2
I celebrate thirty years
of union truer than love
I know every notch in your wood.
You know the lines in my face.
Haven’t you written them there?
devouring reams of paper
denying me any tomorrow
teaching me only today.
You’ve thrown my important letters
and money in floods together,
repeating: for every single verse
today has to be the deadline.
You’ve warned me of retribution
not to be measured in spoonbills.
And when my body will be laid out,
great fool! Let it be on you then.
2
Тридцатая годовщина
Союза — верней любви.
Я знаю твои морщины,
Как знаешь и ты — мои,
Которых — не ты ли — автор?
Съедавший за дестью десть,
Учивший, что нету — завтра,
Что только сегодня — есть.
И деньги, и письма с почты —
Стол — сбрасывавший — в поток!
Твердивший, что каждой строчки
Сегодня — последний срок.
Грозивший, что счётом ложек
Создателю не воздашь,
Что завтра меня положат —
Дури́щу — да на тебя ж!
«An even, hazy hum runs through the glade, / The rustling leaves to laze and drowse incline . . . / The roosters faraway in sun-specked shade, / Their vernal tidings sing, in crows benign. A quiet, hazy hum runs through the glade . . . / To succor me and send my soul repose, / I lie midst ...»
«Embroidered all in stars, my sail / Stands tall and white, both taut and frail; / Between the stars there glows the Face / Of Mother Mary, full of grace. What do I care if shores and sphere / Are fading, soon to disappear! / My soul’s replete, my soul’s austere, / And horns of fresh...»
«A lone white sail that glistens, gleams, / On seascape haze cerulean blue. / What distant realms attract his dreams? / In dear homeland what’s left to rue? The billows surge, the winds are shrieking, / The creaking mast writhes in distress, / Alas, not happiness he’s seeking, / Nor ...»
«(Mosaic in a Moscow Cathedral) Thy face flushed red ‘gainst Batu’s fires, / That gruesome glower in eyes gone dead, / The rust-gold wings where faith respires / In sacred trepidation spread. Before thy stare in the Time of the Dread / Passed fools in skufia, tattered, worn, / Forever...»