Those condemned to their last rags
Cover (not their mouth, not their cheeks!..)
Oh, are you not exceeding your powers
Orpheus, while descending into Hades?
Those giving up their last connection to
Earth... On a bed of lies
I have committed a great dishonesty in contemplating —
A deep sigh — an interview with a knife.
I have paid all the same — for all this rose blood
is a spacious style to cover Immortality...
It's all the same in Lethe's mind
Beloved — I need a break
Forgetfulness... For in the ghostly house appeared
Actually — your ghost, plain and real —
I, was dead... What should I tell you, except:
— «That you didn't notice and left!»
There is no alarm! No cause!
No hands after all! No mouth, clinging to
Lips! — Immortality, the sting of a snake
Ends female passion.
I have paid all the same — in vain my cries! —
For this last insight.
No need for Orpheus to follow Eurydice
And brothers to frighten sisters.
Для тех, отженивших последние клочья
Покрова (ни уст, ни ланит!..)
О, не превышение ли полномочий
Орфей, нисходящий в Аид?
Для тех, отрешивших последние звенья
Земного… На ложе из лож
Сложившим великую ложь лицезренья,
Внутрь зрящим — свидание нож.
Уплочено же — всеми розами крови
За этот просторный покрой
Бессмертья…
До самых летейских верховий
Любивший — мне нужен покой
Беспамятности… Ибо в призрачном доме
Сем — призрак ты, сущий, а явь —
Я, мёртвая… Что же скажу тебе, кроме:
— «Ты это забудь и оставь!»
Ведь не растревожишь же! Не повлекуся!
Ни рук ведь! Ни уст, чтоб припасть
Устами! — С бессмертья змеиным укусом
Кончается женская страсть.
Уплочено же — вспомяни мои крики! —
За этот последний простор.
Не надо Орфею сходить к Эвридике
И братьям тревожить сестёр.
«I must he ill, of course. I’ve been shivering / for three days now like a horse before the races. / Even the haughty man who lives on my landing / has said as much to me: / Bella, you’re shaking! / / Please control yourself, this strange disease of yours / is rocking the walls, it...»
«1 All morning I’ve had this Rain around me. / Rudely, I kept on saying: Leave me alone! / So it drew back, but soon there it was again / as sad and loving as a little daughter. Rain. On my back. Stuck there like a wing. / I reproached it: Here, you / shameless, useless thing! / Think...»
«Your house, all without feeling of misfortune, / Has met me and has smacked me on my cheek. / As if a fish out from water, / Behind the glass looked a tea service. / A dog has leaped out to me, / As small jackdaw, and yelling, / Defenseless burs, all with thorn's heap, / Were sitting t...»
«Avenues so wretched, / snowbanks, bitter frost. / Desperate little urchins / with trays of cigarettes. / Wandering dirty avenues, / enjoying evil games – / all of them are pickpockets, / all are jolly thieves. / That bunch takes Nikitskaya, / this – Tverskaya Square. / They s...»