Sunt mihi bis septem...
Those who are stronger than I — try to
Unite them... They are exhausted
And still have not merged: this
Bluish dusk and whitish summit...
I am merging and cannot merge this
Piercing March air with the chilly
Night on the thawing snow in the
Stars scarcely touched by green...
Aren’t you really spellbinding, pearly
One, you who have no need of the rest?
Didn’t your waning separate them,
Yellow-sickle on the burnt-out spot,
You, empty-pouched wanderer of the
Skies, with your ironical musing?..
Sunt mihi bis septem
Кто сильнее меня — их и сватай…
Истомились — и всё не слились:
Этот сумрак голубоватый
И белёсая высь…
Этот мартовский колющий воздух
С зябкой ночью на талом снегу
В еле тронутых зеленью звёздах
Я сливаю и слить не могу…
Уж не ты ль и колдуешь, жемчужный,
Ты, кому остальные ненужны,
Их не твой ли развёл и ущерб,
На горелом пятне желтосерп,
Ты, скиталец небес праздносумый,
С иронической думой?..
«This gives sense to our human life of pain / In the course of its unmitigated plight. / The sickle cuts the heavy ears of grain, / Just as it cuts the snared swan by the throat. Far back we learned how at break of day / Through the August fields the chill creeps. / Among the scattered she...»
«To the Prophet Jeremiah 1 I’m not scared of hell, / Nor the rain of spears and arrows, — / I read but one book of the Bible, / The Prophet Esenin, Sergei’s. When my time draws nigh, / I fear no cracking whips. / The body, Christ’s body, / Dribbles spit from its lips. I don’...»
«Farewell, old chap, farewell. / You are lodged in my breast, my dear. / The parting foretold and fateful / Bodes a meeting yet to appear. Old chap, no hand, no word, / On your brow, no gloom, no grief, — / In this life, nothing new, to have died, / But of course, nothing new, to live.»
«Night raises its shroud — / And the waves murmur, as foes. / I hear, daughter of Lordly Abysses, / Your immortal steps!.. Departed! Is it not how all of you / Step across the threshold / Of atrocious elements? And, as lions, / They lie at your feet — And lick your elongated shroud...»