Ears stretch sensitive sails (Mandelstam/Kline)

«Ears stretch sensitive sails…» автор Osip Mandelstam (1891—1938), transl. A. S. Kline (b. 1947)

Источник: www.poetryintranslation.com • In Russian: «Слух чуткий парус напрягает…». First printed in "Severnye zapiski", 1913 with different 1st stanza. In its full version in O. Mandelstam: Stikhotvorenia, L.—M., GIZ, 1928. From Stone. See also Poems. Translated from Russian.

(список редакций)

* * *

Ears stretch sensitive sails,
dilated eyes lose fire,
over the silence swims
the night-birds’ soundless choir.

I’m poor as things natural,
as simple as the sky,
my freedom spectral
as the night-birds’ cry.

 I see the moon, un-breathing,
a sky dead as canvas:
your world, strange and sickening,
I welcome, Emptiness!

1910, 1922(?)

Notes

© A. S. Kline, translation. Can be reproduced if non-commercial.

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