There's officer's straightness within my stature,
There's officer's honor within my ribs.
I go to all torments without being stubborn:
A soldier's patience there is!
As if we had corrected this step
Sometime with a butt and with steel...
Not in vain, not in vain the Cherkessian waist
And the tight buckle of belt.
My dear father! Open the gates of heaven
With a storm — when the dawn I feel!
As if deliberately for the hike bag
Of shoulder width.
All can — some insane cripple over the cradle
Has sung me a song... From this day
Something persisted, remained and is here:
I take the word - and take aim!
And thus does my heart over Russian Republic
Screech — you can feed, or no way! —
As if I myself had been officer also
In deadly October days.
Есть в стане моем — офицерская прямость,
Есть в ребрах моих — офицерская честь.
На всякую му́ку иду не упрямясь:
Терпенье солдатское есть!
Как будто когда-то прикладом и сталью
Мне выправили этот шаг.
Недаром, недаром черкесская талья
И тесный реме́нный кушак.
А зо́рю заслышу — Отец ты мой ро́дный! —
Хоть райские — штурмом — врата!
Как будто нарочно для сумки походной —
Раскинутых плеч широта.
Всё может — какой инвалид ошалелый
Над люлькой мне песенку спел…
И что-то от этого дня — уцелело:
Я слово беру — на прицел!
И так мое сердце над Рэ-сэ-фэ-сэром
Скрежещет — корми-не корми! —
Как будто сама я была офицером
В Октябрьские смертные дни.
____
(NB! Эти стихи в Москве назывались «про красного офицера», и я полтора года с неизменным громким успехом читала их на каждом выступлении по неизменному вызову курсантов).
«Let me go, I plead, don’t deny me! / The night is silent, scary and cold. / I am powerless here. I am dying / from your blind constant assault. On a peak, one is free to bewail / the homeland he left of free will, / but I’ve descended now into the vale — / don’t you dare to foll...»
«From my bed / The blanket fled. / And the sheet refused to stay, And the pillow, / Like a billow, / Gathered up and flew away. I got up to reach the light, / But it also took to flight. / I decided I would look / At my coloured picture-book — / In a twinkling it had fled, / Hid...»
«The quilt / Ran away! / Away flew the sheet! And the pillow, / Like a frog, / Leaped down the street! I reached for the light – / The light, too, / Took flight! And my book / ‘Bout Dick Ned / Shuddered, / And sped / Way under my bed! I went to pour some tea – / But th...»
«Part One Bears went to the hike / A-riding on a bike. Then came Tom-the-Cat, / Back-to-front he sat. Spry mosquitoes drifted by / In a big balloon on high. Lobsters looked like shrimps / On a dog that limps. Wolves were mounted on a horse. / Lions drove in cars, of course. Hares in p...»