Soul, scorning all measure
Singer of heresy, martyr
longing for the whip’s lashing.
Soul, you greet your assassin
like a butterfly fresh from its chrysalis,
nor can you brook this offense:
that wizards are not still burnt.
Smoking under your hair shirt
like a resinate high wick
screeching heretic
sister of Savonarola.
Soul,
You deserve the stake!
Душа, не знающая меры,
Душа хлыста и изувера,
Тоскующая по бичу.
Душа — навстречу палачу,
Как бабочка из хризалиды!
Душа, не съевшая обиды,
Что больше колдунов не жгут.
Как смоляной высокий жгут
Дымящая под власяницей…
Скрежещущая еретица,
— Саванароловой сестра —
Душа, достойная костра!
«Snowing on, snowing on. / On a windowsill, the flower / Of geranium's reaching out for / Starlets of the snow beyond. Snowing on and all’s in chaos, / All's engaged into a twirl: / Wooden footsteps of back stairs / And a snowbound crossroad turn. Snowing on, snowing on. / Like inst...»
«Beneath the willow wound round with ivy / we take cover from the worst / of the storm, with a greatcoat round / our shoulders and my hands around your waist. I’ve got it wrong. That isn’t ivy / entwined in the bushes round / the wood, but hops. You intoxicate me! / Let’s spread th...»
«Dear, I ventured out of the house late this evening, merely / for a breath of fresh air from the ocean not far away. / The sun was smoldering low like a Chinese fan in a gallery / and a cloud reared up its huge lid like a Steinway. A quarter century back you craved curry and dates from Sen...»
«Falling snow leaves the world outnumbered. / At such times, the Pinkertons lose their mind, / and you catch yourself wherever you’ve wandered / by the prints that you've left behind. / Don’t expect a reward, this will not get you far; / the precinct’s din is reduced to naught. / ...»