Dethroned, to my substance-bound trap
I nose-dived, a higher will's transgressor.
A beam of joy decays to pain no lesser
Refracted by the nature's carnal sap.
All winds a-nest a rose in my lap.
But every tone suffers its suppressor
In every beat — so should I still confess for
The temper colors wrap me step by step?
Crime makes me pure. Death inspires. Prison
Delivers me. Prostration gives me might.
I lost my wings — not depth to take my ease on.
Come on, tormentor! Bloody eagle, bite!
All voices in my syrinx meet arisen
Like rainbow ties the gamut crucified.
2
На дно миров пловцом спустился я —
Мятежный дух, ослушник высшей воли.
Луч радости на семицветность боли
Во мне разложен влагой бытия.
Во мне звучит всех духов лития,
Но семь цветов разъяты в каждой доле
Одной симфонии. Не оттого ли
Отливами горю я, как змея?
Я свят грехом. Я смертью жив. В темнице
Свободен я. Бессилием — могуч.
Лишённый крыл, в паренье равен птице.
Клюй, коршун, печень! Бей, кровавый ключ!
Весь хор светил — един в моей цевнице,
Как в радуге — един распятый луч.
«There are twins. For the earthborn / they are gods, Death and Sleep, / like brother and sister wondrously akin, / Death's the gloomier, Sleep is gentler. But there are two more twins: / there are no finer twins in the world, / and there's no fascination more fearsome / than he who's sur...»
«The telephone rang. / “Hello! Who’s there?” / “The Polar Bear.” / “What do you want?” / “I’m calling for the Elephant.” / “What does he want?” / “He wants a little Peanut brittle.” / “Peanut brittle!.. / And for whom?” “It’s for his little Elephan...»
«From the cycle LENIN I Lenin has the spirit of an Old Believer, / Intones his decrees like a priest, / And looks to the Pomorian Responses1 / For the source of all our grief. Now the land belongs to the peasants, / The Church is no longer a state serf. / Now a bright new word chimes for...»
«And while above Tsarskoye Selo1 / Akhmatova’s song and tears were pouring, / I, unwinding the skein of the sorceress, / Plodded through the desert like a sleepy corpse2, / There where impossibility lay dying: / An exhausted mummer Determined to break through. / And meanwhile in dark ca...»