This winter night I travel out,
This winter night, I cannot sleep:
From corners, shelves, from all about,
Across and through its heavy shroud,
The rosy-colored twilight seeps.
Having flipped the silver goblets
Over in the drowsy air,
The lilies pour me fragrant droplets
Of a drink beyond compare, —
In such poetical immersion,
Holding up their living cups,
I drink sweet poison’s final drops
Of cerebral exertion...
Chains of recollections melt
In the white glass and, demolished
By the poison for a spell,
Ignorance appears as knowledge.
Зимней ночи путь так долог,
Зимней ночью мне не спится:
Из углов и с книжных полок
Сквозь ее тяжелый полог
Сумрак розовый струится.
Серебристые фиалы
Опрокинув в воздух сонный,
Льют лилеи небывалый
Мне напиток благовонный, —
И из кубка их живого
В поэтической оправе
Рад я сладостной отраве
Напряженья мозгового...
В белой чаше тают звенья
Из цепей воспоминанья,
И от яду на мгновенье
Знаньем кажется незнанье.
«Oh peaceful hours of precious solitude! / Epiphanies I treasure like prized grain — / Which sprouts from my soul’s dark terrain / From inspiration’s seed to charmed and verdant fruit. Souls' torments in the days gone by / And wine — set heart aflame; / While now sole remains / ...»
«He hung without swaying / Thin belt on branch's bend. / His hat — a black remainder / Marred freshly combed sand. / Left palm, pierced by the nails, / Of still, yet stiffened hand. The sun ascended slowly / For noon its horses set, / He faced the morning Helios / In somber tet-a-...»
«Blizzard wails past my window, / Covers my porch with mounds of snow. / Diddle time away, cast shadows — / From the wedding ring I wore. My old cat makes new discovery — / Chairs don’t purr. So he is still. / Blind blizzard in old livery — / Icy staff raps like a bill. Winter n...»
«Light clear drops by Time are beaded: / Hour past hour, day by day. Has my child by you been seeded? / Dug for you — this early grave? To our outcries — Time is silent! / Raise my hands to steely sky, — Pattern's end, last stitch, it's final. / Punctured canvas. Vacant sigh.»