As people listen intently
(a river’s mouth to its source)
that’s how they smell a flower
to the depths, till they lose all sense.
That’s how they feel their deepest
craving in dark air,
as children lying in blue sheets
peer into memory.
And that’s how a young boy feels
when his blood begins to change.
When people fall in love with love
they fling themselves in the abyss.
1
Так вслушиваются (в исток
Вслушивается — устье).
Так внюхиваются в цветок:
Вглубь — до потери чувства!
Так в воздухе, который синь —
Жажда, которой дна нет.
Так дети, в синеве простынь,
Всматриваются в память.
Так вчувствовывается в кровь
Отрок — доселе лотос.
…Так влюбливаются в любовь:
Впадываются в пропасть.
«We saw death at rather close range, / and perhaps we could have died ourselves, / we walked wherever it was possible to walk, / and looked at everything that one could look at. / We climbed into trenches / drenched with the smell of creosote / and “sake” spilt on the sand, / where ...»
«To A. Surkov Remember, Alyosha, the roads of Smolensk, / The cruel, the endlessly falling rain, / The tired women bringing us earthenware vessels, / And hugging them, like children, from the rain, How they wiped their eyes, stealthily, / And whispered on parting: “May God protect you! / ...»
«On an accordion which had seen plenty, / Moving his fingers over husky keys, / In an unfamiliar car the blind man played / The song “Along the Highway.”1 Blinded near Molodechno, / Back in that other, different war, / Straight from the clinic, he had set out, crippled, / His eyes sh...»
«Wait for me, and I’ll come back, / But wait with all your might, / Wait when dreariness descends / With the yellow rains, / Wait when snowdrifts sweep the ground, / Wait during the heat, / Wait when others are given up / And together with the past forgotten. / Wait when from distan...»