If light is felled — I am able to see nothing,
If a man is a beast — I hate him and scorn,
If he’s worse than beasts — I kill him, laughing,
If my Russia is over — I die and I mourn.
Если гаснет свет — я ничего не вижу.
Если человек зверь — я его ненавижу.
Если человек хуже зверя — я его убиваю.
Если кончена моя Россия — я умираю.
«It’s nice, if a bit slow, / This city of Rostov. / Main streets here bear the names / Of soldiers of great fame. / So restless, day and night / Its Garden Street’s packed tight. / But sidestreets stand quite still / With sound of poetry filled, / And that was why I thought / Th...»
«Flimsily dexterous / The droplets go — / The springlet sketchily / Darts to and fro... While I — / a rock that is well past its prime — / Feel helpless to guess one thing: / Just why / this inanimate little spring / Is moving faster than I.»
«A handclasp-that was all it took / To work these total transformations! / Old men are bowling hoops and, look, / Children complain of palpitations. Trains cross Sevan* from shore to shore, / At midday folk are lighting candles, / In water fish delight no more, / While I ... I love you t...»
«Wiping tears of hurt and childish sorrow, / Cotton dress you took—your best attire — / Always somepne straight from out a story, / To a world of fables you retired. Ever since, by dreams I’ve been bedevilled / That you’d left your fable-land domain, / That I had been married to a ...»