Our court nightingale,
beak open wide,
can let out the loudest
trills in the world.
The creature is stunning
by what pours from his throat –
but it was he who spurred
Derzhavin to write
that praise and flattery
are by no means the same:
a slave can flatter
but he can’t do praise.
Придворный соловей
Раскроет клюв пошире,
Бросая трель с ветвей,
Крикливейшую в мире.
Не помнит божья тварь
Себя от изумленья,
Долбит, как пономарь,
Хваленья и моленья.
Свистит что было сил,
По всей гремя державе,
О нем и говорил
Язвительный Державин,
Что раб и похвалить
Кого-либо не может.
Он может только льстить,
Что не одно и то же.
«Now it’s here, dim-witted pleasure — / See, through white windows beyond! / Russet, like swan at her leisure, / Shimmers the sun on the pond. Greetings, gilt peaceable moment, / Birch’s reflection on pool! / Flocking crows cackle insistent / Starwards their prayer of the fool. Ti...»
«Farewell then, my dear one, farewell — / O sweet one, held in my heart. / Parting predestined, yet still / Future promises us a new start. / Farewell, now my dear one — no handholds, no words, / No grieving, no sorrowing frown — / To die is not new in this world / But to live br...»
«Nothing is different: thin snow beats / Against the dining-room window-pane. / I am totally unchanged, / but a man came to see me. / / I asked: "What do you want?" / He said: "To be with you in hell." / I laughed, "Ah, there I can’t / Oblige you, you’d wish us ill." / / His...»
«Nothing is changed: against the dining-room windows / hard grains of whirling snow still beat. / I am what I was, / but a man came to me. "What do you want?" I asked. / "To be with you in hell," he said. / I laughed. "It's plain you mean / to have us both destroyed." He lifted his thi...»