Wake as you want, but wake in me from sleep —
In cold, and numb and bottomless a deep.
I do not dream to say a single word,
But give a sign that you are in this world.
Not for a long, but only for a flash.
If not in verse — in sighs or cries of flesh.
Only your sigh or moan of complaint,
Only your chains’ incomprehensive chant.
Очнись, как хочешь, но очнись во мне —
в холодной, онемевшей глубине.
Я не мечтаю — вымолить слова.
Но дай мне знак, что ты еще жива.
Я не прошу — надолго, хоть на миг.
Хотя б не стих, а только вздох и крик.
Хотя бы шепот только или стон.
Хотя б цепей твоих негромкий звон.
«Night hastens and seizes / Clear gleams in the east. / From her raiment light breezes / Over fields are released. Long and sultry the day was, / Night sings as she goes / A lullaby ditty / And calls to repose. Her dark gaze is mournful, / On her way naught is met... / O my heart, s...»
«How agleam, how garnished the spring! / Turn your eyes in the old way upon me: / Say, wherefore this sorrowing? / Why lavish this tenderness on me? You are mute, as a blossom so frail, / Say naught! — No confession is needed: / The flight of your love I have heeded, — / Lone again i...»
«My window is high o'er the earthly spaces, / O'er the earthly spaces; / I behold but the sky with evening's red traces, / With evening's red traces. And the gaze of the sky is so faded and dreary, / So faded and dreary; / No pity it has for the heart that is weary, / For my heart that i...»
«Two threads are closely hafted, / The ends are unconfined. / 'Tis "yea" and "nay", — not grafted, / Not grafted, — but entwined. / Dim is the weft that mates them / Close and inanimate, / But wakening awaits them, / And they the same await. / End unto end is taken, / Fresh "y...»