At a minuscule medium gazing,
Through Leeuwenhoek's magic device,
Our science has put the amazing
Signs of life in front of out eyes.
A realm of collapse and formation,
A link of an infinite chain,
A miraculous, full of creation,
Be it tiny and feeble, domain.
Neither small nor gigantic is founded
In abyss where meteors pass.
And the scopes are vast and unbounded
Of bacteria, people and stars.
Through their mutual efforts' succeeding
The Pleiades' fires ignite,
Constellations are easily speeding,
And the comets quickly take flight.
On the edge of this tiny existence,
Under glass, though a tube, on a plate,
The same limitless stream covers distance,
By the shrouded choosing of fate.
There I sense the stars' respiration,
Hear the speeches of animate mass,
And a rushing noise of creation
So familiar to any of us.
Сквозь волшебный прибор Левенгука
На поверхности капли воды
Обнаружила наша наука
Удивительной жизни следы.
Государство смертей и рождений,
Нескончаемой цепи звено, —
В этом мире чудесных творений
Сколь ничтожно и мелко оно!
Но для бездн, где летят метеоры,
Ни большого, ни малого нет,
И равно беспредельны просторы
Для микробов, людей и планет.
В результате их общих усилий
Зажигается пламя Плеяд,
И кометы летят легкокрылей,
И быстрее созвездья летят.
И в углу невысокой вселенной,
Под стеклом кабинетной трубы,
Тот же самый поток неизменный
Движет тайная воля судьбы.
Там я звездное чую дыханье,
Слышу речь органических масс
И стремительный шум созиданья,
Столь знакомый любому из нас.
«You aren’t yet dead, and you are not as yet alone, / As long as with your beggared lover / By joy of wide expanses of the plains you’re thrown / As dark and cold and blizzards cover. In lavish destitution and in mighty dearth / Then live in peace and consolation. / For blessed then th...»
«The drifting smoke was melting in the frosty air, / And I, oppressed by freedom’s sadness, lingering there, / Wished only to ascend to cold and quiet singing, / To disappear for ever, but my fate was bringing Me down the snowy street upon the evening hour / Where dog was barking at the su...»
«We’re unable to live, for this country’s absurd, / At ten paces’ remove are our voices unheard, / But opinion, when muttered, half-spoken, / Kremlin highlander’s spectre’s awoken. / Podgy fingers he has that are meaty like worms, / But his speech is deliberate, its measure confir...»
«When red October’s dim time-server for us made / A yoke of bloodshed and of malice, / And armoured car, aggressive, then enforced blockade / And loomed an apish gunner, callous — And “Crucify Kerensky!” irate soldier brayed, / And angry mob on cue applauded: / Then Pilate let them...»