Not a broken rib —
A broken wing.
Not to the shooters shot —
Through chest. Not to take out
This bullet. Wing can't be repaired.
He walked impaired.
***
Sticky is crown of thorns on the head!
What is the noise of mob to one dead,
The swan's down of woman's flattery...
He walked, deaf and lonely,
Freezing over the sunsets
With emptiness of eyeless statues.
But one thing still lived in him:
The broken wing.
14
Не проломанное ребро —
Переломленное крыло.
Не расстрельщиками навылет
Грудь простреленная. Не вынуть
Этой пули. Не чинят крыл.
Изуродованный ходил.
* * *
Цепок, цепок венец из терний!
Что усопшему — трепет черни,
Женской лести лебяжий пух...
Проходил, одинок и глух,
Замораживая закаты
Пустотою безглазых статуй.
Лишь одно ещё в нём жило:
Переломленное крыло.
«She raised herself on her fingers / and made me a gift of her lips. / I kissed her a little tiredly / in the moist autumn silence. Tears were dropping soundlessly / in the moist autumn silence. / The dreary day expired, we weary / like everything that isn't in a dream.»
«Amid the worlds, in twinkling of the stars / There’s the One, whose name I always utter… / ‘Tis not because I love Her with my heart, / But rather because languish I with others. And if my doubt is hard in all its might, / ‘Tis She alone, whom always I inquire, / ‘Tis not becaus...»
«(To my friend, S. K. Bulich) Select a dark night and in a field, unpeopled, naked, / dip into gray twilight.... May the air, having fanned, becalm, / May the stars, winking, in the cold sky slumber on.... / Tell the heart not to count its thumps.... / Stop in mid-step and listen! You're no...»
«Sad and made of copper / The symbol we are wed, / Even our comedies / End a little sadly…. / Our joyful neighbors / Wear their infernal / Hirsute fur coats…. / And that only… banal / Are our mangy bears / With prey trembling / In blood-covered lips.»