Aleksandr Blok — Artist

In sultry summers, or in snows,

In days of burials and triumphs,

I wait for unattended rhymes

To chase away my deadly woes.

They come at last. With cold attention

I wait to see and fix and kill

My perspicacious observations

Of their barely noticed trail.

A sea-whirl? Birds in Paradise?

Leaves flutter, or the time collapsed?

The apple blossoms shed their whites?

An Angel lapsed?

Time lingers. World expands.

The noise Grows more. The motion and the light.

The Past probes Future with a lust.

No Present. Present passed.

And, lastly, as my soul revives,

And newly forces set to reign -

The curse has overcome my soul

The Mind has slain.

And in a cage I put my soul,

An airy, amicable thing,

A thing that chased the death away

And tried to save my way.

Here is a cage – of heavy steel,

Looks golden in the evening light

Here is my bird - once it was gay

Swings on a hoop, tonight -

The wings are clipped, the songs are learned;

You stand beneath my window still ?

You like my songs ? While I, exhausted,

Wait for the new - and bored.

Перевод - Виктор Постников