6
Tonight — I am alone in the night,
a homeless and sleepless nun!
Tonight I hold all the keys to this
the only capital city
and lack of sleep guides me on my path.
You are so lovely, my dusky Kremlin!
Tonight I put my lips to the breast
of the whole round and warring earth.
Now I feel hair — like fur — standing on end:
the stifling wind blows straight into my soul.
Tonight I feel compassion for everyone,
those who are pitied, along with those who are kissed.
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.
«Until the poet hears Apollo’s / Call to the hallowed sacrifice, / The petty cares of life he follows, / And sunk in them his spirit lies. / His holy lyre remains unsounded; / His spirit sleeps in numbing rest, / By an unworthy world surrounded, / Himself perhaps unworthiest. But onc...»
«Deep down in the Siberian mine, / Keep up your long-enduring pride; / Your mournful toil is not in vain, / Nor thoughts that rapturously ride. Misfortune’s sister, Hope, is true, / And in the subterranean night / Shall waken courage and delight. / The welcome day shall dawn for you. ...»
«Take not away my wits, O God! / Better the beggar’s scrip and rod, / To toil and not to eat! / It is not that I hold my mind / Of much account, or would not find / The parting from it sweet. If only they would set me free / To my own will, how glad I’d be / To...»
«When down the loud streets I go straying, / To churches where the people stream, / Or sit where youth’s wild thoughts are playing, / I yield mysdf up to my dream. I say: “How fast the years are flowing! / How many of us vanish here! / To vaults eternal all are going; / For some the ...»