Alike a certain youth, the world I roam over
With one way travel in the thick of people and lands…
In vain a brother I look for among the lads,
In every girl foresee a sister to discover.
With joy in my lost soul above the earth I hover;
In life I trust, believe in truth, do odds and ends.
I know I will come the parents’ home hence
Where once I lived they still await to see the rover.
A down-and-out way of my fate I enjoy;
To others it seems strange, they would not flock to join —
I am a vagrant and a dreamer, and a bard.
What I like I have got. For nothing I regret.
And you, beside me, who resemble me in my heart,
With sharp pipe dreaming let you harder sting and scald.
Как некий юноша, в скитаньях без возврата,
Иду из края в край и от костра к костру…
Я в каждой девушке предчувствую сестру
И между юношей ищу напрасно брата.
Щемящей радостью душа моя объята;
Я верю в жизнь, и в сон, и в правду, и в игру,
И знаю, что приду к отцовскому шатру,
Где ждут меня мои и где я жил когда-то.
Бездомный долгий путь назначен мне судьбой…
Пускай другим он чужд… я не зову с собой —
Я странник и поэт, мечтатель и прохожий.
Любимое со мной. Минувшего не жаль.
А ты, что за плечом, — со мною тайно схожий, —
Несбыточной мечтой сильнее жги и жаль!
«Why is our century worse than any other? / Is it that in the stupor of fear and grief / It has plunged its fingers in the blackest ulcer, / Yet cannot bring relief? / / Westward the sun is dropping, / And the roofs of towns are shining in its light. / Already death is chalking doors w...»
«Everything is looted, spoiled, despoiled, / Death flickering his black wing, / Anguish, hunger – then why this / Lightness overlaying everything? / / By day, cherry-scent from an unknown / Wood near the town. July / Holding new constellations, deep / At night in the transparent sk...»
«They wiped your slate / With snow, you’re not alive. / Bayonets twenty-eight / And bullet-holes five. / It’s a bitter present, / Love, but I’ve sewed it. / Russia, an old peasant / Killing his meat. »
«To earthly solace, heart, be not a prey, / To wife and home do not attach yourself, / Take the bread out of your child’s mouth, / And to a stranger give the bread away. Become the humblest servant to the man / Who was your blackest enemy, / Call by your brother’s name the forest wolf,...»