Under such blows
your narrow shoulders will redden
and flame, even in the snow.
Your childlike hands
will lift up irons
and weave the heaviest ropes.
Barefoot on glass
your slight feet will go,
barefoot on glass in the blooded sand.
And I will bum for you
like a black candle
(a black candle). I shall not dare pray.
Твоим узким плечам под бичами краснеть,
Под бичами краснеть, на морозе гореть.
Твоим детским рукам утюги поднимать,
Утюги поднимать да веревки вязать.
Твоим нежным ногам по стеклу босиком,
По стеклу босиком да кровавым песком…
Ну, а мне за тебя черной свечкой гореть,
Черной свечкой гореть да молиться не сметь.
«The wise Prince Oleg has set out to repay / Foolhardy Khazars with a vengeance; / For pillage, their dwellings and pastures as prey / To fire and sword the prince pledges; / In Tsargrad’s fine armor, in front of a force / Oleg heads out riding his favorite horse....»
«Farewell, O Blue Domain of Freedom! / For one last time before my eyes / You roll your pearly waves and lead them / To show how solemn beauty shines. As if a friend’s death-stricken grumble, / His call the hour he shall depart, / I hear your din, your wistful rumble, / For one last ti...»
«The twinkling stars in distant melancholies / Lit up the roadway curving through a wood. / The road meandered down the Mount of Olives; / The Kedron streamed untroubled at its foot. / / At half its length the glade abruptly ended / And yielded to a sprawling Milky Way; / The gray and ...»
«My torpor’s higher than the hills, / And in the ditch now lies my love, / Its lustre lost, my gaze now spills / Where tears and blood roll from above. My torpor’s higher than the hills, / The earth my labours do not suit… / Oh, gaze is dark, dull gaze it chills, / Oh evil, terrify...»