Three songs there be that thrill the human breast —
Three songs with human joy and sorrow laden.
And one of them is happier than the rest —
The song a mother sings beside a cradle.
The second by a mother, too, is sung —
Caressing icy cheeks with mourning fingers,
She sings it at the graveside of a son.
The third is sung hy all the other singers.
Есть три заветных песни у людей,
И в них людское горе и веселье.
Одна из песен всех других светлей —
Ее слагает мать над колыбелью.
Вторая — тоже песня матерей.
Рукою гладя щеки ледяные,
Ее поют над гробом сыновей...
А третья песня — песни остальные.
Пер. Н. Гребнева
«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 ...»
«5 In the name of massacre / Hold tight, my one with wings! / There was an hour of crossing / And will be — of getting even. In that ton-and-half hour / Between fact and dream / Heavily paddled / The ship's wings. Between Charybdis — yes! — / And Scylla paddled away. / Oh my...»