Neither with the white boldness of palaces on the
Heights, with striking eagles on the patterned gates,
Nor with the feminine caprice of Arabian designs
Could I more tirelessly indulge my heart.
But in vain I have sought a soul, my own
Soul, in the pink patches among the rocks’
Silhouettes... I met it in the picturesque
Desolation of a burnt-down palace, where
Tender flowering ran across the marble of
Broken steps, where at midday the old garden
Was sadder and darker and blue rays stream
Unhindered over the fading of panels and the
Fountain’s drowsiness. I felt as though I should
Find it there, playing in the pond with a bedraggled
Swan, and that we should share the dilapidated bench
Near the roots of a tree growing like a serpent.
On the road to the cliff where a cast cross
Dreams over beauty made bright through suffering.
Ни белой дерзостью палат на высотах
С орлами яркими в узорных воротах,
Ни женской прихотью арабских очертаний
Не мог бы сердца я лелеять неустанней.
Но в пятнах розовых по силуэтам скал
Напрасно я души, своей души искал…
Я с нею встретился в картинном запустеньи
Сгоревшего дворца — где нежное цветенье
Бежит по мрамору разбитых ступене́й,
Где в полдень старый сад печальней и темней,
А синие лучи струятся невозбранно
По блеклости панно и забытью фонтана.
Я будто чувствовал, что там её найду,
С косматым лебедем играющей в пруду,
И что поделимся мы ветхою скамьёю
Близ корня дерева, что поднялся змеёю,
Дорогой на скалу, где грезит крест литой
Над просветлённою страданьем красотой.
«No holly bush is here; no ancient yew tree; / Strange stones embedded in the salt marsh stand, / And rusted by the sun, the cypresses, / Like swords erect and planted in the sand. And underneath the slender crowns of cypress, / Deep in the earth beneath the flagstones laid, / In order by ...»
«All through his life he drew the scenes of war. / One starless night, he hit a mine at dawn / And traveled to the bottom with the ship, / His final picture incompletely drawn. All through his life, they came to him for cures, / He fought a furious battle against death / And died, from sel...»
«to Valentina Serova You used to say to me "I love you!", / But that was through your teeth, at night, / The truth was "I put up with you". / — You almost said it in the light. I could believe your lips in darkness, / The wicked magic of your bed, / But though the words you spoke were h...»
«to Valentina Serova The major brought the boy out on the gun; / His mother dead, unwept, no time for tears. / He was a child for whom the last ten days / In this world or the next will count as years. They brought him from the fortress, Brest-Litovsk, / Bullets had scarred and scratched th...»