"Osip Mandelstam. Tristia (tranlsation by Ilya Shambat) (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

And then the seashell, fragile, empty,
Just like a heart that beats in vain
You fill with sea foam's whispers plenty,
With fog with wind and with light rain.



x x x

Sight of you, so tormented and broken,
In the fog I knew not to descry.
"Goodness me" by error I had spoken
Thinking not to say this in reply.

Name of god, just like a songbird screaming,
Took a flight right out of my chest.
Straight ahead the fog is densely steaming
And behind me is an empty nest.



x x x

Cold proportions in a damp forest
Sow white light on a summer day
In my heart I am carr! ! ying sadness
A bird grayer than gray.

What to do with a bird that is wounded?
She went silent, then died as well.
From a fogged-over belltower
Someone has stolen the bell.

And here stands the silent
Muted and orphaned height
Like a tower white and empty
In foggy and quiet night.

Morning so endlessly tender
Semi-daylight and semi-sleep
Oblivion is incessant
Thoughts endlessly creep..



x x x

The dusk of autumn -- just like rusted metal
Holds tight the flesh and eats through it like air;
That falls like all temptation and Cresus's capital