To Vera Zvyagintseva
Cigarette after cigarette.
We assemble, we talk, we judge.
All evening, I appear red-haired
through the eyes of the smoke.
As my other self drifts through a wasteland...
That unutterable blue light!
Every leaf — trembling —
on the sorrowful aspens.
Heaven’s drowsy vaults step apart,
a bright beehive comes into view, —
“Oh my stepdaughters! Stepsons!..”
nature breathes.
В. К. Звягинцевой
Папироса за папиросой.
Заседаем, решаем, судим.
Целый вечер, рыжеволосая,
Вся в дыму я мерещусь людям.
А другая блуждает в пустыне...
Свет несказанно-синий!
Каждым листочком, грустные,
Вздрагивают осины.
Расступаются сонные своды,
Открывается ясная пасека, —
«Падчерицы мои! Пасынки!..» —
Вздыхает природа.
«Balloons, come and buy my balloons! / Balloons from the kids! / Money from the dads! / Young gents, come and buy my balloons! / Foxy coat, let’s see your spare cash, / Don’t cling on to the trash: / I’ll let them fly up to the sky, / In two hours, look out, look up high! / It...»
«Thank God, here is the shade again! / Why it is I do not know, / But since the morning I have felt / This dying hanging over me / All the livelong twilit day! / Serving out its bitter time / Between decrepit yellow walls, / Shrivelled, shuddering on its string, / A gloomy red balloon...»
«Across the dirty sky, words etched with rays / of greenish light: “Chocolate and Cocoa.” / And cars, like cats with trampled tails, / wail frantically: “Meow! Meow!” Black trees, like scraggly brooms, / have swept the rouged stars from the sky, / and red-haired, loud-mouthed trams...»
«Over fish, under stars, / the little boat races — / three Greeks are aboard, / smuggling goods to Odessa. / Jibing and tacking, / skipping over the waters, / are Yanaki, Stavraki, / and Papa Satyros. / The wind — how it whoops! / How it whistles right past — / sets the nail...»