All day long the autumn's dampened air
In confoundment and angst I have inhaled.
I would like a supper — and the stars are
In a blackened purse and gold and pale!
And as with a yellow fog o'ergrown,
I descend into a tiny hole;
Nowhere such a restaurant have I known
Nor such company can I recall.
Petty bureaucrats, Japanese dealers,
Theologians of a foreign trust..
On the porch a man is feeling dollars
And they all are drunken to the last.
Be so kind to me, and change my money.
I am asking him persistently —
Only do not give me paper money,
I can't stand the crumpled bills of three.
What to do with all this drunken crowd?
How have I lucked in here, I enjoin?
If I have the right, I ask out loud,
Won't you change for me my golden coin?
Целый день сырой осенний воздух
Я вдыхал в смятенье и тоске;
Я хочу поужинать, — и звезды
Золотые в темном кошельке!
И, дрожа от желтого тумана,
Я спустился в маленький подвал;
Я нигде такого ресторана
И такого сброда не видал!
Мелкие чиновники, японцы,
Теоретики чужой казны...
За прилавком щупает червонцы
Человек — и все они пьяны.
Будьте так любезны, разменяйте,
Убедительно его прошу —
Только мне бумажек не давайте, —
Трехрублевок я не выношу!
Что мне делать с пьяною оравой?
Как попал сюда я, Боже мой?
Если я на то имею право —
Разменяйте мне мой золотой!
«Wild honey has the scent of freedom, / dust — of a ray of sun, / a girl's mouth — of a violet, / and gold —has no perfume. Watery — the mignonette, / and like an apple — love, / but we have found out forever / that blood smells only of blood.»
«Cross-firing behind the hills: / Both camps watch, theirs and ours; / In front of Cossaks on the hill / Dashes 'long brave Delibash O Delibash, not to the line come nigh, / Do have mercy on thy life; / Quick 't is over with thy frolic bold, / Pierced thou by the spear shalt be Hey, Cos...»
«Over the wooded banks, / In the hour of evening quiet, / Under the tents are song and bustle / And the fires are scattered. Thee I greet, O happy race ! / I recognize thy blazes, / I myself at other times / These tents would have followed. With the early rays to-morrow / Shall disapp...»
«You are kissed, bewitched, / Somewhen wed to the wind in the field you are, / You"re as if chained all over and cold as steel, / You are my precious gem, you are my sweetheart. / / Neither cheerful, nor disconsolate, / As if an angel who dropped from the dark night sky, / You are eith...»