No matter what went on around them; no matter
what message the snowstorm was straining to utter;
or how crowded they thought that wooden affair;
or that there was nothing for them anywhere.
Above their encampment, the sky. cold and idle,
and leaning as big things will do over little,
was burning a star, which from this very instant
had no place to go, save the gaze of the infant.
First, they were together. And — most of all — second,
they now were a threesome. Whatever was reckoned —
the stuff they were brewing, accruing, receiving —
was bound to be split into three, like this evening.
The campfire flared on its very last ember.
They all were asleep now. The star would resemble
no other, because of its knack, at its nadir,
for taking an alien for its neighbor.
Не важно, что было вокруг, и не важно,
о чем там пурга завывала протяжно,
что тесно им было в пастушьей квартире,
что места другого им не было в мире.
Морозное небо над ихним привалом
с привычкой большого склоняться над малым
сверкало звездою — и некуда деться
ей было отныне от взгляда младенца.
Во-первых, они были вместе. Второе,
и главное, было, что их было трое,
и всё, что творилось, варилось, дарилось
отныне, как минимум, на три делилось.
Костер полыхал, но полено кончалось;
все спали. Звезда от других отличалась
сильней, чем свеченьем, казавшимся лишним,
способностью дальнего смешивать с ближним.
«It snowed, it snowed across the world / At every turning. / A candle on the table burned, / A candle, burning. As midgeflies swarm in summertime / Toward a flame, / Snowflakes swarmed from the dark outside / Against the pane. The blizzard etched the glass with whirled / Arrows and ci...»
«A honeyed shade has covered / The Alexandrian halls / Pushkin / She has kissed Anthony's dead lips already, / Already knelt and wept at Cæsar's feet. / Servants betrayed her. In the sprawling darkness / Rome's Eagle screams and trumpets her defeat. In comes the last man captive to her...»
«You'll surely come. So why wait anymore? / I'm waiting for you. I am through. / My light is out. My doors are open for / The simple wonder that is you. / So take whatever guise might strike your fancy: / Blast chemical weapons through my room, / Come quiet as the nightstick of a gangster...»
«But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. / Genesis 19:26 The righteous man then trailed Jehovah's guide, / Hulking and bright, across a ridge of black, / But in his wife a keening anguish cried: / “It's not too late for you. You can look back upon your S...»