Fire and rope, bullet and axe —
These faithful servants at our backs.
In every drop there slept a flood,
From every stone a mountain lloomed.
And in each trampled twig
Black-handed forests sighed and moaned.
Falsehood gorged itself from our plates,
Bells sounded only out of habit,
Weightless coins lost their ring,
And children had no fear of corpses...
Only then did we learn
Words beautiful — bitter and cruel.
Огонь, веревка, пуля и топор
Как слуги кланялись и шли за нами,
И в каждой капле спал потоп,
Сквозь малый камень прорастали горы,
И в прутике, раздавленном ногою,
Шумели чернорукие леса.
Неправда с нами ела и пила,
Колокола гудели по привычке,
Монеты вес утратили и звон,
И дети не пугались мертвецов...
Тогда впервые выучились мы
Словам прекрасным, горьким и жестоким.
«The restaurants on hot spring evenings / Lie under a dense and savage air. / Foul drafts and hoots from drunken revelers / Contaminate the thoroughfare. / / Above the dusty lanes of suburbia / Above the tedium of bungalows / A pretzel sign begilds a bakery / And children screech for...»
«In the church choir a girl was singing About all the weary people in a strange land About all the ships far out on oceans About all who were forgetting the joys at hand. High in the steeple her voice was singing, A thin ray turning her shoulder white . From the dark everyone watched a...»
«Far up in empty mountains I met a shepherd Blowing low notes on a long alpine horn. Flowing pleasantly and loud, both song And horn were merely instruments for waking A more captivating mountain melody. Each time, after a few notes, the shepherd listened As the echo traveled back through narro...»
«Two wires are wrapped together, / The loose ends naked, exposed / A yes and no, not united, / Not united, but juxtaposed. / A dark, dark juxtaposition — / So close together, dead. / But resurrection awaits them; / And they await what waits ahead. / End will meet end in touching / ...»