It is my last appeal to You — appear.
Let's share a feast of nightly inspiration!
Magnificent, o raise me up so near
To pinnacle where doom befell creation.
Yield one last time! In life there is no course
Like farewells so holy, yet rough-watered.
As if my heart is a Lamb to be brought forth
A sacrifice led to the slaughter.
In partings we rekindle our past
And love it with theurgic disposition,
Like sons hug mothers at a firing squad
A open grave to be their last transition.
В последний раз зову Тебя: явись
На пиршество ночного вдохновенья.
В последний раз: восхить меня в ту высь,
Откуда открывается паденье.
В последний раз! Нет в жизни ничего
Святее и ужаснее прощанья.
Оно есть агнец сердца моего,
Влекомый на закланье.
В нём прошлое возлюблено опять
С уже нечеловеческою силой.
Так пред расстрелом сын объемлет мать
Над общей их могилой.
«I said, and another heard, / Whispered to a third, who understood, / And the fourth, taking his oak staff, / Went into the night — to a heroic deed. / The world made a song of it, and with that / Song on my lips — O life! — I meet my death.»
«They christened us in the same tub, / They wed us with the same wreath, / They tortured us in the same jail, / They branded us with the same iron. They will build us the same house. / They will cover us with the same mound.»
«My light tread / — A sign of clear conscience — / My light tread, / My ringing song — / / God placed me alone / In the midst of the great world. / — You are not a woman but a bird, / Therefore — fly and sing.»
«These are ashes of treasures, / Of pain and loss. / Faced with such ashes, / Granite turns to dust. A dove, naked and taintless, / Alive, yet matchless. / These are Solomon’s ashes / Above the great vanity. The menacing chalk mark / Of the dawnless age. / God’s at my doorstep /...»