5
Ever so softly
With a hand slim and careful
I loosen the trammels:
Little hands — and obedient
To the neighing, the Amazon rustles
Off on the ringing, empty steps of parting.
In the radiant flyway
The winged one tramples
And neighs. — Dawn’s flare in the eyes.
Little hands, little hands!
You call to no purpose:
Between us there flows Lethe’s streaming staircase.
5
Тихонько
Рукой осторожной и тонкой
Распутаю путы:
Ручонки — и ржанью
Послушная, зашелестит амазонка
По звонким, пустым ступеням расставанья.
Топочет и ржёт
В осиянном пролёте
Крылатый. — В глаза — полыханье рассвета.
Ручонки, ручонки!
Напрасно зовёте:
Меж ними — струистая лестница Леты.
«I felt in soul and body, / for the first time in years, / the silence after a blizzard, / the even light of the stars. Should the magi wish to see / their kindness to the end, / they’d bring me sheets of paper / A candle. Matches. And a pen. »
«From a frost-chilled / line of poetry / my anguish will drop / like a ripe berry. Rosehip juice will dye / fine crystals of snow — / and a stranger will smile / on his lonely way. Blending dirty sweat / with the purity of a tear, / he will carefully collect / the tinted crystal...»
«Our tools are primitive / and simple: / a rouble’s worth of paper, / a hurrying pencil, we need no more / to build a castle — / high in the air — / above the world’s bustle. Dante needed nothing else / to build gates / into that Hell hole / founded on ice.»
«They say we plough shallow, / always tripping and slipping, / but it’s hard to plough boldly / on the soil we’ve been given. We plough in a graveyard / just tickling the topsoil, / afraid our blades may turn up / bones of dead people.»