3
Liquid ringing, meager ringing.
To all sides I'm curtsying.
Cry of infant, cow's roar.
The tsar's daring word.
Lashes' whistling, snow full of blood.
The dark word of Love.
The pigeons' quiet noise.
The Shooter's black eyes.
3
Жидкий звон, постный звон.
На все стороны — поклон.
Крик младенца, рёв коровы.
Слово дерзкое царёво.
Плёток свист и снег в крови.
Слово тёмное Любви.
Голубиный рокот тихий.
Чёрные глаза Стрельчихи.
____
Москве. 1. Когда рыжеволосый Самозванец...
Москве. 2. Гришка-Вор тебя не ополячил...
Москве. 3. Жидкий звон, постный звон...
«There is a freedom blissful in a twilight / From the marked ciphers of a century, of year, day. / When? - that's not important. Here's the entrance, rather, / Into the depth of park, into the fires' flash. Not in a moisture, satiating flower, / Nor in the trees, full with a feel of love, / ...»
«"Christ has risen" — they chant in the temple, / But I feel sad... my soul is silent; / The world is full of blood and tears, / And this hymn in front of the altars / Sounds so insulting. If He were among us and could see, / What our glorious age has achieved, / How brothers have lear...»
«We are so bound up in discord / The centuries cannot disentangle us — / I’m a warlock, you’re a wolf. We’re close / In the continuous dictionary of earth. Shoulder to shoulder, like the blind, / And led along by destiny, / In the undying dictionary of this country / We’re both...»
«A German machinegunner will shoot me in the road, or / An incendiary bomb will break my legs, or An SS-kid will give me a bullet in the gut. / In any case, on this front, they’ve got me covered. Without my name, or glory, or even boots, / With frozen eyes I’ll gaze at the snow, blood-col...»