Scorched by the fire of the sky’s unmoving body,
The pick-ax stops clanging out its accursed lesson.
And nailed onto the earth, the piled autumnal haystacks
Of sleeping working-men are black as any downpour.
The last decision of some dark and savage forces,
A vertical ray’s call, inaudible to people,
And those lines of lean legs amidst smoky confusion.
Of the disheveled beards, of torn and tattered headgear.
Is not this whirling world many times terrifying
Does not one want to run away and hide so quickly?
Just think: In the arms of their mothers
All these were once lovely pink children.
Палимая огнём недвижного светила,
Проклятый свой урок отлязгала кирьга
И спящих грабаров с землёю сколотила,
Как ливень чёрные, осенние стога.
Каких-то диких сил последнее решенье,
Луча отвесного неслышный людям зов,
И абрис ног худых меж чадного смешенья
Всклокоченных бород и рваных картузов.
Не страшно ль иногда становится на свете?
Не хочется ль бежать, укрыться поскорей?
Подумай: на руках у матерей
Всё это были розовые дети.
«From the darkness the years flow out / Rustling noisily like a chamomile field. / There's a dog in my memory now, / She was my friend since I was kid. Now the ardor of youth has turned quiet / Like the maple by my window turned stale, / I remember a girl dressed in white / And a d...»
«1 From the totality / Of excesses, haste, / Machinery and greed / Arose the state. / The state stood for a fortress, sword, / Law and agreement. The state / Became the center / Of ill-managed, widespread evil: / A giant armored stomach, / In which the people function / ...»
«Farewell, my dear friend, farewell, / Within my heart you’ll stay, / And as we part, I can foretell / That we shall meet some day. Without a hand or a word, good-bye, / Don’t mourn for me or grieve — / For it’s not new for us to die, / Not newer still, to live.»
«Hail glorious grief! For yesterday died — / Passed away irreplaceably the king with gray eyes. That evening in autumn was scarlet and sad, / My husband came home and tranquilly said: “From the forest they brought him, he was hunting, you see, / They found his body by an old oak tree....»