Oh, Muse! I am at my coffin's door!
Be as it may, I am much to blame,
And let people's spite one hundred
Times more my sins' scope multiply –
Do not cry! Our drawn lot enviable,
They will not dispute this nor fight:
Between me and many honest hearts
You will not allow too long a rupture
In our living, breathing, blood union!
Some non-Russian will, without love,
Look upon you, pallid, blood-covered,
Flesh-flayed-by-a-thousand-strokes Muse...
О Муза! я у двери гроба!
Пускай я много виноват,
Пусть увеличит во сто крат
Мои вины людская злоба —
Не плачь! завиден жребий наш,
Не наругаются над нами:
Меж мной и честными сердцами
Порваться долго ты не дашь
Живому, кровному союзу!
Не русский — взглянет без любви
На эту бледную, в крови,
Кнутом иссеченную Музу…
«In this birch grove, / Far removed from trouble and pain, / Where the pink, unwavering light / Of morning pulsates in the heavens, / Where a limpid avalanche / Of leaves pours from on high, / Oriole, sing me a desolate song, / The song of my life. Flying above the glade, / Spying pe...»
«Earth-dweller, fifty years of age, / Like all men, both happy and unhappy, / One day I left this world and found / Myself in a silent place. / There, man scarcely existed, the last / Shreds of habit clinging to him, / And he no longer desired anything, / He had no name, no style or tit...»
«The swallow chatters brightly, / Fanning its wings with skill. / It challenges every breeze, / But conserves its forces well. / It hovers high, it hovers low, / Catches a fly as it weaves, / And rests up till morning / In its but under the eaves. In astonishment I follow, / Soar int...»
«I touched the leaves of the eucalyptus / and the firm plumes of the agave, / The sweet grass of Adzharia / Sang me its evening song. / In white dress the magnolia / Inclined its hazy form, / And the blue-blue sea of Georgia / Sang wildly by the shore. But amidst the savage splendou...»