Thumpety,
Jumpety,
Bumpety
Ball,
Rollicky,
Frolicky,
Where do you roll?
Jolly
And round.
Yellow
And blue,
No one can run
Faster than you.
Slappety-
Slap
Against
The wall,
You bounced so nicely.
My pretty ball.
Up
In the air,
Down
On the floor.
Twenty
Or seventy
Times or more.
But then you went rolling
Into the lane;
You scampered away
And won’t come again.
Out
In the garden.
Under the gate;
I called you back,
But it was too late.
A lorry ran over you,
Jumpety ball;
Bang!
You popped,
And that
Was all!
Мой
Веселый,
Звонкий
Мяч,
Ты куда
Помчался
Вскачь?
Жёлтый,
Красный,
Голубой,
Hе угнаться
За тобой!
Я
Тебя
Ладонью
Хлопал.
Ты
Скакал
И звонко
Топал.
Ты
Пятнадцать
Раз
Подряд
Прыгал
В угол
И назад.
А потом
Ты покатился
И назад
Hе воротился.
Покатился
В огород,
Докатился
До ворот,
Подкатился
Под ворота,
Добежал
До поворота.
Там
Попал
Под колесо.
Лопнул,
Хлопнул —
Вот и все!
«I happened upon a devillet / with the body of a child. / Thin and scrawny like a gnat; / his face was sharp, and shy, and old. His body trembled in the rain; / his fur was dark and ruffled. / It was a sorry sight; I feared / this devillet might snuff it. “Love! Love!” I hear all ro...»
«In your long jackets, broad-brimmed hats, / with notebooks of your poems, / you disintegrated long ago in dust / like fallen lilac blossom. Yours is a country free of ready forms, / where all is mingled, fractured, dislocated, / where there’s no sky — only a grave mound — / and th...»
«They’ve cut a hole in the deep / dense blue of the ice: / a breathing space for big fish and little, / water for bringers of buckets, / a way out for a weary traveler / if she and life turn out after all / to be traveling different roads / and she has nowhere to go.»
«I pardon all your sins — / but two I can’t abide: / You read poems in silence / and kiss aloud. So sin, blossom, be merry — / but take my advice: / a kiss, my darling, is not for the ear, / and music is not for the eyes.»