The hot sultry summer
Comes dazzling by degrees.
The grass, scorched by the sun,
Is dressed in a moist vapor.
The burdock, yellowed by heat,
Unfolds its pink armour
And stands, choking with flies,
Beneath the tall windows of a hut.
In the bloom of nature
There's a brief moment of surfeit,
A time when the heads of plants
Let a pearl-white gum secrete.
Love's trappings have ebbed,
Passion has run dry, yet the past's flame
Dies in embers and wades in the blood,
Troubling not the body, but the brain.
But the flame fades towards midday,
And in the heaven's midst
Only nature, pausing,
Feels the patch of deadly heat.
Понемногу вступает в права
Ослепительно знойное лето.
Раскаленная солнцем трава
Испареньями влаги одета.
Пожелтевший от зноя лопух
Развернул розоватые латы
И стоит, задыхаясь от мух,
Под высокими окнами хаты.
Есть в расцвете природы моей
Кратковременный миг пресыщенья,
Час, когда перламутровый клей
Выделяют головки растенья.
Утомились орудья любви,
Страсть иссякла, но пламя былое
Дотлевает и бродит в крови,
Уж не тело, но ум беспокоя.
Но к полудню заснет и оно,
И в средине небесного свода
Лишь смертельного зноя пятно
Различит, замирая, природа.
«Through the rising tea’s steam I see Fujiyama — / The golden mount in the yellow skies, / How could be nature by a saucer summoned! / But the gentle ripples brought here a new upraise. / Look: the gossamers of the silver clouds / Are pierced by a sun the size of an ant’s eyes, / T...»
«I see: at the window sited, / Mother declines to her child, / And trying to catch his feet idly, / He rose them, putting aside. / His day is the long one and golden, / His nights — like without an end... / And a year — like a wonderful model, / Of the future long years’ train. ...»
«As soon as morn came, they were there, face to face, / As soon as morn came, cattle did not yet graze. Two carriages came — they had four men to drive, / Two carriages left — taking free men alive. And only these free heard a falling man’s yell, / And only they saw as the crying man f...»
«Has putting nets into dull waters, / To mantic hum of dark lime-trees, / A silent, thoughtful maiden watches / Scales of the fairy fish in streams. They, with an animal’s emotion, / Bend to a ringlet their tails, / Or strew the blue-green of an ocean — / So simple, transparent, ...»