Freedom is a wondrous marvel
Sweet to crave in candlelight.
“Stay with me before you travel,”
Cried Devotion in the night,
“You are crowned by me alone.
Hold your freedom in regard
As a law that’s carved in stone;
Heed it with a loving heart…”
“As a law that’s carved in stone,
Freedom I betroth to wed.
That light crown will then alone
Always stay upon my head.
Doomed to death and aimless motion
Out in space – why would we be
Sad for wonderful devotion,
Wistful over constancy!“
О свободе небывалой
Сладко думать у свечи.
— Ты побудь со мной, сначала, —
Верность плакала в ночи.
— Только я мою корону
Возлагаю на тебя,
Чтоб свободе, как закону,
Подчинился ты, любя…
— Я свободе, как закону,
Обручен, и потому
Эту легкую корону
Никогда я не сниму.
Нам ли, брошенным в пространстве,
Обреченным умереть,
О прекрасном постоянстве
И о верности жалеть!
«My light tread / — A sign of clear conscience — / My light tread, / My ringing song — / / God placed me alone / In the midst of the great world. / — You are not a woman but a bird, / Therefore — fly and sing.»
«These are ashes of treasures, / Of pain and loss. / Faced with such ashes, / Granite turns to dust. A dove, naked and taintless, / Alive, yet matchless. / These are Solomon’s ashes / Above the great vanity. The menacing chalk mark / Of the dawnless age. / God’s at my doorstep /...»
«A soldier — into a trench, / A head of hair — into grayness, / Sky! I blend with you, sea-like. / On every syllable / As at a secret look, / I turn, / I preen. A Scythian — into a skirmish, / A whip — into a wild dance. / Sea! I brave into you, sky-like. / In every poem / ...»
«From the mind’s dreams, from the bile’s rage, / Goddess of Faithfulness, keep your slave. With cast-iron hoops bind tight her breast, / Goddess of Faithfulness, be her nest. Remove from the shrub all flowers and pips, / Make her mouth numb, then seal her lips. As safe as bone encased ...»