2
Who has survived will die, who has died will arise.
And now descendants, remember the times long gone:
Where were you? The question will roar like thunder,
Like thunder will roar the answer: On the Don!
«What did you do» «We were accepting torments,
Then grew tired and to sleep had gone.
And in the dictionary the thoughtful grandsons
Before the word «duty» will write the word «Don.»
2
Кто уцелел — умрёт, кто мёртв — воспрянет.
И вот потомки, вспомнив старину:
— Где были вы? — Вопрос как громом грянет,
Ответ как громом грянет: — На Дону!
— Что делали? — Да принимали муки,
Потом устали и легли на сон.
И в словаре задумчивые внуки
За словом: долг напишут слово: Дон.
____
Дон. 1. Белая гвардия, путь твой высок...
Дон. 2. Кто уцелел — умрёт, кто мёртв — воспрянет...
Дон. 3. Волны и молодость — вне закона!..
«Beneath the azure heaven of her native land / She festered and began to wither… / And having withered, then she flew above me and / Her shadow soon was heading thither; / But now between us stretched a line we couldn’t cross. / In vain I then besti...»
« …Life again has brought / Me to the patch of earth where once I spent / A brace of unobtrusive summers’ exile. / And since that time a decade’s passed already — / And many have the changes been for me, / And I myself, to common law subservient, / Have changed as well....»
«On Palace Square again, commanding, / The column gleams with silver glow. / And, on the echoing bridge top landing, / An icy carpet starts to grow. Come sleighs in sleigh-tracks, sleighs pursuing. / The horses’ breathing, swirling, steams, / Beneath their dashing hooves’ ice-chewing /...»
«You wanted life: mad aberration! / And when you’d non-existence spurned, / You rushed towards plain’s agitation. / Well! Now the whole of life you’ve earned. So do not marvel at the changes / From joy to grief: for everything — / The day, the night, the years’ exchanges — / ...»