Long centuries of centuries will pass, unsighted
Millenniums as locusts in deathy clouds descend,
And in the muttering of centuries affrighted
The same enduring firmament will watch the end.
The dumb, dead firmament—that God will not remember,
Who breathes Eternity behind the farther skies,
Beyond the fading of the last star's last slow ember,
Beyond the utter threshold words may scrutinize.
Forever cold, that starry desert, clouds out-topping,
Is flung forth, alien to the end, on space,
When tearing comet-fires will crumble with it, dropping
As dumbly burning tears from a despairing face.
Пройдут века веков, толпы́ тысячелетий,
Как туча саранчи, с собой несущей смерть,
И в быстром ропоте испуганных столетий
До горького конца пребудет та же твердь, —
Немая, мёртвая, отвергнутая Богом,
Живущим далеко в беззвёздных небесах,
В дыханьи Вечности, за гранью, за порогом
Всего понятного, горящего в словах.
Всегда холодная, пустыня звёзд над нами
Останется чужой до горького конца,
Когда она падёт кометными огнями,
Как брызги слёз немых с печального лица.
«Bring visions when you ring my bell / or all the loveliness of hell, / of God, if you belong to that band. / But little acts of meaning well — / just leave them outside on the hat stand. On this small pea in endless space / be shining angel or be demon. / But not mere man, though, for...»
«Through the closed nursery doors, the sugar angel / stares through the chink to see / the children playing at the Christmas party, / the brightly candled tree. Nana is making up the crackling fire, / a blaze for Christmas Day. / Only the sugar angel — he is German — / wastes, warm a...»
«I had a bird in my hand / but my bird has flown. / I held a bird in my hand / but am now all alone. My small bird has left me / full of anger and rage; / my blue bird has left me / alone in a cage.»
«When the streets empty out / and the singing dies down / and a white fog covers / the swamps and the town, / from the forests in silence / one after another / the wolves come out and go hunting. Seven wolves walk on bravely; / in front of them walks / an eighth with white fur; / w...»