Why can’t I be flying like a bird o'er mead,
Like this very raven that flew o'er head?
Why can’t I be soaring aloof in the sky
Where freedom alone will always be mine?
I’d rush to the west, to the west I would fly,
Where blossoming fields of my ancestors lie,
Where high on a hill, in a castle forlorn,
Remains of my fathers still rest in a tomb.
Where shields of my kinsmen and the glorious sword
Still hang on the wall in the empty parlor;
I’d fly to the sword and the shield overnight,
I’d brush dust away with a wing in a flight.
And the harps of the Scotts I would touch as I pass,
And the sound would rise to the vault, long suppressed,
And the only awakened and hearkening one
Would be me who unleashes the desolate sound.
But the dreams and the prayers stay useless, alas,
They can't change the destiny’s pitiless laws,
The seas of great vastness spread over my part,
They keep me and hills of my homeland apart.
The only descendent of warriors wanes
‘mid alien snows, in the land of the slaves,
I was born here but my soul never comes to agree,
— Why can’t I be flying like a raven so free?
Зачем я не птица, не ворон степной,
Пролетевший сейчас надо мной?
Зачем не могу в небесах я парить
И одну лишь свободу любить?
На запад, на запад помчался бы я,
Где цветут моих предков поля,
Где в замке пустом, на туманных горах,
Их забвенный покоится прах.
На древней стене их наследственный щит
И заржавленный меч их висит.
Я стал бы летать над мечом и щитом,
И смахнул бы я пыль с них крылом;
И арфы шотландской струну бы задел,
И по сводам бы звук полетел;
Внимаем одним, и одним пробужден,
Как раздался, так смолкнул бы он.
Но тщетны мечты, бесполезны мольбы
Против строгих законов судьбы.
Меж мной и холмами отчизны моей
Расстилаются волны морей.
Последний потомок отважных бойцов
Увядает средь чуждых снегов;
Я здесь был рожден, но нездешний душой.
О! зачем я не ворон степной?..
«I must he ill, of course. I’ve been shivering / for three days now like a horse before the races. / Even the haughty man who lives on my landing / has said as much to me: / Bella, you’re shaking! / / Please control yourself, this strange disease of yours / is rocking the walls, it...»
«1 All morning I’ve had this Rain around me. / Rudely, I kept on saying: Leave me alone! / So it drew back, but soon there it was again / as sad and loving as a little daughter. Rain. On my back. Stuck there like a wing. / I reproached it: Here, you / shameless, useless thing! / Think...»
«Your house, all without feeling of misfortune, / Has met me and has smacked me on my cheek. / As if a fish out from water, / Behind the glass looked a tea service. / A dog has leaped out to me, / As small jackdaw, and yelling, / Defenseless burs, all with thorn's heap, / Were sitting t...»
«Avenues so wretched, / snowbanks, bitter frost. / Desperate little urchins / with trays of cigarettes. / Wandering dirty avenues, / enjoying evil games – / all of them are pickpockets, / all are jolly thieves. / That bunch takes Nikitskaya, / this – Tverskaya Square. / They s...»