Oh, the unconquerable heaviness
Of these waters silenced
Behind centuries-old dams!
Oh Lord! It’s still the same, it’s hard for me
With my heart full to overflowing,
And a muse who’s un-talkative.
О, этих вод обезмолвленных
За вековыми запрудами
Тяжесть непреодолимая!
Господи! Так же мне! Трудно мне
С сердцем моим переполненным,
С Музой несловоохотливой.
«This way I prayed: "Slake the dumb thirst / Of singing with a sweet libation!" / But to the earthling of the earth / There can be no liberation. / Like smoke from sacrifice, that it could not / Fly Strength- and Glory-ward — alas — / But only clouded at the feet / And, as if prayin...»
«In intimacy there exists a line / That can't be crossed by passion or love's art — / In awful silence lips melt into one / And out of love to pieces bursts the heart. And friendship here is impotent, and years / Of happiness sublime in fire aglow, / When soul is free and does not hear /...»
«All has been taken: strength as well as love. / Into the unloved town the corpse is thrown. / It does not love the sun. I fear, that blood / Inside of me already cold has grown. I do not recognize sweet Muse's loving taste: / She looks ahead and does not let a word pass, / And bows a head...»
«To lose the freshness of the words and sense, for us, / Is it same as for an artist to lose vision, / Or for an actor — voice and motion, / Or for a gorgeous woman — her finesse? But do not seek now for yourself to keep / What heaven has given to you below: / We have been judged —...»