We have unlearned how to give alms, forgotten
How to breathe the salt air above the sea,
And how to meet the dawn, and in the market
Buy golden lemons for two coins or three.
Ships call on us only by chance, and freight trains
Bring cargoes out of habit, that is all;
Just count the men belonging to my country —
How many dead will answer to the call!
But we have no occasion to be solemn —
A broken knife's no good to work with, but
With the same knife that is all black and broken
Know that immortal pages have been cut.
Мы разучились нищим подавать,
Дышать над морем высотой соленой,
Встречать зарю и в лавках покупать
За медный мусор — золото лимонов.
Случайно к нам заходят корабли,
И рельсы груз проносят по привычке;
Пересчитай людей моей земли —
И сколько мертвых встанет в перекличке.
Но всем торжественно пренебрежем.
Нож сломанный в работе не годится,
Но этим черным, сломанным ножом
Разрезаны бессмертные страницы.
«Seal thou thy lips, to none impart / The secret dreams that fill thy heart. / Within it let them blaze and die / As do the silent stars on high / When o’er the earth night’s shadows stray – / Delight in them – and silent stay. Thy sentiments to none confide; / From those about t...»
«Stay silent, out of sight and hide / your feelings and your dreams inside. / Within your soul’s deep centre let / them silently rise, let them set / like stars in the night. Don’t be heard. / Admire them, Don’t say a word. How can your heart itself express? / Can others understand...»
«My little almond tree / Is gay with gleaming bloom, / My heart unwillingly / Puts forth its buds of gloom. The bloom will leave the tree, / The fruit, unbidden, grow. / And the green boughs will be / By bitter loads brought low.»
«A well, and the cherry trees swaying / Where bare girlish feet trod the fruit; / Nearby the damp imprint betraying / The stamp of a heavy nailed boot. Stilled now is the place of their meeting, / But nothing the silence avails: / In my brain passion's echo repeating / Their whispers—t...»