Prince, let’s have no more disturbing
these wormy flower-beds. Look at
the living rose, and think of a woman
snatching a single day — from the few left to her.
Prince Hamlet, you defile the Queen’s
womb. Enough. A virgin cannot
judge passion. Don’t you know Phaedra
was more guilty, yet men still sing of her,
and will go on singing. You, with your blend
of chalk and rot, you bony
scandalmonger, how can you ever
understand a fever in the blood?
Beware, if you continue... I can
rise up through flagstones into the grand bed-chamber
of so much sweetness, I myself, to defend her.
I myself — your own undying passion!
Принц Гамлет! Довольно червивую залежь
Тревожить… На розы взгляни!
Подумай о той, что — единого дня лишь —
Считает последние дни.
Принц Гамлет! Довольно царицыны недра
Порочить… Не девственным — суд
Над страстью. Тяже́ле виновная — Федра:
О ней и поныне поют.
И будут! — А Вы с Вашей примесью мела
И тлена… С костями злословь,
Принц Гамлет! Не Вашего разума дело
Судить воспалённую кровь.
Но если… Тогда берегитесь!.. Сквозь плиты —
Ввысь — в опочивальню — и всласть!
Своей Королеве встаю на защиту —
Я, Ваша бессмертная страсть.
«When Desdemona came a-singing, / And a little time to live had she — / Not love, her fatal star, she sobbed: / It was a willow, willow tree. When Desdemona came a-singing, / With firmer voice and lifted head, / Her demon at her death prepared / A psalm of a weeping river bed. And wh...»
«The wise Prince Oleg has set out to repay / Foolhardy Khazars with a vengeance; / For pillage, their dwellings and pastures as prey / To fire and sword the prince pledges; / In Tsargrad’s fine armor, in front of a force / Oleg heads out riding his favorite horse....»
«Farewell, O Blue Domain of Freedom! / For one last time before my eyes / You roll your pearly waves and lead them / To show how solemn beauty shines. As if a friend’s death-stricken grumble, / His call the hour he shall depart, / I hear your din, your wistful rumble, / For one last ti...»
«The twinkling stars in distant melancholies / Lit up the roadway curving through a wood. / The road meandered down the Mount of Olives; / The Kedron streamed untroubled at its foot. / / At half its length the glade abruptly ended / And yielded to a sprawling Milky Way; / The gray and ...»