / And...»
«I see that this morning your eyes are especially sad; / Especially slender the arms that encircle your calves / Well, listen, far off to the south on the shores of Lake Chad, / There roams the exquisite giraffe. To him have been given harmonious figure and grace, / His hide is embellished w...»
«White on the blue, the sail has gone, / to vanish with the breeze; / what does the sailor seek alone / in far-off seas? His tackle tautens in the stress / of favouring winds astir; / alas, he seeks not happiness, / nor flies from her. The sun is bright above; below, / the ripples cur...»
«Then summer took leave of the platform / and waiting room. Raising his cap, / the storm at night for souvenir / took snap after dazzling snap. The lilac darkened. And the storm / came bounding in from the meadows / with a sheaf of lightning flashes / to light the office windows. And wh...»