From the mind’s dreams, from the bile’s rage,
Goddess of Faithfulness, keep your slave.
With cast-iron hoops bind tight her breast,
Goddess of Faithfulness, be her nest.
Remove from the shrub all flowers and pips,
Make her mouth numb, then seal her lips.
As safe as bone encased in a grave,
Goddess of Faithfulness, keep your slave.
To keep your loom humming without a stop,
Her lips must learn the law of the lock.
To have it inscribed on the stone of her grave:
“Only of Faithfulness was I the slave!”
Her ribs to the post, with your sharpest stave,
Goddess of Faithfulness, now stab your slave!
От гнева в печени, мечты во лбу,
Богиня верности, храни рабу.
Чугунным ободом скрепи ей грудь,
Богиня Верности, покровом будь.
Всё сладколичие сними с куста,
Косноязычием скрепи уста…
Запечатлённее кости в гробу,
Богиня Верности, храни рабу!
Дабы без устали шумел станок,
Да будет уст её закон — замок.
Дабы могильного поверх горба:
«Единой Верности была раба!»
На раздорожии, ребром к столбу,
Богиня Верности — распни рабу!
«No more Europe, no more America. / The end of Tsarskoye, of Moscow, too. / A fit of nuclear hysteria – / life atomized into a radiant blue. Transparent, all-forgiving haze will stretch / over the seas. And he who could have done / something yet chose not to, will be left / in the expa...»
«You took me – / I was sullen, without affection, / with only black thoughts / and convict ravings / and a widow’s unhealed anguish / and a past love that wasn’t past / You took me as a wife – / not for joy’s sake, / not of your own accord / but out of love.»
«Moscow, who are you? / Enchantress or enchanted? / Forger of freedom / or fettered lady? / What thought furrows your brow / as you plot your worldwide plot? / Are you a shining window / into another age? / O Moscow, are you femme fatale / or fetter-fated, / fated or fêted? / D...»
«Moscow, who are you? / Are you charming or charmed? / Are you forging freedom / Or chained? / What thought knits your brow? / With the world of conspire. / Perhaps you’re a window, giving light / Into another time, / Or an expert cat you’re: / Do sciences order to crucify, / ...»