A capricious, avaricious kind —
Like fire, the Russian mind is dire:
Irrepressible, lucidity for hire,
So gay — and gloom will always find.
Like an undeviating needle,
It sees the pole in ripples and murky still;
From abstract daydreams in life’s cradle
It shows the course for timorous will.
The way an eagle sees through fog
It examines all the valley’s dust,
It reflects sensibly about the earth
While bathing in dark mystical must.
Своеначальный, жадный ум, —
Как пламень, русский ум опасен
Так он неудержим, так ясен,
Так весел он — и так угрюм.
Подобный стрелке неуклонной,
Он видит полюс в зыбь и муть,
Он в жизнь от грезы отвлеченной
Пугливой воле кажет путь.
Как чрез туманы взор орлиный
Обслеживает прах долины,
Он здраво мыслит о земле,
В мистической купаясь мгле.
«I shall saddle a horse, / A swift courser, he, / I shall fly, I shall rush, / As the hawk is keen, / Over fields, over seas, / To a distant land. / I shall overtake there / My young youth again. / I shall make myself spruce / Be a blade again, / I shall make a fine show / For t...»
«Through the heavens of midnight an angel was sped / Who lifted his chant as he fled. / The moon and the clouds and the stars leaned to hear / The song rising holy and clear. He sang of the spirits, the sinless, the blest, / Who softly in Paradise rest. / Of the gardens...»
«We drink life's cup with thirsty lips, / Our eyes shut fast to fears; / About the golden rim there drips / Our staining blood, our tears. But when the last swift hour comes on, / The light long hid is lit, / From startled eyes the band is gone, / We suffer and submit. It is not our par...»
«For all, I thank Thee, I, the meek remitter: / For passion's secret torments without end, / The kiss of venom, and the tears too bitter, / The vengeful enemy, the slanderous friend, / The spirit's ardor on the desert squandered, / For every lash of life's deceiving thong; / I thank Thee ...»