4
To beast — abode,
To wanderer — road
To dead one — quay
To each — their own way.
To a woman — to fool,
To the king — to rule,
To me — to extol
Your name.
4
Зверю — берлога,
Страннику — дорога,
Мёртвому — дроги.
Каждому — своё.
Женщине — лукавить,
Царю — править,
Мне — славить
Имя твоё.
«What makes me different / from the woman with flowers / the girl who laughs and wears / a ring she will resent ? — Four papered walls where / I return to. feel at home in. / The woman with an ermine / looks away haughtily. Poor her. She looks away. / What if I scare her off / whe...»
«Don’t blame it on Johnny Morozov — / you see, it's not really his fault. / That girl turned his head, bit his nose off — / poor him, it’s not really his fault. He went to the circus in Norwood / and fell for a girl in the ring. / He might have found someone straightforward / but...»
«Now once there was a soldier boy / Handsome and bold as bold can be / But he was just a children's toy: / He was a paper soldier, see. He wanted to remake the world / For all men to live happily / But round the bedpost he was twirled / He was a paper soldier, see. Ready amid the fire a...»
«Round the back way there is a gate / that bears the sign NO HAWKERS: / here lives — the lord of his estate — / a cat as black as Orcus. Beneath his whiskers lurks a grin / the darkness is his shield. / While other cats make all the din / the black cat’s lips are sealed. Rats? Mic...»