Peace-loving Stassen who appears so pious
Is most inflammable and could well fry us.
He wears an olive branch in his lapel.
But sits on bombs like some hen doing well
In her present condition. Still he can
Consider any disarmament plan.
Благочестив миролюбивый Стассен,
Но в сущности весьма огнеопасен.
В его петлице — пальмовая ветка,
Но он сидит на бомбах, как наседка,
И в этом интересном положенье
Рассматривает план разооруженья.
«How they flare up, a tinder bonfire / on the plaza of night, our holy convictions! / Before the usurping edict of tenderness / what are our heroes, our marble traditions? How solemnly fall the lofty antiques / one by one, and the modes of nobility, / and, oh, our ancestral jewels under / ...»
«2 No more so rich are the gifts of the Gods; / even the river is different now. / Through wide and widening sunset gates / the doves of Venus fly away. And I, stretched out on the cooling sand, / soon into numberless days go forth. / Like a snake, looking back at his old bright skin — ...»
«(for S. Ephron) 1 The bell towers are ringing / somewhere in the Kremlin / somewhere in my homeland / somewhere Towers are ringing / abandoned, ringing / where on this earth? My fortress / my laughter / my dream / my light / of narrow feet, the footsteps deftly flung out / i...»
«(for S. Ephron) 2 I shall lift my arms / my empty hands / through the black window / and fling myself / down the midnight clanging / of the clock tower / home. I would go home / like this: head down / from the noisy tower. Home, / not against the cobblestoned square / but into ...»