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.
«What a hand, as airborne as fire, / Leads my passion lest I turn astray? / Not the stone firm my feet inquire / But a vatic water play... Spirit wounded by the sharp pilasters, / Bees of candles stinging darkness sores... / Pierced hearts are blossoming like asters / With the evergolden...»
«Helix stairs. Put away the fear. / Light of mind... the boundless unlocks. / Shadows of saints are shining here, / Flap of feathers, screeches of white flocks. Far below, in temples, the undying / Litany; the earthly sighs' repeat. / I am treading an arête of diamond, / Spires of cathe...»
«Underground... Graven ossuaries. / Choir echo; vigil chants and pleas. / Rustling leaves of palms and rosemaries, / Scent of candle wax. Decay and peace... Here are cathedrals' roots of stone. / Here I am summoned, dust and fume; / Be a seed, dissolve in crumbling loam, / Rise as a cath...»
«Petrichor. Bell towers resound. / Heart is wounded joyfully — by whom? / Who has thrown the stone on the ground, / Who broke in the chamber of my tomb? Mare's tails; sky deepening and lumining, / Pearls of daylight scattered... Am I worth?.. / As a maiden on her first communion, / The...»