Upon a horse-sleigh laid to brim with straw
And covered barely with hides and birch,
We rode around the lumbering Moscow
From Sparrow Hills to a familiar church.
On Uglich street the kids are playing babki
And from a stove exudes bread's sweet smell
Through street without a hat they take me
Three candles burn in tower near a bell.
Not just three candles burned, but three encounters,
One of them God had blessed and known
Forth did not happen — and the Rome still further —
And never did he love the ancient Rome.
The sled was diving into blackened snowdunes
And from the darkness people poured like weeds.
Thin peasant men and hateful-looking women
Right at the gate were separating seeds.
The distance, wet, had blackened with birds' trails,
And hands tied down inside the sleigh grew tired.
They drive the prince — the body numbs and pales —
And then they set the orange straw on fire.
«Night, street, apothecary, lamppost, / Dim light, its mindless vanity. / Live for a century, or almost, — / It will be so. No getaway. Or die — it all will come full circle, / The motion that you will repeat: / Canal, night, rippling icy water, / Lamppost, apothecary, street.»
«Speak not of ways of good and bad: / Both are the ways of good. / At dawn, by Freedom I was led / To where they split; I stood As Freedom said, “Two ways here run, / Two truths, two merits split. / The crowd will struggle choosing one, / The wise won’t toil one bit. The things tha...»
«Perhaps the world was once a fine endeavor; / Perhaps those living now are cursed by Fate. / I still have one belief, one truth, however: / That every age must honor its own trait. I shall not trade my dolefulness, my trial / For all the joy and bliss of ancient days. / We equally serve G...»
«The mounts of Dagestan enclosed the sun; / A star came up; the breeze was lightly reeling; / And looking to the East, all prayed as one: / Reciting the Quran, Tatars were kneeling, Christ’s servants crossed themselves for holy sake, / Kalmyks sought Lama’s word, their silence ample...»