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.
«And I have dreamed of this, and this was dreamed by me, / And once again I’ll see this in a dream, / And everything repeats itself and fully reappears, / And you will dream all that I have seen. There, outside of us, outside the world / A wave upon a wave is striking shore, / Upon the w...»
«I dreamt of many things, so beautiful and grim, / I'll dream of many things, so sorrowful and happy, / And they will come to life, and everything will happen, / And you will dream yourself of shadows from my dream. Beyond the modern world, beyond and far away / A wave is washed ashore and b...»
«I am fed up with words, words, words, / And am no longer able to extol my rights / On speech and meaning, while all the night / Like a widow, ragged foliage knocks upon the roof. / It turns out my hearing is no good / For mumbled nightly speech of widowhood. We are akin. We are not akin. ...»
«Here's our table set for six, / Roses, crystal gloss. / And among the guests, amiss, / There are grief and loss. Here comes father from the past, / Brother from the war. / Hours pass. We hear, at last, / Knocking at the door... And her hand is just as cold / As 'twas twelve years bac...»