Inept and aimless is my time:
I ask a beggar for a dime
I proffer cash to rich and famous,
Into the needle ray I weave,
Unto a robber key I give,
With whiting I am blushing paleness.
The bum puts nothing in my palms,
The rich man does not take my alms,
The needle won't let through the ray,
The robber enters without key,
Dumb woman weeps in streams of three
Over a fameless, empty day.
Мой день беспутен и нелеп:
У нищего прошу на хлеб,
Богатому даю на бедность,
В иголку продеваю — луч,
Грабителю вручаю — ключ,
Белилами румяню бледность.
Мне нищий хлеба не даёт,
Богатый денег не берёт,
Луч не вдевается в иголку,
Грабитель входит без ключа,
А дура плачет в три ручья —
Над днём без славы и без толку.
«Either I remained with you, / Or you came with me, my angel! / But our fears did not come true, / We avoided separation. / It’s not your sigh of deep despair, / Or your complex accusations, / But your clear and peaceful stare / That fills my soul with trepidation.»
«In my room, there is a serpent, / Slow and gorgeous to behold… / She is calm and introverted / Much like I, and just as cold. As I’m writing in the evening, / She is sitting by my side, / Her indifferent eyes won’t leave me, / Shining emerald in the night. In the dark, I sob and ...»
«There’s hardly any body left, / The tortured lips have all but withered! / I didn’t want this kind of death, / The time-frame that I chose was different. / I had an image: two big clouds / Collide together, fast and free, / And lightning’s fire plummets down, / And mighty ecstasy...»
«The earthly glory is like smoke, / I wanted much more than this. / In all my lovers I evoked / The feelings of joy and bliss. / One is still in love somewhere / With a friend from long ago, / The other stands in the city square, — / A statue of bronze in the snow.»