The night is dark, I cannot sleep,
I’ll stroll beside the river.
The lightning there begins to leap
in fizzing girdle’s sliver.
On mountain now birch-candles glow
In silver’s moonlit feathers.
So come, my heart, now let us go
To hear the songs of zithers.
I’ll feast my eyes, and I will stare
Upon a maiden’s beauty,
And I will dance to zither’s air,
Relieve your veil of duty.
To emerald wood and tower’s shadow
By silken flowers blooming,
I’ll take you to the hill-girt plateau
Till poppied dawn is looming.
Тёмна ноченька, не спится,
Выйду к речке на лужок.
Распоясала зарница
В пенных струях поясок.
На бугре берёза-свечка
В лунных перьях серебра.
Выходи, моё сердечко,
Слушать песни гусляра!
Залюбуюсь, загляжусь ли
На девичью красоту,
А пойду плясать под гусли,
Так сорву твою фату.
В терем тёмный, в лес зелёный,
На шелковы купыри,
Уведу тебя под склоны
Вплоть до маковой зари.
«I made myself an expert in farewells / By studying laments, the night-fall of a woman’s hair. / Oxen chew their cud; anticipation lags; / It is the town’s last restless hour; / And I praise that ritual night when the cocks crowed / And eyelids, heavy with the griefs that pass, / Open...»
«When Psyche, who is life, steps down into the shadows, / the translucent wood, following Persephone, / a blind swallow casts itself at her feet / with Stygian tenderness and a green branch. The shades swarm to welcome the refugee, / their new little companion, and greet her with eager waili...»
«"The arguments of freedom shall not die: / The Roman senate testifies to this..." / Lighting his clumsy pipe, he wraps his robe / About him, while the men continue playing chess. He has exchanged his proud bedeviled dream / For a clearing in Siberia (deaf, lost) / And for this curved chib...»
«A radiance travels the terrifying height — / is it a star there, sighing? / Star of transparency, wrandering light, / your twin, Petropolis, is dying. The dreams of earth catch fire on high, / a green star shimmers, sighing — / O, if you are the star of water and sky, / your twin, P...»