Goldfinch, friend, I'll cock my head —
let's check the world out, just me and you:
this winter's day pricks like chaff;
does it sting your eyes too?
Boat-tailed, feathers yellow-black,
sopped in colour beneath your beak,
do you get, you goldfinch you,
just how you flaunt it?
What's he thinking, little airhead? —
white and yellow, black and red!
Both eyes check both ways — both! —
will check no more — he's bolted!
Мой щегол, я голову закину —
Поглядим на мир вдвоем:
Зимний день, колючий, как мякина,
Так ли жестк в зрачке твоем?
Хвостик лодкой, перья черно-желты,
Ниже клюва в краску влит,
Сознаёшь ли — до чего щегол ты,
До чего ты щегловит?
Что за воздух у него в надлобье —
Чёрн и красен, жёлт и бел!
В обе стороны он в оба смотрит — в обе! —
Не посмотрит — улетел!
«1 Into the treasure chest / Of the midnight depths / I let down / A steady hand. Amid seaweed / There's no sight of him! / My treasure-chest / Is not in the sea! Into the singing height / Clouds beyond — / With double thunder / I get brave — and now A lark has dropped / ...»
«2 Alive and well! / Louder than thunder — / Like with an axe — / Joy! No, with an axe / Not enough: with a bull / Under the butt / Of happiness! Stunned. / Afraid. / What in exchange — / Will they tear away? And from the knees / All the way to the roots / Of standing ...»
«3 Not hunching under sorrow, / Under the stone — winged — as / An eagle — having stayed whole, The double sadness / Of earthly mothers / And heavenly mistresses Having raised on the shoulder — / Hot Maltese steel / Was left to me! But the wrathful sky / To the eagles —...»
«4 Over the sleeping youth — golden spurs. / Command: Up high! / Back at the heels the crowd of robbers. / George, cry! With a free left hand you're feeling the cross. / Command: swim! / Rule, that to the last one they come under / The cupola Sofian! We're lost! The joints will not ...»