I shall not lie to find a lurid rhyme,
Honoured master, no harsh words from you:
Since the cot your choice has not been mine,
I can only do what I can do.
How heartily I thank relentless Fate
For the prickly Muse that I’ve been given:
The path we walk is ours, though it be strait,
She and I aren’t fellow-travelling women.
Ради рифмы резвой не солгу,
Уж не обессудь, маститый мастер, —
Мы от колыбели разной масти:
Я умею только то, что я могу.
Строгой благодарна я судьбе,
Что дала мне Музу-недотрогу:
Узкой, но своей идем дорогой.
Обе не попутчицы тебе.
«I love at times to look out the window / And to observe other people's concerns. / I love at times to look out the window / And through this leave behind my work. For a long time I stare very intently / Into the face of a young Jewish girl / Seeking to decipher in her expressions / The ...»
«I thought of eagles for a long time / and understood such a whole lot: / the eagles soar above the clouds, / they fly and fly and touch no one. / They live on cliffs and on mountains / and are intimate with water sprites, / I thought a long time about eagles / but confused them, I thi...»
«Ivan Ivanych Samovar — / A pot-bellied samovar, / A three-bucket samovar. / There inside him boiled water, / Puffed with steam that boiling water, / In the fury boiling water / Into cups pour'd through the tap, / Through the hole, then the tap, / And to cups right through the tap. ...»
«March 28, 1931, 7 in the evening Oh Lord, amid the light of day / I've been overcome by sloth. / Permit me to lie down and sleep, oh Lord, / And, while I slumber, fill me oh Lord / with Thy might. / I desire great knowledge, / but no man and no book shall give me this. / Only Thou sha...»