You get from time to time a man
Who's every woman's silent friend —
A friend without ulterior aim,
A friend on whom she can depend.
He's like the lifebelt on the deck
Which hangs and waits, for years unheeded,
Until at last it saves a life,
That final moment when it's needed.
Your careless hands must never hang
Me somewhere handy to be found.
I'm not a lifebelt. I'm a stone.
Hold fast to me and you'll be drowned...
Бывает иногда мужчина —
Всех женщин безответный друг,
Друг бескорыстный, беспричинный,
На всякий случай, словно круг,
Висящий на стене каюты.
Весь век он старится и ждет,
Потом в последнюю минуту
Его швырнут — и он спасет.
Неосторожными руками
Меня повесив где-нибудь,
Не спутай. Я не круг. Я камень.
Со мною можно потонуть.
«1 A river of golden honey from the bottle was pouring / So long and so thick that the hostess had time to speak: / "To this sad Taurides, where life does not get boring, / We jouneyed through fortune" — and looked over the neck. 2 There are Bacchus's services everywhere, as if in the whol...»
«The wooden organ did not roar this evening. / The cradle song of Schubert to us sang / The windmill blew and in the hurricane's singing / Laughing blue-eyed intoxication rang. The world of ancient song is green and brown, / The world of ancient song, young for all age, / Where nightingale...»
«Your fabulous enunciation — / Hot whistling of a bird of prey, / Create a true representation / Of silken eyelids, I dare say. "What" — and the head has fallen / "Why" — I am asking you / And far away the leaves are calling: / We live upon this planet too. So let them say that...»
«The essence of farewell I have extracted / From hatless laments of the sleepless night / As oxen chew, and waiting grows protracted, / And end of city vigil is in sight — / And I recall the rooster night with fear / When lost in doleful journey for too long / Into the void the tear-dre...»