Memory has veiled
much evil;
her long lies leave nothing
to believe.
There may be no cities
or green gardens;
only fields of ice
and salty oceans.
The world may be pure snow,
a starry road;
just northern forest
in the mind of God.
Память скрыла столько зла
Без числа и меры.
Всю-то жизнь лгала, лгала.
Нет ей больше веры.
Может, нет ни городов,
Ни садов зеленых,
И жива лишь сила льдов
И морей соленых.
Может, мир – одни снега,
Звездная дорога.
Может, мир — одна тайга
В пониманье Бога.
«Either meadows, pray tell, or clouds, or water / Bewitched by the yellow moon: / A silvery expanse, a silvery distance / Above me, before me, behind me… Not regretting anything… wishing nothing… / Only that the sorceress’ mask would gleam / And that its tale would unravel / Into...»
«From the smothering soot of the earth / The fiery speck got out, / And the shadows began to flow gently, / Merging strange contours. I knew that I couldn’t sleep: / While my lips prayed, / Those importunate words began / Shifting in the brain. I lay, and the shadows drifted, / Prob...»
«The heavens have driven us completely mad: / Blinding us with either fire, or snow, / And, snarling, the stubborn winter / Has retreated beastly behind April. Slipping into oblivion for an instant — / And again the helmet is thrust over the brows, / The streams, gone under the crusted s...»
«O, eve of eternal humdrum, / The viscid stinger of dullness… / In the dusty heat of noon, the din / And colour of the train station… The half-dead flies / On the boarded-up kiosk, / On the spilled whitewash, / Are blind, greedy and deaf. A faded-green banner, / White bursts of st...»