In those days the first words
Were heard in infantile melody,
Jehovah’s youthful anger roared
Above the world like spring thunder,
And the cedars learned to cast their shade,
And Eve – she had only just fallen,
And her depths boiled with seed,
And the world was God, and God was passion.
He wore it out with His jealousy,
Pouring fire straight into the blood…
Israel, can you really have drunk up
All of the Lord’s first love?
В те дни младенческим напевом
Звучали первые слова,
Как гром весенний, юным гневом
Гремел над миром Егова,
И тень бросать учились кедры,
И Ева — лишь успела пасть,
И семенем кипели недра,
И мир был — Бог, и Бог — был страсть.
Своею ревностью измаял,
Огнем вливался прямо в кровь...
Ужель ты выпил всю, Израиль,
Господню первую любовь?
«Beside the bird shops on Las Ramblas / A soldier, deafened in the fray, / From thrushes, robins and the warblers / Delighted gaze he couldn’t stay. / And in his ears was roar cemented — / Nocturnal voice of grim grenades. / The constant trills made him demented, / While fledgling j...»
«“Reconnaissance in force” — just three brief words. / Amidst rumbling deep-voiced guns, / The commander cast a surly glance / At the dainty woman’s watch on his wrist. / They’d gone and charged through the enemy guns, / Yelling and slaughtering as they ran, / And by noon the of...»
«One cold damp night, winds pierced the cliffs, / Spain dragged its armor to the north, / And the trumpet of the crazed trumpeter Wailed on into the morning. / The soldiers moved their guns from battle, / The peasants drove forward their stunned cattle, / And the little ones carried with th...»
«I lived obscurely and uncertainly, / And spoke of things not always true. / But I can recollect a certain tree / An inky giant in the blue. / And I recall a woman dear to me. / Was I a coward? I don’t know. / But superstitiously and timidly / I took her hand—and let it go. / And ...»