3
Because once when you were young and bold
you did not leave me to rot alive among
bodies without souls or fall dead among walls
I will not let you die altogether.
Because, fresh and clean, you took me
out by the hand, to freedom and brought spring leaves
in bundles into my house I shall not
let you be grown over with weeds and forgotten.
And because you met the status of my
first grey hairs like a son with pride
greeting their terror with a child’s joy:
I shall not let you go grey into men’s hearts.
3
За то, что некогда, юн и смел,
Не дал мне заживо сгнить меж тел
Бездушных, замертво пасть меж стен —
Не дам тебе — умереть совсем!
За то, что за руку, свеж и чист,
На волю вывел, весенний лист —
Вязанками приносил мне в дом! —
Не дам тебе — порасти быльём!
За то, что первых моих седин
Сыновней гордостью встретил — чин,
Ребячьей радостью встретил — страх, —
Не дам тебе — поседеть в сердцах!
«Bad times are good because / they help the qualities of the soul to show themselves, / — executions, war, / famine, pestilence, bad times. While you’re still in one piece, while you’re fed and healthy, / haven’t been summoned to the courts, haven’t called the doctors, / your cei...»
«The cocked-arm gesture of the philosophical lyric is worth a ruble, / its punch is worth a penny, it’s small. / Perhaps we should make do with the empty and contemptible / — what’s its name? — soul? Let the philosophers do their philosophizing. / Let them look for ways / to persua...»
«Sins are forgiven for poetry. / Great sins for great poetry. / Even mortal sins are forgiven / when I write poetry with my whole soul. But if people don’t forgive me while I’m still alive / Later they’ll smite oblivion from me. Even though they’re evil-doers / let them remember [...»
«Real people have children. We only have cacti / standing there speechless and cold. / The intelligentsia, where is it rolling away to? / Learned people, where are your sons? I have lived in an environment where there are many fewer / nieces than aunts and uncles. / And not a single Flemis...»