Sonnet
In pink-violet clusters the
Scentless lilac on this
Sultry — soft day is
Motionless, as if in fetters.
No sun, but shadow with shadow
Is in eternally new combinations;
No rain, but rivers of ready tears -
But they are too lazy to flow.
Half-sleep, half-consciousness,
Sadness, but without recollection,
And my soul forgives everything...
But whether or not the harassing cold
Has inflicted its wounds, the unhurried
Light rain is so noiselessly drumming.
Сонет
В гроздьях розово-лиловых
Безуханная сирень
В этот душно-мягкий день
Неподвижна, как в оковах.
Солнца нет, но с тенью тень
В сочетаньях вечно новых,
Нет дождя, а слез готовых
Реки — только литься лень.
Полусон, полусознанье,
Грусть, но без воспоминанья
И всему простит душа…
А, доняв ли, холод ранит,
Мягкий дождик не спеша
Так бесшумно барабанит.
«We know what trembles in the scales, / What has to be accomplished. / The hour for courage. If all else fails, / With courage we are not unfurnished. / What though the dead be crowded, each to each, / What though our houses be destroyed? — / We will preserve you, Russian speech, / Ke...»
«I feel my life hang by a hair / as I wait at night for the Muse; / youth, freedom, fame melt into air / as my guest appears with her flute. She enters, tosses back her shawl; / her half-closed eyes let nothing pass. / "So it was you who sang of Hell / to Dante?" "Yes," she says, "it wa...»
«Nothing, nothing will be returned; / love, forgiveness — unearned, unlearned; / though we can never learn to forget. Sweet is the sleep of an alien land. / We sense spring, hear the sea’s even sound / in this world of eternal torment.»
«for Osip Mandelstam All the town’s gripped in an icy fist. / Trees and walls and snow are set in glass. / I pick my timid way across the crystal. / Unsteadily the painted sledges pass. / Flocks of crows above St Peter’s, wheeling. / The dome amongst the poplars, green and pale in / ...»