Fog covered the distance,
The moon combs the clouds.
Red evening behind the fish string
Spreads a curly drag net.
Under the window, the wind
Oversang through slippy willows.
Quiet gloom, a warm angel,
Slaked by foreign light.
The izba’s slumber, effortlessly, sows
Parables with the spirit of the grain.
On the dry straw of the dray, the muzhik’s
Sweat is sweeter than honey.
Someone’s soft face behind the forest,
It smells of cherries and moss...
Friend, comrade and peer,
Pray for the sighs of the cow.
Даль подёрнулась туманом,
Чешет тучи лунный гребень.
Красный вечер за куканом
Расстелил кудрявый бредень.
Под окном от скользких вётел
Перепёльи звоны ветра.
Тихий сумрак, ангел тёплый,
Напоён нездешним светом.
Сон избы легко и ровно
Хлебным духом сеет притчи.
На сухой соломе в дровнях
Слаще мёда пот мужичий.
Чей-то мягкий лик за лесом,
Пахнет вишнями и мохом…
Друг, товарищ и ровесник,
Помолись коровьим вздохам.
«My body, all I borrowed from the earth, / I do not want it to return here — / some flour-white butterfly. / My body, scratched and chewed with thought, / I want it to become a street, a land — / it was too full of vertebrae. The dark green pine needles howling in the wind / look lik...»
«1 Let this air here be a witness / to his distant, pounding heart / out in the trenches — all-seeing, hungry air: / ocean without a window, matter. Those stars — how inquisitive / their looks at all times — but why inquire / into the downfall of the judge and witness, / into an o...»
«The grapes in the royal garden have rusted; / the concubine, waiting, sleeps by the wall. / Veins of Palestine, heavy with sap, / in you flows the ancient sadness of Saul. Like a five-day-old wound his mouth crusts over: / thick is the blood with its term at hand. / How long it has been s...»
«Tousle-haired star / hurrying into nothing / out of a crazy nowhere, / a lone sheep among the starry horde, / into those golden flocks rushing / like jealousy you overwhelm me, / star of the ancients, shaggy star!»