Let's head to village of the Tsar
Where drunken, swept by wind and free
Young men are smiling right at me
Riding on horseback high and far.
Let's head to village of the Tsar!
Parks, castles, stables in a row
And on the trees are lumps of snow
And to the shouts — «be well, hotshots»
The words "be well" ring back like shots —
Parks, castles, stables in a row.
One-story houses wide and far
Where generals of single mind
Shorten their lifetimes going blind
Reading Dumas and «Nieva»:
Mansions — not houses — wide and far.
Train whistles. Riding in, a knight,
With retinue in pavilions full of light
A sword behind him sternly dragging
Officer leaves the cabin, ragging:
I do not doubt this is a knight!
And man is coming home again —
Where etiquette and decor reign
A fear-instilling chariot
A grey-haired fraulein on the spot
Knows, man is coming home again...
Поедем в Царское Село!
Свободны, ветренны и пьяны,
Там улыбаются уланы,
Вскочив на крепкое седло...
Поедем в Царское Село!
Казармы, парки и дворцы,
А на деревьях — клочья ваты,
И грянут „здравия“ раскаты
На крик — „здорово, молодцы“!
Казармы, парки и дворцы...
Одноэтажные дома,
Где однодумы-генералы
Свой коротают век усталый,
Читая Ниву и Дюма...
Особняки — а не дома!
Свист паровоза... едет князь.
В стеклянном павильоне свита!..
И, саблю волоча сердито,
Выходит офицер, кичась —
Не сомневаюсь — это князь...
И возвращается домой —
Конечно, в царство этикета,
Внушая тайный страх, карета
С мощами фрейлины седой,
Что возвращается домой...
«Neither fragile Japanese shadows / Nor mellifluous Indian daughters / Sound as sorrowful / As the last supper orations. / On the verge of death all that has happened / Repeats itself quickly but differently. / And that is the basis / For the dance of death and its achievement.»
«Oh Asia! You are my torment. / I fancy thunderclouds like maiden's brows, / And lengthy gatherings at night / Like the bloom of tender shoulders. / Where is the prophet of a new day? / Oh, If only Asia would cover my knees / With the hair of blue rivers, / And whisper her cryptic pl...»
«While Achmatova's tears and songs / Were raining over Tsarskoe Selo, / I, unwinding the enchantress' ball of thread, / Dragged myself through the wilderness / Where impossibility was dying, / A tired actor / Striding forward. / Meanwhile the curly head / Of the subterranean bull wa...»
«If I turn humankind into a clock / And show how the century hand moves / Wouldn't war disappear from our age / Like an obsolete letter from the alphabet? / Our kind got itself piles / From the springy chairs of war, / But I tell you what I learned about the future / Through my preterh...»