The gentleman swayed and dozed in his cabin, swaying
to the right, to the left, and back again.
He swayed alone, restless.
He swayed away from life and what he’d lived.
My friend, you are on your way as well,
but where will we be bound tomorrow?
Believe me: these feeble faces,
the darkness, suitcases, and parcels,
the dawn that silently steams
among charred peasant houses
under a white sky, fleeing aimlessly,
shaking off and then absorbing
sleep, half-sleep —
everything lusts, flags, and maddens at last
for its one and only end.
В купе господин качался, дремал, качаясь
Направо, налево, еще немножко.
Качался один, неприкаянный,
От жизни качался от прожитой.
Милый, и ты в пути,
Куда же нам завтра идти!
Но верю: ватные лица,
Темнота, чемоданы, тюки,
И рассвет, что тихо дымится
Среди обгорелых изб,
Под белым небом, в бесцельном беге,
Отряхая и снова вбирая
Сон, полусон, —
Все томится, никнет и бредит
Одним концом.
«And while above Tsarskoye Selo1 / Akhmatova’s song and tears were pouring, / I, unwinding the skein of the sorceress, / Plodded through the desert like a sleepy corpse2, / There where impossibility lay dying: / An exhausted mummer Determined to break through. / And meanwhile in dark ca...»
«Bo-be-o-bee1 sang the mouth / Ve-e-o-mee sang the orbs / Pee-e-e-o sang the brows / Lee-e-e-ey sang the look / Gzee-gzee-gze-o sang the chain / Thus on a canvas of would-be connections / In another dimension there lived the Face. ____ / 1. Khlebnikov wrote in his notebook: “B is bri...»
«Persons, people, and the years1 / Run away forever more / Like the river past the shore. / Nature’s supple glass reveals / Stars — a net, the fishes — we, / Gods — the figments in the deep. ____ / 1. The poem invites comparison with Gavriil Derzhavin’s well-known "The river of...»
«I need but little! A crust of bread / and just a drop of mild / sky overhead, / these clouds above the hill!»