Your stripe will be harvested
By which person's arms?
O the black magician you!
My black-plaited one!
Your tumultuous century,
And your midnight days...
All your little workers are
At once born away.
Where are your campaigner friends,
Your comrades in arms?
O the black magician you,
My one with white arms!
Not with glory, not with tears
Can one heal those graves.
One, as though he had been choked,
Walked around alive.
One more went into a wall
Himself to advance.
(He was proud - a falcon!) - They
Knocked him out at once.
High above your brothers are!
Can't exude a cry!
O the black magician you,
My one with clear eyes!
And from out the cloud (praise
Marvel from above!)
Arrow of a falcon falls,
Arrow of a dove...
To know, in two feathers at once
People to you write,
Know, that soon you will receive
A certificate,
O the boulders! They will shake
With their wings,
O the black magician you!
My one with black wings!
Кем полосынька твоя
Нынче выжнется?
Чернокосынька моя!
Чернокнижница!
Дни полночные твои,
Век твой таборный…
Все работнички твои
Разом забраны.
Где сподручники твои,
Те сподвижнички?
Белорученька моя,
Чернокнижница!
Не загладить тех могил
Слезой, славою.
Один заживо ходил —
Как удавленный.
Другой к стеночке пошёл
Искать прибыли.
(И гордец же был-соко́л!)
Разом выбыли.
Высоко твои братья́!
Не докличешься!
Яснооконька моя,
Чернокнижница!
А из тучи-то (хвала —
Диво дивное!)
Соколиная стрела,
Голубиная…
Знать, в два пёрышка тебе
Пишут тамотка,
Знать, уж в скорости тебе
Выйдет грамотка:
— Будет крылышки трепать
О булыжники!
Чернокрылонька моя!
Чернокнижница!
«The sailors near the port / shouted in chorus, demanding wine, / and over Stambul and over the Bosphorus / the full moon shone. Tonight they will hurl an unfaithful wife / to the bottom of the bay, / a wife who was too beautiful / and looked like the moon. She loved her daydreams, / ...»
«Describing circle after circle, / The wheeling kite looks down upon / A dream-like, empty meadow. A mother / Grieves in the cabin for her son: / “Here, suck this breast, here, take this bread. / Grow up, be humble, trust in God.” The ages pass, endless war rages, / Revolt flares, vi...»
«Over the empty fields a black kite hovers, / And circle after circle smoothly weaves. / In the poor hut, over her son in the cradle / A mother grieves: / “There, suck my brest: there grow and take our bread, / And learn to bear your cross and bow your head.” Time passes. War returns. ...»
«1. Black night. / White snow. / The wind, the wind! / Impossible to stay on your feet. / The wind, the wind! / Blowing across God’s world! The wind swirls round / The clean, white snow. / Under the snow — there’s ice. / It’s sl...»