Like blood and sweat it is simple:
To people — tsar, to tsar — people.
Like mystery of two it is clear:
The third is the spirit, the two are near.
From the sky tsar is placed on the throne:
That is clear like dream and snow.
To the throne tsar will come again yet:
It is holy like blood and sweat.
Это просто, как кровь и пот:
Царь — народу, царю — народ.
Это ясно, как тайна двух:
Двое рядом, а третий — Дух.
Царь с небес на престол взведён:
Это чисто, как снег и сон.
Царь опять на престол взойдёт —
Это свято, как кровь и пот.
«One mirror must mirror another; / each mirror mismirrors the other. Not that evil cannot be defeated, / only that we cannot escape defeat; I believe in the ash left behind by the fire; / not in the music that burned my life.»
«When a man dies / His portraits change. / His eyes look at you / Differently and his lips smile / A different smile. I noticed this / Returning from a poet’s funeral. / Since then I have seen it verified / Often and my theory is true.»
«Where can I hide in this January? / Wide-open city with a mad death-grip... / Can I be drunk from sealed doors? — / I want to bellow from locks and knots... And the socks of barking back roads, / and the hovels on twisted streets — / and deadbeats hurry into corners / and hurriedly ...»
«The farmhouse is lonely without me, / and my old dog is gone from the door; / God sent me to die in the backstreets / and I can’t go home any more. I’m in love with this overdone city, / though it’s dirty and falling apart; / it reminds me of stories at bedtime, / and the street s...»