So Hagar sits in obloquy
And gushing piteously
The spring pours out a threnody:
Be-er la-chai ro-yi.
Those lands belong to Abraham,
But this expanse – to none:
In front of her, the wilderness
To Shur itself does run.
Despair, despair instinctual!
In her Egyptian eyes,
Disconsolate, elongated,
A nascent teardrop cries.
The frigid torrent’s shimmering,
A dagger’s cutting edge, –
O, terrifying, childless,
O, dread proprietress!..
“Hagar!” – And her countenance
Dark-skinned did drain of blood.
She looks, – her eyebrows lifted at
The angel of the Lord…
Сидит Агарь опальная,
И плачутся струи
Источника печального
Беэрлахай-рои.
Там - земли Авраамовы,
А сей простор - ничей:
Вокруг, до Сура самого,
Пустыня перед ней.
Тоска, тоска звериная!
Впервые жжет слеза
Египетские, длинные,
Пустынные глаза.
Блестит струя холодная,
Как лезвие ножа, -
О, страшная, бесплодная,
О, злая госпожа!..
"Агарь!" - И кровь отхлынула
От смуглого лица.
Глядит, - и брови сдвинула
На Божьего гонца...
«Here sways a tree: — Farewell! — / There a house calls out: — Stranger, stay! — / The road leads forth: — Mount me, walk / on my weathered skin, stomp me with your heel, / Don't trust these houses calling you to settle down. / Trust in the tree and trust in me. / ...»
«The forties, fateful, / warring, frontline, / with funeral notices, / clattering trains. / The hum of the rails. / All is cold, high and barren. / Their houses have burned — / they’re heading east. / That’s me at the station / in my scruffy wool cap. / The star’s not stan...»
«How bare the countryside! What dearth / How stark the hamlets’ desolation... / Long-suffering country of my birth, / poor homeland of the Russian nation. Never will the stranger’s gaze / look deeper to perceive or guess / what hidden light there is that plays / and shimmers through...»
«Oh don’t look back / at that ice / at that dark; / there, waiting greedily / for you is a look / that will demand an answer. I looked back today. And suddenly, / I saw him — alive and with living eyes, / looking at me out of the ice, / my ...»