Alexander Blok
Translations
Insanely I desire to live
Insanely I desire to live:
All that exists - immortalize, and
All that is faceless - humanize, and
The non-existing: To fulfil!
Let breathe existence's heavy slumber,
And let me strangled by it be -
Perhaps sometime a happy young one
Will in the future speak of me:
Forgive the gloom - is that, forsooth, the
True hidden engine that's in him?
He - is the child of light and goodness,
He - is the triumph of liberty!
From the early childhood - visions, dreamings,
Like an Umbria-caressing haze.
In the villages roses are beaming,
And ring out the many high-pitched bells.
Far too sober are my dear girlfriends,
Far too forthright is their open look.
Only she alone in timeless circle
Sows and sows her garment made of silk.
Delicate and shy, the dreams torment her,
Dreams she dreams are unattainable.
And without warning - the red clothes
Have alighted on the golden wall.
With her face she's bending over silk, but
Everywhere - through the gold eyelids -
Garland with the wings of many colors
Or an angel, mortally transfixed...
With a daring branch, the dark-faced angel
"Greetings! You are beautiful!" proclaims
And she trembles before love declared,
On her tender shoulder fall two braids...
He is singing, whispering - come over,
Over her the noisy wings advance...
Out of strength at last she looks below
With a darkened and fogged-over glance...
Trembling, disbelieving: "I am, I am?"
With her hand she's covering her chest...
But the distance is black and on fire -
Cannot leave, can't breathe and cannot stand...
And then once - with agony unfathomed -
The light circle of the face lights up...
And above them - symbolism of freedom -
A sharp-beaked vulture eats a calf...
But the artist, behind curtain, greets them
With the cross of thought that cannot rest,
And proclaims: "Profani, procul ite:
We're forgotten, alone on this earth.
Let's sit quietly in the warmth.
In this warm corner of the room
Let us look at October storm.
Through the window, just like then, flames.
My good friend, you and I are old men.
All that was both a storm and a curse,
Is behind. Why are you staring forth?
You look, like you want to read
Some new news story. is that it?
You are awaiting the angel of storm?
All is gone. Nothing can be returned.
Only walls, and the books, and the days.
We are accustomed, my dear friend.
Nothing I mourn, nothing wait,
Nor for anything have I regret.
Only, here, you have chosen again
To wind the light into the threads,
Just like then, you remember it when,
Oh, how have been all of these years!
But, when you were were young
And more brightly you took the yarn,
And more quickly then went the hand..
Thus you take it and brightly again,
That the silk, that in needle you pour,
Ran in this bright-colored storm.
My dear friend, and in this quiet home
Fever is beating me in face.
I can't find the place in quiet home
Near the peaceful fireplace.
Voices sing, calling into the snowstorm,
Comfort frightens me...
Even behind your shoulder, my dear girlfriend,
Someone's eyes watch me!
Over your quiet shoulders
I hear beating wings...
Beats at me with eyes that smoulder
Storm's angel - Asrail!
Oh, the spring without edge, without ending -
And the dreams without edge, without end!
Life, I recognize you! I accept you!
And I greet you, ringing my shield!
And I also accept you, failure!
And hello to you too, success!
In the enchanted land of weeping,
In laugh's mystery - no disgrace! I
accept the arguments at nighttime,
Morning in the dark curtains kept,
That my staring inflamed eyes will
Spring annoy, disturb, inebriate!
I accept the sands of the desert
And the bells of the cities of earth!
And lit vastness under the heavens
And the toil of the servile work!
And I meet you right at my doorstep -
With wind in curling hair, snake-like,
With the unfathomed name of creator
On the shivering lips pressing tight...
But before this hostile encounter
I will never throw down my shield...
You will never open my shoulders...
And above us - the drunken dream!
And I look, and I measure the foe,
Hating, swearing, and loving too:
For the death, for the torment - I know -
All the same: I'm accepting you!
For long on bitter earth I had forgotten
Of honor, feats, accomplishments and fame
When on the table luminesced before me
Your lovely face adorned in simple frame.
But time had come, and you had left the house.
I threw the wedding ring into the night.
You gave away your fortune to another,
And your majestic features I forgot.
The days flew, with cursed rumbling circling...
The wine and passion tore my life apart...
And I remembered you before the morning,
And like my youth, I called you from my heart...
I called you, but you did not turn around,
I wept, but you had honored not my plight.
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue coat
And home departed on a misty night.
I know not where, my tender, my beloved,
You found to be the home to your pride.
I'm sleeping soundly, dream of your blue coat,
In which you left me on the misty night...
Now not to dream of tenderness, of glory,
All that is past, the youth has come to end!
Your face adorned in simple frame before me
I took away from table with my hand.
On noisy stage in flowers I dreamt of you,
Calm like the sleep, and like desire insane,
And bent my knees, like conquered one, before you,
And thought: "There's happiness, I'm won again!"
But you, Ophelia, looked at your Hamlet,
Goddess of beauty, With no love nor joy,
And roses poured upon the poor poet
And with the roses poured his dreams away.
And then you passed away, in a pink aura,
With flowers in the hair and on the chest ,
And I stood there in your aroma,
With flowers on the chest, head, and in hands...
Parting with a lady dear
Friend, you promised you will love!
And departing to land chilly
To stay true to this your vow!
There, beyond the happy Denmark
Are cold shores where you will dock
Wave articulate, severe,
Washes tears on the rock...
Your dear warrior won't come back here,
Dressed in silver thoroughly...
Ribbon and black writing feather
Will in coffin darkly heave.
I'll come to temple without order,
Don't call to me.
I'll bend to you with silent forehead
Before your feet.
Orders will come, and I will heed them,
I'll meekly wait,
To catch the moments of the meeting
And wish again.
By power of your passion conquered,
Before it, lame:
Servant at times; at times - the lover;
Forever - slave.
Do not awake, do not bring forth
The soul's preceding inspiration.
I am a lonely son of earth,
You - are a vision luminescent.
Land is deserted, pale is night,
Without motion is the moonlight,
In stars above - the wordless quiet,
Engenderer of fear and silence.
I fathom your victorious form,
I apprehend the voice commanding,
Your visage known to the soul,
But you are calling for me vainly.
Land is deserted, night is pale,
Do not await past charms - and, timeless,
Reflected is within my soul
Engenderer of fear and silence.
Tender and clean
You were near the screen,
You were queen of a noisy crowd.
Forgotten I stood
And, by people hid,
Before you my love I bowed.
It appeared to me
That now and all times
You looked
Without thinking ahead.
And by window below
Like a sea billow
People before you laved.
With a bow proud,
You always appeared
A lonely and powerful dream.
And nobody heard
How your voice sounded
You in silence reigned over them.
Forgotten I stood
And hid by the crowd.
Without thinking you looked ahead,
And tender and clean;
And below, by the screen,
Around me people waved.
Hard is the road.
The rest is in vain.
Evening is lovely.
I knock at the gate.
To the knocking alien and tough
You spread around you the pearls of your love.
Tall is the building, and dusk is frozen.
Beautiful secret at entrance has fallen.
Who at dusk set the building to fire,
What had the queen herself lifted higher?
On battlefield, every horse
Casts the red fire toward your face.
Cupola bursts into turquoise heights.
The blue windows are burning with blush.
All the belltowers hum and ring,
Endless sky is pouring with spring.
Did you me at the sundown await?
Burned the building?
Opened the gate?
I exited. The dusk of winter
Slowly descended on the earth.
The youthful pasts of the days former
From darkness credulously came forth.
Came forth and stood upon the shoulders,
And sang with wind and with the spring...
And with the slow steps I was walking,
Foreseeing in depth eternity...
O, living pasts of days much better!
Under your singing from the deep
The dusks descended on the planet
And rose dreams of eternity!
The wind from far places has carried
The sign of the song of the spring,
It's light and it's deep somewhere,
A bit of the sky can be seen.
In this bottomless azure,
In sunlight of spring coming close,
Wept the storms of the winter,
Were dreaming the dreams of the stars.
Meekly, darkly and deeply
Wept my instrument's strings.
Wind has brought in from the distance
Your bright and luminous songs.
Presently, and full of grace
By the porch of the divine one,
Gorgeous angel I await
With a sword of the good tidings.
Over blessed slave, Creator,
I am presently bending!
Angels come out, O Creator,
With the white and tender wing!
God! O God! Believe my prayer,
In it my whole soul is burned!
Take out from pathetic battle
The exhausted slave of yours!
You are leaving in red darkness,
Into endless circles.
I Hear from far a little answer,
Silent footsteps far away.
Are you near, or did you, fleeting Into distant heights, get lost?
Should I wait a sudden meeting In this silence full of noise?
In the silence sound more loudly
Footsteps that are far away.
Do you weld together soundly
Endless circles with your flame?
The heavenly by reason can't be measured,
The azure heights are hidden from the mind.
Just from afar the cherubs bring their treasures:
Sleep sacred for the chosen of mankind.
And fully Russian Venus I remembered,
As she was in a heavy tunic dressed,
Fearless in purity, unhappy without measure,
A peaceful dream inscribed upon her face.
She came down to the earth not for the first time,
But crowded around her for first time
Not the same warriors, and other nobles,
And enigmatic is light of her deep eyes.
"And heavy sleep of living consciousness
Longing and loving, you will shake off" -
Vladimir Solovyev I intuit you. Passing by are years -
I intuit you in single cloud above.
Horizon is aflame - unbearably clear,
I wait in silence - you I miss and you I love.
Horizon is aflame, and near is coming,
But I'm afraid: You'll alter your visage
, And you'll awaken daring despisal,
Changing features familiar at last.
How I will fall - and sorrofwul, and low,
The dreams of death not having overcome!
How clear is the horizon! And the aura Is near.
But this I fear: You'll alter your visage.
Behind fog and forests hiding,
It will light - and disappear.
Through the misty fields
I'm riding It will shine anew from far.
Thus by the wandering fires
Behind river, late at night,
Over sadness-stricken meadows
You and I had used to meet.
But at night there is no answer,
In the chestnut you would hide,
From afar again you lure
Bearing off the source of light.
Today you walked all day alone,
Your miracles I could not see.
There, over your tall mountain
A forest spreaded toothily.
This forest, tightly joined together,
And mountain roads through the blue
From blending with unknown kept you
From blooming with your azure too.
I wait the order, I wait the answer,
The sky grows numb, the earth is silent,
Past yellow field - far-off somewhere,
My destiny wakes up for a moment.
And from the answers of far-off river,
From the night sky, from the fields sleepy,
Remembered secrets of coming meeting,
Of meetings clear, of meetings fleeting.
I wait - and new muttering begins, and
The sky is clearer, the silence duller...
The word will shatter the nightly secret...
Forgive the night souls, Heavenly Father!
For moment behind the fields, somewhere,
My destiny echoes from the distance.
I wait the order, I wait the answer,
But persists strangely the planet's silence...
Twilight, twilight of springtime,
Cold water at my feet,
Alien dreams in my bosom,
Waves encroach on the beach.
A far-off song, ringing,
I can't tell apart any more.
The lonely soul is weeping,
There, on the other shore.
Is my secret fulfilling,
Are you calling me from afar?
Boat is diving and swinging,
Something runs on the river.
Alien hopes in the heart, and
I run as someone comes fore...
Springtime reflections and twilight,
Shouts on the other shore...
You are burning above a tall mountain,
Unapproachable in your home.
I will hurry to you in the evening,
In enchantment embracing the dream.
You, hearing me from afar, will
Light up at night your bonfire.
I will understand the game fiery,
Being obedient to Fate's desire.
And, when in the midst of the darkness
Sparks will circle in smoke's fumes,
I will burst with the fiery circles
And will reach you inside your home.
I'll awake on a foggy morning,
Sun will hit me on my face.
Are you, my longed-for girlfriend,
Meeting me in my place?
Open the heavy gateway!
Through window beats the gale!
Songs so unusually heavy
For long were not given away!
With them are the foggy morning,
Sun and the wind in my face!
With them my longed-for girlfriend
Is coming up to my place.
The faithless shadows of the day are running.
High and imposing is the ringing of the bells.
The stairs of the church are bathed in sunlight,
Their stone - alive and waiting for your steps.
Here you will pass, and touch the chilly stone,
Dressed in the fearful saintness of the age,
And maybe you will drop the flowers of springtime
Before the austere icons, in this haze.
Growing incongruously are the pink shadows,
High and imposing is the ringing of the bells.
The haze is falling on the aged stairs...
I am alit - and waiting for your steps.
And we will wonder not for long time
At feasts that are here in this place:
Before us mysteries will be solved and
The distant worlds will luminesce.
I trust in the sun of the covenant,
I see many dawns ahead.
I await the light of the universe
From the spring of the land.
All that had breathed with falseness
Tremblingly, fell away.
Ahead of me - is the roadless,
Is the golden land.
I am walking past the groves
Of lilies promised to me.
In sky above me repose
Multiple angels' wings.
Trembling are streams each moment
Of the unreachable light.
I trust in sun of the covenant,
I see into your eyes.
For the whole day before me,
Full of youth and full of gold,
With the brightest sunshine poured,
In bright countenance you walked.
Thus, with distant, dear one, blending,
Day of springtime I had spent
And to meet illumined shadow
I was walking, no more sad.
Cleanly there you were walking.
Day of all the happy dreams -
O, arise then right before me
Not just in imagined realms!
I had been slowly going mad
At door of her for whom I'm thirsting.
Darkness had followed the spring day
And only fomented the thirst's flames.
With passion tormented, I wept,
And mournfuly the moans kept in me
Doubled and shimmered in my chest
The sick and crazy thought within me.
And into silence of my soul
Already mad, it then appeared
And poured upon the spring in me
A black and silent wave of fear.
Darkness had followed the spring day,
The heart grew cold over the graveyard.
I had been slowly going mad,
Coldly was thinking of my loved one.
I am a trembling beast. Alighted
By rays, the dreams are swerved from path.
The depths that I possess are nothing
When they're compared to your depths.
You know not, which aim, which endeavor,
You hide in deepness of Your Rose,
Which angels have been flying together
Who has grown quiet at the doors...
In you are melting in awaiting
The darkness angry and great light -
Solution to all conscious meaning
And a delirium of great mind.
I was meeting you at the sundown,
With an oar you were cutting the tide.
Your white dress I loved, having
Lost the love for the dream rarefied.
Enigmatic were Wordless meetings
And ahead - on a sandy point -
Evening candles were being lit, and
Of a pale beauty somebody thought.
Comings near, comings close, being kindled -
Are not welcome to silence azure...
We were meeting in fog of evening,
Where there's chestnut and !!!grass!!! on the shore.
No more angst, no more love, no hard feelings,
All has dimmed, all is gone, all no more...
The white flock and the voices of fleeing
Geese above us, and your golden oar...
The fog covered you densely
And weak was the voice itself.
I understand these deceptions,
I remember, obedient slave.
Wedded you were by a crown
Of sunrise-born wonders.
I remember the stairs of the throne
And first strict trial of yours.
Such here are the white dresses!
Such the strange quietude!
And embraces of lilies,
And thoughtlessly you look...
Who knows where it has happened?
Where had the star fallen down?
Which words was she burning,
Had you spoken then?
But how could I not remember
The white flower on the river
And these pallid dresses,
And the strange and white stare?
A teenager, I'm lighting candles.
The lighter I will keep in store.
She is without thought or speech and
She's laughing on the other shore.
And I adore the nighttime prayer
At the white church river across,
And the pre-sundown village there
And hazy-bluish sunset dusk.
Obedient to the tender stare,
I savor secret beauty as
I throw white flowers over there,
Across the church's gate and fence.
Falls down on me the cover foggy,
The groom from altar will descend
And from the top of toothy forests
Will ring the dawn of wedding day.
I am young, I am fresh, I'm in love,
I'm in worry, in angst and in prayer
Loyally to you I bow,
As a greening mysterious maple.
The warm wind will be bathing my leaves -
The trunk will shake from the prayers;
As it looks toward the stars, on the face
Will fall redolent tears of praises.
You will come under the wide crown
Upon these days pale and sleepy
I will look on the dear attire,
In green shadows I will be dreaming.
You are one, and in love, and with me,
I will whisper mysterious dreamings,
Before night - with the angst, and with thee,
I am with you, a maple greening...
She is both tall and in great shape,
All times severe, conceited lady.
On every day from far away
I follow her, for all things ready.
I knew the hours, when she'll descend
And with her - rickety reflection.
And playing hide-and-seek
I ran past her like story villain.
Shimmered the yellow fires, and
Electric candles also lit, and
He was encountering her in shade,
I followed them and sang their meeting.
When, suddenly offended, they
Intuited of something coming,
The blind, invisible, dark gates
Hid me in unseen depths behind them.
And, being invisible to all,
Following the man's rough profile,
I've seen Her silvery-and-blackish fur
And lips to him whispering something.
I had adored the tender talk,
I had sought the mysterious garlands.
And, being barely awake,
I made noise like a playing child does.
But, in the morning having left
For meadows, chanting songs unspeechly,
I knew you, my eternal friend
I knew you, sacred Virgin Lady.
I knew then, as a thoughful poet,
That not one genius ever saw it:
Your freedom, like an order made
For my involuntary service.
Non-speaking shadow in the home,
I am black slave of blood accursed.
Inside of her untouched alcove
The semi-darkness I'm observing.
And I am guarding all her keys,
Invisibly I do attend her,
When swords are crossing in the field
Over the beauty unattainable.
My voice is dumb. my hair is grey.
Demons are terribly immobile.
In all my life - one order made:
To serve the Unattainable...
I enter into dark temples,
Humble rites I perform.
By shimmer of red oil lamps
I wait for the Beautiful Dame.
In shadow by the tall column
I shiver from screeching of doors.
And into my face stares, illumined,
But the icon, but dreams of her.
Oh, how I'm used to this service
Of Eternal Magnificent Dame!
Running around the walls are
Smiles, fairy tales and dreams.
O Holy, how dear are the candles,
How joyful your features too!
I hear neither sighs nor speeches,
But trust: My Beloved - is You.
You're sacred, but I do not believe in
You, and for a long time this I know:
The day will come to earth, and doors will open,
And white procession far away will go.
And the unearthly masks of people's faces
Will be horrific, undescribable...
And I will call to you that time, "Hosanna"
Just like a madman, falling on the ground.
And then, arising higher than the ceiling,
You'll open the\Luminous Altar's door.
And, fully free at last from earthly prison,
In final scream all my life I will pour.
Of meeting you I am frightened,
More frightened I am not to meet.
To wonder at all things I've started,
On all things a brand I have put.
On street the shadows are walking,
I cannot say - live or dead.
To the church staircase leaning,
I am afraid to look back.
People put hands on my shoulders,
But I don't remember the names.
Resounds the noise in my ears
Of recent funeral days.
And the dark sky is low -
It covers the sounds everywhere.
I know: You are here. You're close.
You are not here. You - are there.
The houses are growing like wishes.
But suddenly you look back:
There, where there was a white building,
You will see haze and black.
Thus all things are trading places,
Upwards they flee/all the time.
You, Orpheus, lost your fiancee,
Who whispered to you, "Look behind"?
I will drape your head in white, and
I'll shout and will jump in the stream.
And will float, will rock o'er my carcass
A redolent river bloom.
And in the presence of the St. John's icon
I kept the light of lamps - immobile guard.
And here - is She, and near Her - my Hosannah -
Garland of works - higher than all awards.
I hid my face, years after years were passing,
In Service many years I had been.
And window frame with light of rays alighted,
She gave to me the Answer of the Queen.
Here I had kept and melted candles all alone.
One of them - prophet - trembled in the smoke.
And on One (???) Day - in Meeting, just one person -
I did not share these Meetings with a soul.
I stand at the power, alone in my soul,
The ruler of eartly beauty.
You, the night flower with passion full,
Have loved my demons fully.
Bending low at my work, you are sad,
My delicate spring flower.
Here heart is close, but there ahead
There's no solution to life's riddle.
And, with much power, I count, as if
Having aged, I guess and steal again,
How I conflate with passionate life
You, love, while being a wise king?
Yesterday he much to me whispered,
Whispered things terrible, terrible...
On a sad road he departed,
And I forgot yesterday -
Forgot yesterday.
Was it yesterday - was it long before it?
He is so silent, for what reason?
I did not find yesterday lilies in the field,
I did not look for the weeping willow -
The weeping willow.
Ah, long ago! With me, with me
They spoke - and they kissed me...
And I don't remember, I'll conceal
Of what the shores whispered -
The shores whispered.
I saw in each speck of dust
The dear face scariest...
He left along that path,
Where the preceding ones passed -
The preceding ones passed...
I got comfy in the field alone,
And there was no more sadness.
Yesterday it was - long ago?
They spoke with me and covered with kisses,
Covered with kisses.
The queen was looking at icons -
Letters from gilded red.
She was lighting up lamps and
To Humble Virgin prayed.
Blue evenings of the Queen passed
Over the Holy Writ.
And white birds from the blue heights
Toward the Princess took flight.
The Princess was spreading grain, and
Glimmered the feathers white.
The doves were peacefully gargling
Under the door ornate.
Redder than Queen is the Princess -
The Queen, looking for truth.
Golden and red numbers
Are on every page in the book.
The cloud has opened highly,
And the dove's book fell down.
A gargling bird from an azure eye
Flew toward the Queen.
It's tortuorous and sweet for the Queen -
The Queen-Bride, just like the lamp.
The Princess has blue mysteries -
Icons golden and red.
Bow, queen, before the Princess -
Golden-haired Princess
Hailing from your ancient depth -
Wise dove's meekness.
Queen, you're strong with your depth
In your book the pages are golden.
And the Bride with mere innocence
Will pray for your numbers, Queen.
The stairs have gone red and get dimmer.
"I'm coming," you said yourself.
At entrance into dusk of prayer
I've opened my heart - I wait.
What I will tell you - I don't know.
Perhaps from joy I will die.
But with the evening light burning,
I will call you to the fire.
The red flame is blooming greater.
Unexpectedly dreams come to light.
You wait. Over us, over temple -
Is unending depth and height.
I was looking for the blue road
And shouted, deafened by throng,
Coming up to the porch made of gold
Went quiet before Your door.
Beautiful, strict and quiet, you entered
Into the far-away halls
I was carrying behind You a blanket,
And was looking at Your pearl...
The halls have darkened and dimmed.
The window screen has gone black.
Vassals whispered by gates to the room,
"The Queen, the Queen is sick."
And the king, having knitted his brows,
Without pages or servants passed.
And in each spoken word
They caught the angel of death.
By the door of the quieted bedroom
I cried, as the ring I pressed.
There - at the end of far-away gallery
Someone spoke, hiding his face.
At Incomparable Lady's gate
I wept, in a blue coat dressed.
And, rocking, spoke the same -
The stranger with a pale face.
By forgotten gravestones grass was coming up,
We've forgotten the evenings... the words we forgot...
And around us all was quiet...
With this death of the gone, of ones burned up inside,
Are you not alive? Are you not light?
Is it not spring in your heart?
Only here to breathe, at the stone of the tomb,
Where I had composed tender songs at some time
About meeting, it may be, with You...
Where into my features composed of wax
You had first with a life far removed from me fanned,
With the gravestone grass shooting through...
Violin whines under the mountain.
Evening's long in sleepy park.
Evening's long - the Innocent Likeness,
Of the girl with me, so like.
The untiring violin's whining
Is to me commanding: "Live..."
And the likeness of my loved one -
Story of a tender love.
She was fifteen years old. But true to beating
Of heart - she could not be my fiancee.
When I offered my hand to her, laughing,
She also laughed and then went far away.
This took place long ago. From those times were passing
The years and the times known to nobody.
We rarely were meeting and rarely were speaking,
But deep were the silences between her and me.
And on winter night, true to the night dream,
I exited halls crowded and bright,
Where choking masks smiled at the singing,
Where I could greedily follow her eyes.
And then she left behind me, obedient,
Herself not knowing, what in moment will come.
And the city night saw, black and invidious,
How have passed and have hidden: The bride and the groom.
And on a day frosty, red, full of sunlight -
We met in the temple - in a deep quiet:
We understood, that clear were days silent,
And that what had happened - happened in height.
With this story of searches, long and yet blissful,
My soul is full, the labor of spring.
From all of these songs I created a building
And songs other - at some other time I will sing.
The harbor's silent. Near is the land.
I see no land. Deep is the night here.
On grey and wet boarding I stand.
Wearing grey curls, the storm is laughing.
And I hear, I hear, almost screaming:
"Bring the candle on stone to the sea!
When the wife's shuttle boat is near,
Saved together she and I will be!"
And scary, and heavy in the sea sand
Beat the waves, the grey-haired waves they send...
She is far away. No answer is here.
Accursed sea, give me the answer!
Far away, there, stone! Place candle there!
And I do not know, if I am the screamer.
When I will leave to rest from the times,
Away from the slander and from the praise,
You will remember the tenderness, that tender dream,
With which I blossomed and breathed.
I know you will not recall, my one Light,
The evil that was beating in me.
When you approached, elegant, white,
Like a swan, the depth of me.
I did not anger your proud laziness -
That strength of him, alien.
The cold cloud was ruining my day -
Your day was lighter than mine.
You will remember, when I leave to rest,
I'll vanish behind the mark blue -
Only one song, which I with you sang,
That after me repeated you.
My beloved, my knight, my groom,
In the blooming meadow you're sad,
Among golden fields with red bloom
On the other shore I began.
I am catching your dreams in flight
With a flower pale-white and transparent,
You will mangle me in full light
Like a tired white-chested stallion.
Ah, on my immortality stomp -
I will keep the fire in your name.
I will light in the paleness of dawn
The church candle's humble flame.
You will stand in the church, pale in face,
And will come to the queen heavenly -
Trembling with the flame made of wax,
That dames sense the familiar trembling...
Like a candle I'm quiet over you,
Before you - like a flower - I am tender.
I am waiting for you, my groom,
Still your bride - and your wife forever.
We stand guard before the gateway
As eternal slaves
Fiercely we trust, heights we measure,
Wait for pipe always.
Always - next day.
By the grating
Every day and hour
Lures to bed the voice well-measured
Of just one of us.
Air is full of people sighing,
Of hopes thundering.
Height is burning from disjoining
Of the inflamed dreams.
The pink angel will command and
Will say, "Here is she:
Lowers the thresher, weaves in threads now
The eternal spring."
On bright moment we'll hear rumbling
Of storms passing by
Silently we'll weave the arms round,
Into blue we'll fly.
Untrue, yes untrue:
I'm in love with the storm,
Strong wind, carrying leaves,
I love you,
And in my last hour, in hour I'm interred,
I'll stand up from the grave, be like you!
I fear not you, my little boy, hurricane
! Nor fear you, winter, my old babe!
I fear unexpectedly prickling wounds..
Thus may wound - but her... but her self.
Herself - and unreachably shy in her soul,
And unmeasuredly white in her face
But she'll kill even you, days of old,
And no one will know, that storm has taken place.
Here it is - row of coffin steps.
And between us - no one. We are it.
Sleep, you tender companion of days
That the previous rays once alit.
In a white coffin you here rest,
With a smile you are calling: Don't wake.
On the forehead, are golden braids.
Golden icon upon the chest.
I have celebrated luminous death,
Having touched to the waxen hand.
And the bottomless sky has the rest
Interred in a turquoise haze.
Sleep - no one will disturb your respite.
We - are edge of unknown roads.
Through the whole inclement night
Here illumines the promised abode.
Top [Entrance]
The white stallion steps with a tired leg,
Where the infinite mist has lain.
To me, quicksand of swamp - is the promised rest:
Be my night's rest, the earthly haze!
Sails above me are lain as with your red band,
Thorn bush beats into my horse's legs,
On the mountain tirelessly voices sing
About greatness of your sunset.
You have set on the earth with your groom deceased,
Executioner of heated land,
But through firs your last ray is familiar to me,
Sleeps your silence from far away.
I'm with you - for all times,
I will never leave,
And will give back to you autumn will.
In these pools the quiescent water sleeps
Closing gates to the crazy springs.
O, the Mistress of Days!
With your ruddy band
You have circled the sky azure-white!
I know I sense the tenderness of my girlfriend -
Swamps' antiquity lit up at night.
They sit with their dad by the window,
On shore the birds fly in packs.
"Rain, rain! Pour down on us now!
I have an umbrella with a stick!"
"There's spring. And you - winter's prisoner,
Poor girl in a pink canoply...
You see: sea foams behind windows?
We'll fly with you, girl, past the sea."
"And is mom behind the sea?" "No."
"And where is mom?" "Dead"
"What does that mean?"
"It means: There the dumb poet goes:
Of something he always weeps."
"Of what?" "Of pink canoply"
"So he does not have a mom?"
"He does. Only he does not
Care: He wants the sea
Where lives the Magnificent Dame."
"And is this Dame kind?"
"Yes."
"So why does not she come here?"
"She will not come ever, as
She does not ride on the ship."
It became dark,
Father and daughter ended their talk.
In the far-away blue bedroom
Your dear child was sleeping tight.
Quietly climbed out little dwarf and
Stopped the clock within the night.
All, as usual. Only eerie
Silence has reigned over all.
And the fog upon your window -
Street strikes fear in one's soul.
As if something has not been said -
Something that rings out always.
And some thread has been unwound
That had counted the years.
And you've passed, my sleepy-white one,
Through the house's rooms alone.
And the bluish window curtain
As though frightened, you let down.
And then after, barely noticed,
You have lifted your thin dress.
And, just like the time, continuous,
Slightly moving, entered haze.
It came quiet in distant bedroom -
A blue twilight and blue calm,
Just because the little dwarf now
Holds the pendulum with his palm.
My dear brother! It is evening,
Bells can barely be heard...
It grew white over the plain - it
Bypassed us, like sleepy-eyed.
She was sailing - then she stopped here
Incognito, close to us.
And again, as in times prior,
Heavy burden fell on us.
Between two walls of the forest
The light snow is falling down.
And before us - Of the burning
Semaphore, the greenish fire.
Sky is filled with violet fire,
Violet fire on snow lies,
As if we - are in new space, and
As if we - are in new times.
Lonely will the bird shout out,
Shaking fir tree with her wings,
And our eyelashes will be covered
By a snowy-white wind.
Far away - the heavy lolling
Knocking of a coming train...
Soon will open before us
Country of the Finnish Bay.
You will know, how in this sea the
Soul of man will become light,
And what ruddy dawns behind the
Chestnut row are burning out.
Coming back, on rug before the
Stove we'll lie comfortably
And of all that we have known we'll
Tell the sister quietly...
We will end. And from the armchair
She will stand, silent and strict.
Then tell everyone:
"Be merry, Snow has fallen on the street."
I love you, the Angel-Keeper in haze.
In haze, that is with me on earth always.
For this: That you were the luminous bride,
For this, that you took the secret I hide,
For this, that we're bound by secret and night,
That you are my sister, my daughter, my bride.
For this, that we've been assigned a long life,
O, even for this that we are - man and wife!
For spells that you make and for my chains.
For this, that above us the family curse stands.
For this, that you do not love what I love.
For this, that of beggars and poor I grieve.
For this, that we cannot live in peace together.
For this, that I want to kill but do not dare -
To take vengeance on small souls, who without fire lived -
Who degraded, belittled my people and me!
Who locked up in prison the strong and the free,
Who long disbelieved in the fire in me.
Who wanted for money to rob me of my days,
To purchase from me the dog-like loyalty.
For this, that I'm weak and am ready for peace,
That my ancestors are generation of slaves,
And with bane of tenderness soul has been killed,
And knife will not be lifted up by this hand...
But I love you even for weakness I harbor,
For your bitter fate and for your power.
What's burned with the fire and poured with lead -
No one will ever tear it to shreds!
With you I was watching this dawn's red glare -
With you into this black abyss I still stare.
And to us both is the order of fate:
We are free souls! We are evil slaves!
Conquer then! Dare! Do not leave! Go away!
Fire or darkness is it - on the way?
Who shouts? Who cries? We are heading where?
Together - inseparable - together forever? Will we resurrect? Die? Disappear?
Thus in inspired, lyrical manner
The queen was singing of the spring.
And I told her, "Look, Empress dear,
You will be weeping over me."
But on my shoulders hands descended,
And, "Do not. Forgive," was said,
"Take up my sword. Be battle-ready.
I will protect you on your path.
Go forth, a young one you'll come home
And to your duty true, my lad.
I will retain my ice and cold,
And shut inside my crystal shed.
And there'll be joy in the long stares,
And quietly the years will pass.
Eternal rustling round the palace
In ditch - water, as clear as glass...
Yes, for late meeting I am ready,
I will extend my arms to greet
You, bearing from the garden
Upon the sharp spear edge the spring."
The distance covered with blue carpet
The castle, towers, you my dear.
Forgive, O Queen. My way is distant.
I'm seeking spring that's set on fire.
We met each other in the temple
In garden of delights we lived,
But to perdition and to labor
We walked through stinking courts and streets.
We have avoided all the gateways
And in each window we have seen
How heavily reposes labor
Upon each bent-down worker's spine.
And then we went, to where we'll now
Reside under a ceiling low,
Where people have cursed one another,
Having been murdered by their toil.
Your dress attempting not to dirty,
You passed those who on the floor slept;
But their night dreams became a curse, see
There - in the corner full of spit.
You turned around, and you were gazing
Into my eyes credulously...
And then a tear inebriated
Shimmered and poured upon my cheek.
No! Happiness - is idle care,
For long has passed us by our youth:
Our time will now be filled by labor:
Hammer - for me, needle - for you.
Sit down and sow, look out the window,
Work rushes people everywhere
And those, to whom it's a bit harder -
These sing long songs without a care.
Near you I will begin now working,
Alas, you will not me remind,
That I have seen glass to the bottom,
Drowning despair in the wine.
And it's your sweet dusk, enamoration, once again. And again, "Forever. Lower your eyes." And the sleeplessness of nights, and fogginess of days, And the birds have flown far away in waves. And for some odd reason thoughtfully Dawn is smiling over snowy plains. And you cover with the snowy wings A tsar leaving for the final rest. Angel, knitting brows wrathfully, Two rays - like two swords - you've crossed in skies. But in rage of ringing, falling steel, Pours and streams to me your beaming smile.
Heart, do you hear Light step Behind? Heart, are you seeing Someone made a secret Sign with their hand? Is it you? Is it you? Snow storms sailed, Froze the moon... Do you drive away? do - Do you condescend - You, beloved one? Over snows endless We will fly! Over foggy seas We will fry! Bird of flurry Dark-winged, Give to me two wings! That with you, my dear, In the silver lunar circle Soul has grown weak! That the fire of burning winter Will burn threatening Cross afar! That will fly as ringing arrow Into black abyss full of stars!
In noise monotonous and ringing,
Amid the city busyness,
I'm leaving, idle in my spirit,
For flurry, darkness, emptiness.
I tear the thread of conscious thinking
And what and how I forgot...
Around me - snow, and trams, and buildings,
Ahead of me - darkness the lights.
What if, I, by all this spellbound,
Tearing the thread of consciousness,
Will come back home as if brought down -
Will ever you forgive me this?
You, knowing thoroughly the lighthouse
Guiding us toward the aim afar,
Will you ever forgive my flurries,
My madness, poetry, and dark?
Or maybe better: not forgiving,
Ring on my bells till I'm awake,
In order that the night's companion
Not lead me from my homeland?
One day on October I ranted,
In fog remembering refrain
(O, moment of hugs uncorrupted!
O, cuddles of unpurchased dames!)
And in the dense fog has appeared
At once the forgotten refrain.
And youth came to me in night dreams, and
You, as if live, here you are...
And I was born by daydreams from
The wind, the rain and the dark...
(Thus early youth comes in dreams and,
You, will you ever come back?)
And suddenly - from the night foggy
Shaking, approaches me
An aging young man (rather strangely,
Didn't he come to me in my dream?),
Approaches me from night foggy
And strides forth directly to me.
And whispers: "I'm tired of shaking,
Of breathing cold fog all the time,
In strangers' mirrors reflecting
And kissing the ladies not mine..."
And to me it seemed, rather strangely,
That I am to meet him again...
At once - he gave a smile cheeky,
And then - nobody near me...
Familiar is this sad image,'
And somewhere I have seen him...
Perhaps, I encountered me
On surface of the mirror?
The day burned out upon the sphere of earth,
Where I was seeking briefer days and pathways.
The lily dusk has fallen in its course.
I am not there. By edge of sliding mountains
Sliding, I'll come by path of unseen night.
Familiar Hell stares in my empty eyes.
I Was thrown upon the earth into a bright
Ball, and in a wild dance of mask and disguise
Friendship I lost and love I too forgot.
Where's my companion? Where are you, Beatrice?
I walk alone, forgetting rightful path,
As by a custom, in the underground circles,
So that midst dark and horrors I drown, as
Flood carries corpses of my friends and dames, and
Shimmers somewhere the praying look or breast;
A mercy's scream, or tender shout - barely
Will leave the lips; here the words have died;
Here has been stretched thoughtlessly and vainly
The head with ring of iron pain, and I,
Having once tenderly sang at some time past,
Am an apostate, having spent my rights!
All strive toward an abyss hopeless and vast, I follow.
But right here, above the foam
Of the white-snow stream, in rock's crevasse
Ahead of me is the unending ballroom.
A web of cactuses, and redolence of roses,
In depth of mirrors fragments of the gloom;
Unpresent shimmering of distant mornings
Gilds barely the icon overturned;
And a dull breath upon this silence chokes.
This hall reminds me of the scary world,
Where as in a fairy tale I blindly wandered,
Where I was found by the final ball.
There - masks cognate that have been thrown asunder;
There - is a wife seduced by an old man,
And naughty light found them in loathsome blunder...
But frame of window has been turned to red
Under the cold kiss of the morning; strangely
To pink is turning silence in its stead.
This hour we spend the night in blissful country,
Powerless is here our earthly lie,
I stare then, by the precognition worried,
In mirror's depth through morning fog.
To my Side, from the cobweb of the dark, here
A youth arrives. Flock lingers in the sky;
Color of dying rose in coat's collar
Paler than lips upon a corpse's face;
As sign of secret wedding on the finger
Shimmers the ring's sharp amethyst;
And I am staring with unfathomed turmoil
Into the features of his pallid face
And ask with a voice barely audible:
"Tell me, must you be tortured wherefore
And wander through the circles unreturnable?"
Features refined into torment were thrown;
Greedily gulps the air the incensed throat
And from the void the voice speaks in its turn: "Know:
I am thrown into unending torment
For this, that on the sorrowful planet earth
I was under the yoke of passion joyless,
And barely is our town in darkness dressed -
I'm tortured by the wave of mad refrain, and
With mark of crime upon my forehead forced
As though a fallen and a humbled maiden,
In joy of wine I seek oblivion...
Then beats the hour of an avenging rage, and
From out the depths of an unknown night dream
Unheralded, unseen, a wife amazing
Has blinded, splashed, and shined in front of me!
In evening ringing of the fragile vessel,
In drunken fog for moment having met
With her alone, the one who scorned caresses,
The first appearance I had attained!
I sank my glances straight into her temples!
A scream of passion out of me I let!
This moment came thus, quick and unwaited.
Dense was the dark, and evening dressed in mist.
And meteors in the sky were strangely standing.
And drenched in blood was this same amethyst.
And I drank blood from her redolent shoulders,
And drink was dense and powerful and thick...
But do not put to pen mysterious stories
Of how long lasted this dream undiscerned...
From night's abysses and from canyons foggy
Funereal ringing flew to me and her;
Whistling, flew over us the tongue of fire
The uselessness of interrupted times to burn!
And us, with giant chains bound together,
Another gust lured into underworld!
And it is given to feel pain, the world remember,
Centenially bound with deaf dreams, to her,
When, as night falls, to her silken shoulders
Bends down the sorrow-ridden vampire!
But it's my fate - can I call it of horror?
At once the sunrise, sick as well as cold,
Will fill the Hell with an unneeded fire,
The duty to complete from hall to hall,
Chased by the angst of passion undirected -
Thus suffer and remember, poet: So
I'm fated in the far gloom of the bedroom,
Where she sleeps, breathing hotly, full of life,
To bend over her, lovingly and sadly,
And in white shoulder to submerge my knife!"
Count with happiness worldly is over,
Do not tease, comfort that came too late.
These heart-wrenching notes everywhere
Guard and into the desert call.
Life is bottomless, homeless, empty,
Yes, I believed this since that time
When with my beloved lilac sang to me
Engine that flew through the night.
Grey-headed came down
In spring on the pale city.
A car with a ringing horn
Sang across the distance.
Look through the window pale,
Pressing to the glass tightly....
Look. Old is your betrayal,
Irreversible, final.
March's tangy smell reached the circles lunar,
Sand rustled beneath melting snow on the street.
My city melted in a wet flurry,
A lover wept at somebody's feet.
You were superstitiously to me pressing,
And through horse's snoring, it seemed to me,
Hungarian dance in the heaven's blackness
Was ringing, crying, and teasing me.
And insane wind, rushing through the distance,
Desired to burn out my soul,
Throwing your vial into my face, and
Was singing of the days of old...
And suddenly - you, distant, another,
Said with the lightning in your eyes:
"And thus the soul, on its final pathway,
Is madly crying of days gone by."
It was an autumn evening.
To the rainfall's sound
A tortuous question
I attempted to resolve
When into my room, giant and fogged over,
Entered a gentleman.
Behind him - shaggy dog.
On armchair by the fire the guest sat, looking tired,
And dog lay down at his feet on the floor.
Politely said the guest: "Do you not have enough now?
It's time with genius of fate to make peace, Sir."
"In old age - then return the youth and does the fire" -
Thus started I - but interrupts he stubbornly:
"She - is the same. Insane Edgar's Lenore.
There's no return. I've said what I have had to say."
And strangely: Life was thus - with storm, delight, and hellfire
And here - on evening hour - with stranger next to me
Under his businesslike and calming stare,
Simpler life seemed than I had ever thought it'd be.
The gentleman departed. But the dog's still with me,
Looking at me with kindness on a bitter hour,
Putting his tight paw on my knee, insisting
As if to say to me, "It's time to make peace, Sir."
Well, what then?
Exhaustedly the weak arms have folded,
And the eternity has stared into the sunken eyes,
And torments calmed down.
And if there were higher torments -
What for? I sense the sad wandering of the night.
he sun's path, ordered the circle to path, has gone down.
Open my books: It says there what will be.
Yes, I was prophet, while this heart of mine was in prayer
It prayed and it sang you, but you are not a queen.
I will not be king: You did not share the dream of power.
I will not be slave: You did not want power over world.
Here is the new burden: While grave will not uncover
Events in their essence - without meaningful deeds, pull along....
No, I am - man. And, of my fallen state being cognizant,
I won't turn off the alarm: It is stronger than all.
Envy for home, in alarm my heart bearing,
Mutters insistently: "What you must do, do it fast."
Demons speak: Go sin, while you are being worried
By your innocent, harmless sins,
And while your sinful poems
Enchant your own beauty queen.
For consolation and for fun
Go drink your wine just as you do
While you continue to like wine
While it's not tiresome to you.
And when the bold eyes would flash - then
You will not turn their light away,
To sins, to wine, to night of passion
Whispering promised "amen."
It's all the same so - the enchantment
Will pass, and in the insane hour
You, in the never-arrived confession,
Will think to curse at us, the poor.
And you will fall - but as a crowd
We, just like angels, are all clean,
We'll catch you, so that with your foot
You will not impale on the stone...
Death speaks: When overpowered the worry
And from despair he came insane,
Forgot he to give God the glory
And sinful songs to sing began.
But, by the rush having been savaged,
Discerned he, and turbulent stream
Of visions former, a strange image
Chased after him at such a time.
Exhausted he became - and early
Heat of his youth grew cold - and thus
A rush of recollections holy
Stands slowly before his eyes.
No longer he believes in aught, and
He seeks but to deceive himself
To door of my blessed abode
Weakly he's looking for the path.
From him to praise the Lord, enough is -
He's not a voice, he is a moan.
I'll open door. May be a little
He will be tormented some more.
She, just like formerly, had wanted
To breathe the breath from her mouth
Into my torture-ridden body,
Into my chilly little house.
Just like the sky, she stood above me,
And I could not in front of her
Move the big arm of mine to greet her,
To say that I've been missing her...
I looked, eyes glazing over, dimly,
As over me she grieved in trance,
And there were not again between us
Insults, or words, or happiness.
The earthly heart had gotten tired
Thus many years, thus many days...
Upon its rabid troika tarried
The lure of earthly happiness!
I'm deadly ill, we see at last, and
As someone else I breathe and rue,
I'm happy now of a sunset
And endless night I do not fear...
Eternity looked in my eyes, and
Brought down upon the heart a peace.
With chilly mist of the blue night it
Put out the bonfire of distress.
Night - like night, street's deserted.
As always.
For whom were you so haughty
And guiltless?
As wet raindrops fall from the carriage
So do I Seek to throw an angry challenge
To the sky. Everyone in the world knows:
Happiness - There's none;
And for what time am I
Holding in my hands a shotgun?
And for what time do they live in the world,
Laugh and cry? Day - like day;
Problem has been solved:
All will die.
I today don't remember what happened last night,
In the morning the evenings I tend to forget,
In white day I forget the fires,
I forget the day during nights.
But all nights and all days swim to us now,
Before death in the triumphant hour.
And then - in choking, in teeming -
It's too painful to dream
Of white beauty
And you can't:
You want to rise -
And it's night.
When I was first able to see, in
To meet the thirst of dream at night,
Alighted rays of sun at dawn and
Angel, with trumpet, in the height.
But life, a desert, in a hurry,
This glorious triumph won't esteem,
With toothless laughter she marauded
All that was promised by the dream.
The angel's trumpets all felt silent,
Silent remains the daily night.
Return to me, life, toothless laughter
So that in silence I won't die!
Useless had gone a day of springtime
Next to a window smeared with dirt:
Angstful behind the wall, and singing,
Was my wife, as though a trapped bird.
I, without passion, without hurry,
Recalled memories and things done;
And it was mercilessly clear:
The life is finished; life is gone.
Still will return the thoughts and quarrels,
But boring, dark it will be all:
For what on windows fall the curtains?
Day's long burned out within the soul.
Alone in the room you sit.
You hear this?
I know: you do not now sleep...
You breathe and don't breathe.
Why has light burned behind the door?
Don't fear so!
I am your long forgotten hour,
I knock - open now.
I know, you're again in rage,
Mutinous anger!
I'll come to you in any case,
Friend old and tender.
Do not fear me to recall:
You were young then...
Your cheeks were bit by autumn chill
Upon white stallion!
And there, there you did fly -
In amber sundown -
Did you know then, unwise,
Your poor way home?
Now you are wise: don't interrupt -
In fight, what sense?
And you remember your first love
And dawns, dawns, dawns?
Why are you bending with your face
So low?
Wind in the window - pipes of death
So be consoled.
Open, answer my question now:
Was your day bright?
I've brought you the king's sofa
As a gift.
The ring of Beingness is tight:
As all the roads to Rome lead,
Then it is known to us at first
What we will slavishly repeat.
And to me, like to all, same outcome
Is shimmering in the future's haze:
Again - to love Her in the heaven
And to betray her on the Earth.
How'd it happened, how'd it happened?
I was small, and weak, and poor.
But some secrets the Almighty
To Eternity had opened,
And I saw the High and True.
An unworthy servant, having
Not kept treasures given to me,
I was king, guard accidental.
And the monsters' image savage
Had been flying over me.
I have tamed with charming falsehood
Others who have gone before.
But we can't count foe's power!
With a vengeance, like a hedgehog,
All the others in there crawled.
And, abandoning the guard post,
I went to the foe at night.
Night was smoking like a bonfire.
And into the foggy distance
Lured me the blinding eyes.
Like a young god, fallen angel,
In the crowd I was received.
Like inhabitant of heaven,
As I entered their palace
I was noticed by the queen.
In that palace, which in ashes
Had been found on the earth.
But Avenger was not dreaming:
His Appearance was light, raging,
In these nights upon the rock.
In my eyes the sunlight glared,
And it was my boring day.
Only the wing's rattle sounded,
Someone past me into heaven
Entered, like a wrathful shade.
There was a prolonged anguish.
And I thought: There won't be day.
Promises, assurance, vows,
Thoughtless madness, flight impassioned,
All these had been reaching me.
But, chased home by my despair,
Life had vanished - suddenly
The day cruel, the day iron -
Around me, immune to prayer,
Came to be the closed ring.
There's no end and no beginning,
Steel and steel - no way to flee.
And as with a useless desert
The poor soul was imprisoned
By distance, loved formerly.
And I am not shy before you,
Look at me, see as I am:
I stand in the midst of fires,
Being eaten by the burning
Primordial bonfire's flames. Where are you?
Don't wait for anguish.
You, like me, don't wait for stars.
Come to me, comrade my dear,
That the earth's unhappy labors
Between us we will share.
They do not sleep, trade, or remember
. Above black city, like a wail,
Stands, into the dense nightfall tearing,
A solemn Easter ringing bell.
Over the consciousness of man, who
Had hammered it into the earth,
Over the shame, the death and anguish
It's ringing till it loses strength...
Over the universal nonsense;
Over all things you can't set right;
It still is ringing in fur coat
That you had worn upon that night.
I'm Hamlet. Running cold is blood,
When treason spins webs and ensnares,
And in the heart - is the first love
Alive - for just one anywhere.
You, sweet Ophelia my love,
The cold of life took long ago,
And I die, prince, in land my own,
Hammered to death with poisoned stone.
Stranger
In evenings over the restaurants
Wild and unheedful is hot air,
And spirit of the spring entranced
Rules drunken shouts of people there.
Afar, above the drunken alleyway,
Above the bored summer estates,
With gold light luminesces the bakery,
And cries of children resonate.
And every even, beyond the railway gates,
Bending their collars as they walk,
Among the ditches, holding ladies' hands,
Experienced jokesters stroll along.
Above the lake screech many engines, and
The women's shouts resound with verve
And in the heavens, used to everything,
The disk of moon mindlessly curves.
And every evening, my friend singular
From sides of glass reflects at me
With dampness hardy and mysterious,
Resigned and deafened just like me.
And by the tables that are next to me
Linger the lackeys through the night,
"In vino veritas" shout happily
The drunkards with the rabbits' eyes.
And every even, in assigned hour,
(Or is this just my dream?) a flock
Of ladies, in silk covered,
Strides past the window through the fog.
And slowly, passing by the drunkards and
Accompanied by none, alone,
Perfume and spring fog emanating
By side of window she sits down.
And with the ancient creeds are blowing
Her tight and incandescent silks,
And hat with feathers funereal, and
A slender arm covered with rings.
And, spellbound with a strange closeness,
I gaze on her dark jewelry
And I see the enchanted coast, and
Enchanted distance too I see.
To me entrusted are deep secrets all,
In my trust is somebody's sun,
And all the facets of my soul
Sharp wine has pierced all as one.
And the bent feathers of an ostrich are
Swinging in my mind, duly bent,
And bottomless blue eyes from far
Away bloom on the distant land.
There is a treasure in my soul, and
The key is given just to me!
You are correct, you drunken monster, lad!
I see: In wine, there's verity!
******
The ladies there are flaunting fashion, and
Each student there makes wisecracks -
Above bored dachas, and the gardens, and
Above the dust of sunny lakes.
There with red fingers they are luring
And then the evanescent dawn
Above the dust-encrusted terminals
Awakes suburban summer homes.
There, where with boredom I am tormented,
Once in a while she comes to me -
Shamelessly luring and magnificent,
With pride instilling modesty.
Beyond the thick and brimming beer mugs
Beyond the sleep of daily grind
Shines and is visible her jewelry,
Her eyes and features much refined
What am I waiting for, enchanted by
My star of happiness, anew,
And also deafened and discomfited
By wine, by dawn, and also you?
Breathing the ancient creeds' material
And with the blackest silks entwined
Under the helmet with funereal
Feathers, are you too deaf with wine?
Among this lowliness incredible,
Say, what am I to do with you -
The one unique and unattainable,
Like evening that with smoke is blue?