A white and lonely sail is flickering
Across the blue fog of the sea
What does he seek in far-off distance?
What did he leave in home country?
The waves are playing — wind is whistling,
The mast of ship does bend and moan..
Alas — happiness he's not seeking
Nor does from happiness he run.
Beneath him water's light as azure,
Above him sun's rays, gold and warm..
But he, rebellious, storm is seeking,
As if there's calm inside the storm!
Белеет парус одинокой
В тумане моря голубом!..
Что ищет он в стране далекой?
Что кинул он в краю родном?..
Играют волны — ветер свищет,
И мачта гнется и скрыпит...
Увы! он счастия не ищет,
И не от счастия бежит!
Под ним струя светлей лазури,
Над ним луч солнца золотой...
А он, мятежный, просит бури,
Как будто в бурях есть покой!
«The twenty first. Monday. Night. / The outline of the capital in mist. / It had to be some idler who contrived / The happy fantasy that love exists. And from laziness or acclimation, / All believed him, and moved along: / Awaiting dates, and dreading separations, / And venerating love i...»
«I'm careless of the ode’s exalted sentence / And of the elegy’s delicious guile. / I say the verse should ill befit the senses, / Escape the common file. If you could know what gibberish empowers / The verse that grows, from all abashment freed, / Like dandelions’ yellow summer fl...»
«How is your life with that other one? / Simpler, is it? A stroke of the oars / and a long coastline — / and the memory of me is soon a drifting island / (not in the ocean — in the sky!) / Souls — you will be sisters — / sisters, not lovers. How is your life with an ordinary / ...»
«How is living with another? / Simpler? The thud of oars! — / Memories of me soon start to / Drift like wave-lines by the shores, I’m the island in the distance, / (Not on water! — in the sky!) / Souls! — You’re destined to be sisters / And not lovers in this life! How is li...»