6
This night today I am alone in the night —
A sleepless and a homeless nun!
This night today I have the keys
Of all the gates of capital, just one!
The sleeplessness has pushed me on the way.
O, dusky Kremlin, how you're beautiful!
I kiss into the chest this night today
The whirling-round ground as it does howl!
The stifling wind blows straight into the soul,
The hair arises — not the hair, but down.
Those who are pitied and those who are kissed —
This night today I pity everyone.
6
Сегодня ночью я одна в ночи́ —
Бессонная, бездомная черница! —
Сегодня ночью у меня ключи
От всех ворот единственной столицы!
Бессонница меня толкнула в путь.
— О, как же ты прекрасен, тусклый Кремль мой! —
Сегодня ночью я целую в грудь
Всю круглую воюющую землю!
Вздымаются не волосы — а мех,
И душный ветер прямо в душу дует.
Сегодня ночью я жалею всех, —
Кого жалеют и кого целуют.
«Through love, through loves, as legends state it / Two kindred souls seek fusion true / Forever more to be related; / Ideal communion –destined, fated. / But fate locks them in combat too. And in this combat one soul’s fires / Always burns with love more pure. / It suffers more, to ...»
«Hush, my little sleepy-head. / Mama’s gone — to Paris fled. / Ah-Ah-Ah, please don’t you weep. / There were reasons, go to sleep. / Over there beneath the couch / Crawls a sleek and shiny roach. / Where’s his wife? In Paris, too? / No, she isn’t; that’s not true. / Life h...»
«One night I met, to my surprise, / A puny devil, blue with cold — / No bigger than a child in size, / His feral face was gaunt and old. He shivered in the icy rain, / Which had soaked through his matted pelt. / “This son of hell feels cold and pain — / We share one fate,” I some...»
«I feel the need for someone I can pray to. / Imagine that a common lowly ant / Was overcome by yearning for a way to / Prostrate himself—as humble supplicant. At peace no more, dispirited, frustrated / So all the world appeared to him mundane. / A goddess in his image he created / And...»