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.
«O, do not sigh about me, anxious, / This grief is criminal and vain, / Here, on the grayness of the canvas, / I have emerged so strange and vague. With frenzy smiling in my eyes, / With flailing arms, the pain of fracture, / And I could not be otherwise / Before the bitter hour of raptu...»
«The smell of dark blue grapes is sweet… / Intoxicating vastness calls. / Your voice is flat and downbeat. / I pity no one, not a soul. The spiderwebs surround the berries, / Thin are the stems of supple vines, / The river’s bright blue water carries / The clouds of white like floes ...»
«And even with you we’ve parted, / My first fancy. The east grew blue. / “I will never forget you,” you uttered. / I could hardly suppose it was true. Faces emerge and vanish again, / Dear today, but tomorrow - strange. / But what exactly caused me to bend / The corner to mark this...»
«The park was filled with a light haze, / At the gates, flames of gaslights arose, / I remembered only one gaze, / Still unknowing, calm and composed. And your sorrow, hidden from others, / Drew me close and opened forthright, / And you saw just how much I was smothered / By the poisonou...»