As soon as morn came, they were there, face to face,
As soon as morn came, cattle did not yet graze.
Two carriages came — they had four men to drive,
Two carriages left — taking free men alive.
And only these free heard a falling man’s yell,
And only they saw as the crying man fell.
Has somebody heard what he whispered in grass?
Has somebody seen his ring’s opal, at last?
In morn, herdsmen came to the bridge on that place,
In morn they saw blood in a pool on the earth.
On cold dewy grass — from two carriages’ race,
On cold dewy grass — the bloody trace.
Чуть утро настало, за мостом сошлись,
Чуть утро настало, стада еще не паслись.
Приехало две кареты — привезло четверых,
Уехало две кареты — троих увезло живых.
Лишь трое слыхало, как павший закричал,
Лишь трое видало, как кричавший упал.
А кто-то слышал, что он тихо шептал?
А кто-то видел в перстне опал?
Утром у моста коров пастухи пасли,
Утром у моста лужу крови нашли.
По траве росистой след от двух карет,
По траве росистой — кровавый след.
«My dear Telemachus, / The Trojan War / is over now; I don’t recall who won it. / The Greeks, no doubt, for only they would leave / so many dead so far from their own homeland. / But still, my homeward way has proved too long. / While w...»
«Twice I woke up tonight and wandered to / the window. And the lights down on the street, / like pale omission points, tried to complete / the fragment of a sentence spoken through / sleep, but diminished darkness, too. I’d dreamt that you were pregnant, and in spite / of having lived so...»
«No matter what went on around them; no matter / what message the snowstorm was straining to utter; / or how crowded they thought that wooden affair; / or that there was nothing for them anywhere. Above their encampment, the sky. cold and idle, / and leaning as big things will do over little...»
«I, who have traveled half my earthly road, / make my appearance in the Luxembourg / and contemplate the petrified gray curls / of thinkers and of scribblers. Gents and broads / are strolling to and fro ; a whiskered / blue copper glistens from the thicket ; / the fountain purrs, the chil...»