He said that you were playing games
But I and you both know better:
Through passion heart on life makes claim
And makes false manacles to shatter

He said that you were playing games,
But I know wicked game he's playing
Which racket without stop or shame
The people played for three millenia:

Of treating you most terribly
Until, in anguish, you be tempted
Or broken; which would prove the lie
That women are to be mistreated -

He said that you were playing games
But I'm not playing; I am willing
To love you and you to defend
Until he stops, or else he kills me.

Let's play this game, this game of life,
Let's play this game while we're still here:
Love cuts like spear - like a knife -
And by it overcome is fear

Let's play, sweet love! In air and sun
And by the ocean iridescent:
You're strong and beautiful and young
And your soul shimmers incandescent

And when the people can espy
This game of love - this game of beauty -
Let their spirits also fly
And see all rackets stand refuted.

In intimacy there exists a line
That can't be crossed by passion or love's art -
In awful silence lips melt into one
And out of love to pieces bursts the heart.

And friendship here is impotent, and years
Of happiness sublime in fire aglow,
When soul is free and does not hear
The dulling of sweet passion, long and slow.

Those who are striving toward it are in fever,
But those that reach it struck with woe that lingers.
Now you have finally fathomed, why forever
Her heart does not beat underneath your fingers.

By Anna Akhmatova
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

The golden tree, The Tree of Life -
Into its shadow I will dive
And feast upon the blessed fruit
Then dig until the very root.
Inside the root I'll find the seed
And share it with the ones in need:
The tattered hearts and spirits torn -
Between the sundown and the morn,
Between the wisdom and the bliss
Is found the fearsome abyss.
In savage light I'll find the day
And wait for love to burn away
Then conjure till the heart of Is
Corrodes and scatters - then the breeze
Will take away the Adam's feast -
As far as west is from the east
Will be the cause and the effect -
Between the impulse and the act
Between the method and the end
Will stand the rainbow. In the land
Of blind, the one-eyed man is king;
A condor with the broken wing
Will feel the presence of the light
To set himself again to flight.
And as light beams through all the earth
Will be dissolved all remorse,
Will be forgotten all the sins -
And condor with the broken wings
Will soar again, and all the blind
Will see with vision of the mind
The one in all, the all in one -
The life-tree blooming in the sun.

By the edge, near the precipice, at the very limit,
I am beating at my horses with my arm, a whiplash in it.
I'm not getting enough air - drinking wind, the fog imbibing,
And I scent with deadly rapture: I am dying, I am dying!

Just a little slower, horses, little slower now!
Do not listen to the taut whip, it is wrong!
But my horses are uncontrollable
I can't live to the end, I can't finish my song.

I will let horses drink - the couplet I will sing
For a little bit more I will stand on the brink...

I will vanish - like a feather by the wind I will be blown,
In the morning they will drag me in the sleigh through the snow,
O my horses, walk some slower, show a bit of moderation
Just a little bit, prolong my way to final destination!

Just a little slower, horses, little slower now!
Do not listen to the taut whip, it is wrong!
But my horses are uncontrollable
I can't live to the end, I can't finish my song.

I will let horses drink - the couplet I will sing
For a little bit more I will stand on the brink...

We've arrived: nobody comes late here to greet the Lord of Heaven -
Then, why do the angels sing with voices evil, voices heavy?
Or the bell would shake from weeping, weeping gently, weeping deeply,
Or I'm shouting to the horses that they do not run so quickly?

Just a little slower, horses, little slower now!
I pray to you don't gallop along!
But my horses are uncontrollable
I can't live to the end, I can't finish my song.

I will let horses drink - the couplet I will sing
For a little bit more I will stand on the brink...

By Vladimir Vysotsky
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

"I Died for Beauty" - Emily Dickinson


I died for beauty – twas my choice

To end my life this way;

In every note of her voice

Was universe at play:


Twas sparkling, shining, shimmering,

Twas elegant and bright,

In it the world was glimmering

As I then held her tight.


I died for beauty – as I did

My lifeforce to her went

And from the shackles it her freed

To live by her intent:


She needed lifeforce to be strong

And then to carry on

With universe to get along

And sing again her song.


I died for beauty, so it lives,

Is by me fertilized,

Shimmers and glimmers and conceives

And is now realized,


And though I died, what it gave birth

Was better than was I,

And now is set upon her course

To grow and multiply.

Elderberry fills the whole garden!
Elderberry is green, green,
Greener, than mold on the vat!
Greener, than summer at the start!
Elderberry - till the end of days!
Elderberry greener than my eyes!

And after - through the night - with the fire
Of Rostov! - it is red in the eyes
From the trill of bubbly elderberry.
Redder than measles on one's own body
In all your times, azure,
Measles that scatters and pours

Of elderberry - till winter, till winter!
That in small berry sweeter
Than poison, what are dissolved paints!
Of red cotton, sealing wax and Hades
Mix, a shimmer of corral beads,
And a taste of baked blood.

Elderberry has been killed, has been killed!
Elderberry the whole hall filled
With blood of young and pure,
With blood of branches of fire -
With the blood most merry -
With blood of heart of you and me...

And later - grain's waterfall will be,
And later - black is elderberry:
With plum something, sticky something.
Over the gate, moaning with violin,
Near the house, which is empty,
Is lonely bush of elderberry.

Elderberry, without mind, without mind,
Of your beads, elderberry, am I!
Steppe - to Mongol, Caucasus - to Georgian will go,
To me - elderberry bush under window
Give. Instead of Arts Palace, only
Give this bush of elderberry.

Newcomers in my country -
From the berry - elderberry,
My ruddy childhood thirst,
From the tree and from the word:
Elderberry (till this day - at nights...),
Poison - sucked in by the eyes...

Elderberry is red, is red!
Elderberry - took the whole land
In its paws. In power, my childhood all.
Something like passion criminal,
Elderberry, between you and me
Century's disease - elderberry

I would call...

By Marina Tsvetayeva
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

INTRODUCTION

The crying queen of Africa!
How long had it been thus?
You, that were queen of Africa,
With face down into dust!

To come from rags, to excellence,
And then brought down again:
Your kindness and intelligence
Shackled with loss and pain!

Passed between many powers
And torn by them to shreds -
They all sought to devour you,
And then they sought you dead -

How could you be so exquisite,
So gentle and so kind,
When you are nearly destitute
And pained in heart and mind?

Surrounded by sorrow,
You kept the light alive -
And on each passing morrow
You rose, and toiled, and strived!

And yet remained benificent,
And generous, and warm,
And looked simply magnificent
Through sunlight and through storm!

And now you’re in the Parliament,
You’ve triumphed over all –
In Tanzanian government
Instilling mind and soul!

Triumphant queen of Africa!
Inspiring to the world!
You are again in Africa -
Now let your voice be heard.

CHILDHOOD

In Africa, in Africa,
On Tanzanian soil,
Was born the queen of Africa
In heat and rain and toil.

The parents taught her from the start
To be ready for life
Be self-sufficient, strong and smart
And when the time arrived

From Africa, from Africa
On double-engine plane
She went - a girl from Africa -
To a great northern land.

She felt lost, but the Russians
Were friendly to her, and
They asked a lot of questions
Till she could understand

That they wanted to know
Her and her world, as such:
And they were giving, though
They said word "nyet" too much.

She met folks from all over
The third and second worlds,
From everywhere and nowhere
Men, women, boys and girls,

She studied many languages
And sciences and arts
Her natural intelligence
Combined with people smarts

Made her a youthful favorite
Within the second world
And she became warm, elegant
And happy as a bird.

Russia's supposed poverty
Was for her giant wealth:
She had possessed no property
But all her needs were met

She studied subjects rigorously
All things to understand
And lived life fully, vigorously,
And gathered many friends.

She gained not only knowledge
But strength and wisdom too
And after going to college
She became dream come true.

SINGLE LIFE IN TANZANIA

To Africa, to Africa
From Russia she arrived.
She went back home to Africa
And started her new life.

In Dar-Es-Salaam she began
A secretarial business
And grew in name and capital -
And still, and nonetheless,

Remained kind, warm and elegant
And pleasant to behold -
And how is this relevant?
Learn once the story's told.

The son of a great president
Nyerere, no one less,
Became her client and he spent
Much money in the press.

And then he asked to marry her
And she said to him, yes.
They married in great ceremony
And all thought they were blessed.

MARRIED LIFE IN TANZANIA

In Africa, in Africa
Nyerere's son and her
Became the talk of Africa
And traveled all the world.

Nyerere loved Leticia
He knew that she was smart
He saw her mind, ambition, and
A girl of his own heart:

And when she had her infant,
Julius she named him.
Two more came out, few years apart -
She still was fit and trim.

She started woman's magazine
That still sells far and wide -
She sought to serve and yet to win:
All that was on her mind -

Beloved in-law she remained,
Africa's jet set queen,
Flying to China, Russia, Spain
And places unforeseen.

And yet the queen was crying
Both outside and within:
The people were not satisfied
No matter what she did,

However much she tried to please
It never was enough.
Oh how could this have come to be?
Why did this happen? How?

She looked outside, folks walking by,
And saw love in their eyes -
Where was the love in her own life?
Why all this darkness? Why?

She tried all things, mistakenly,
And nothing ever worked;
Whatever she gave, was taken, and
Expected of her more

Her mind was cluttered with debris
And arguments and pain;
She never had a day of peace
And so was going insane;

She gave and gave, and strove, and yet
Nobody gave respect;
Despair, guilt, fear and regret
Were screaming in her head;

Nothing would work; nothing was right;
In pain the queen would cry
Whatever she did, still worse it got -
She did not know why.

For thirteen years this went forth -
No matter how she tried,
The agony kept getting worse
And sorrow multiplied:

“Is this my life?” thought crying queen
“This, what life has in store?”
She who began a magazine
And business, and still more?

She wanted peace of heart and thought
To focus on her kids;
She sought to be what she was taught
And to do real deeds;

“Is this my life – entirely –
Is this the end for me?”
Fly, crying queen, across the sea
And then you can be free!

After much agony and fear
At last she did decide
To get her kids and disappear
In middle of the night

Three months before the President died,
Leticia challenged Fates
And took a plane, kids at her side,
To the United States.

LIFE IN UNITED STATES

From Africa, from Africa
Arrives the fallen queen
Carrying warmth of Africa
Still looking like a dream

But now she must herself survive
And for her kids provide.
She must learn how to stay alive
And keep them at her side.

She works as an accountant;
There’s insufficient pay.
She works then for the government
To serve and to protect.

The children mix with druggies,
She changes neighborhoods
She toils, and cleans, and struggles
Like no one knew she could.

She wakes, four in the morning,
Comes home late at night
And then she works from home
Struggling just to survive

It’s do all this each coming day
Simply to make ends meet,
Or lose everything that she has
And wind up on the streets.

Nobody thinks she is a queen
But she knows: She must strive
To do all for herself and kids
And struggle to survive.

She starts organization
To help Tanzanian kids.
She works on reputation
Mid races, peoples, creeds,

The wolf's maw of survival
Is breathing down her neck -
Thus greet the new arrival
Who's fallen off the track.

Thus treat the fallen beauty?
How far? How long? How true?
Who was the undisputed
Princess, and brilliant too?

Survival, unforgiving,
Is screaming in her face:
Now go and make a living
Or be destroyed, erased -

She answers, I am working,
Now leave my kids alone!
All come, at her heart jerking,
Desiring her undone,

Her mother dies, and when she leaves
For Africa, the friends
And family meet her and kids
And help her understand

How much she’s loved - the President’s wife
Supports her through her grief,
And as though it was her own life
Provides her with relief.

She gets herself a mansion
For her three kids and her.
She gathers the attention
Of people from all over

In Africa she gains respect;
They see she is strong-willed
And while it is a little late
It is accepted still,

And she accepts and she’d forgive
And says that they are great -
And for the people such as these
No, it is not too late!

She says she’s struggled all her life
Whatever she achieved
And every day was more of strife
For as long as she’s lived,

And that when people see one’s strength
And one’s consistency
One can indeed gather respect
From sea to shining sea.

Leticia stays majestic
And giving, strong and smart:
Hard-working and domestic
And with a giving heart

She tends to kids, to work, and
To Tanzanian youth:
An Africa's black orchid
In which resides God's truth.

Momentous consummation!
Her elegance and will
Make for a combination
Like rose or daffodil,

A woman who combines the best
Of the worlds old and new:
Gentle, polite, gorgeously dressed
And free and thoughtful too!

A woman who is feminine
And in her spirit kind,
Cultured, strong and intelligent
And sweet in heart and mind,

Now deep, for all the pain she's seen,
But choosing to make light -
Still looking - being - like a dream
Like no one knew she might -

Great hostess, parent, saleswoman -
Really, she has it all!
And in the darkness, like the sun,
She shines to light the world,

With pain that she has suffered
Growing in empathy,
With truths she has uncovered
Shimmering like a sea,

Hoping to turn her energy
To help the ones in pain,
And use strength and intelligence
To shine like light of day,

With all the things she knows
And all at that she’s become
To make all good things grow
And make them bloom as one.

ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT

To Africa, to Africa
Leticia returns
Straight out of America
And uses what she's learned

To make a run for Parliament -
A woman candidate -
There, to improve the government
And humanize the state.

Many attack Leticia
And speak barbaric lies;
Journalists, politicians
Attack and criticize

Choices made of necessity
And choices made of truth
But even these adversities
Don't steer her from her path.

With help of Freeman Mbowe,
Along with Dr. Slaa,
As well as Zitto Kabwe
And much of CHADEMA,

Her brothers and her sisters,
Children, mother in law,
Good friends in Tanzania
And in America,

Leticia triumphs over
The ugliness and lies
And all that is thrown at her
She fully overcomes

And in Tanzania's parliament
Arrives Leticia, now
A member of the government
With faith in her bestowed,

To keep Nyerere's legacy,
To fight for women's rights,
To fund the universities,
Help Tanzanians rise

To knowledge, ability,
Excellence in all fields -
And with new viability
A better country build.

She fights for rights of children,
For growth of every kind,
For building on the givens,
For changing people's minds,

For raising Tanzania
To levels it deserves;
For better life for women;
And for correcting course

Of the entire Africa
Until it too can thrive:
That residents of Africa
Can have a better life;

And uses what she's learned in all
Her travels all around
To implement a better goal:
To make a change profound,

A change that leads to clarity,
Prosperity and peace:
To change people's mentality
Till even a child sees

That they can make a betterment,
That they can grow and thrive,
That they can have good government
And have meaningful lives,

That they can do each other good
And to fulfil their dreams
And lift African continent
To real lasting peace,

To growing prosperity,
Achievement in all fields,
To government transparency,
To covenant that builds

A better life for Africans -
Men, women, children, each -
And make the lives they're dreaming of
Within the people's reach.

TO AFRICAN WOMEN

Beautiful women of Africa!
Leticia says again:
Do not just seek for equal rights -
Do everything you can!

Make most of your abilities,
Take charge of your own lives,
Apply responsibility
And be again advised:

The world is hard, competitive;
These things you must expect
And all who are humanity
This knowledge must accept -

Do your own best, as much as you
Can muster; and remain
The person that you always knew
You were in your heart; and

Help out each other as you strive
For better, fuller life
So that more women can arrive
To freedom, and survive

As best of what they are; as what
They can and should become -
And all that comes as obstacle
They know to overcome:

You, fine women of Africa!
Your fortune's in your hands!
Use it to better Africa -
And fully understand:

It will take much, but the reward
Is worth the effort made:
When you, just like Letitia did,
Take future in your hands.

CONCLUSION

In Africa, in Africa
The Tanzanian queen
Does cry no more: Look, Africa
At wonder that you've seen!

Look up, and see what's possible
Example she has shown:
To work through hatred, pain and loss
And all the more to know

And then to strive, informedly,
To live, and do good deeds,
And though you suffer horribly
To be still warm, and sweet,

And giving, and magnificent,
And smart, and all you are -
And erudite, benificent -
Like wave - no, like a star:

Illumining the universe
And shining, through the haze,
With all that's true and, luminous,
Will conquer and amaze:

Will show what is humanity
When it is at its best:
To call the Holy Trinity
And ask Them this request:

Postpone a while the world's end -
Really, we can do well:
To know the truth of heaven
After it's gone through hell

Is to know all the darkness
And using mind and will
Create the gorgeous flowers -
Orchids and daffodils -

And be them, with the sunlight
And liquid light of stars
From morning until twilight
Tau Ceti, Sun and Mars -

To grow, to love, to nurture
And bring the bound-down seed -
The beauty torn and tortured
And bound down by deceit -

Into complete unfoldment
Where all can know and see
And inspiration for all time
Of what mankind can be

And this to give the coming ones:
With this world to inspire:
To have come through the darkness
And shine with holy fire:

And with this fire to make a torch
That beams within the sky:
Illumining each holy church
And every human's eye:

And make them see what's possible
And what can become true
And what is now plausible
Because of those like you.

O crying queen of Africa!
Do not cry any more!
You are again in Africa -
Now let you be adored!

Tired of seeing the ground?
Look at the sky of blue.
Spin me, spin me around,
Make my emotions true

Make them soft and tender
Beat them into a pulp
Put them through a blender
And pour into a cup

Set it upon a stove
And simmer and boil
Put in, well-cut, a clove,
Pour in some olive oil

Pour in cayenne and cumin
Pour in pepper and salt.
Tonight for dinner, a human -
Excellent plan to a fault.

Drink this turbid mixture
And when you're nurtured well
Take a beautiful picture
And renew your spell.

Champagne in a lily! Champagne in a lily!
With health and with wisdom it sparkles and shines!
A shot of Mignon with one of Escamillio
Champagne in a lily - a sacred wine.

Champagne in a lily bursting and sparkling
The wine contained in a flower's cup.
I glory in rapture the Christ and the Antichrist
With soul deified in delight of a gulp!

A hawk and a mourning dove! Reichstag and Bastille -
The sleep and the wakefulness! Demon and Lord!
Lily in champagne and champagne in a lily -
The lighthouse of oneness in sea of discord!

By Igor Severyanin
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

To embrace you with blue horizon
And enfold you with starry night
Means to see through the man's devising
And by Passion to set it right.

That Life shines with galactic splendor
And arises in purple dawn
Means in Humankind to engender
Beauty that goes down to the bone.

In the foam of caressing clouds -
Like in foam of the ocean waves -
Floats Life's Essence - and the mind's doubts
Find inside them Etheric graves.

Can you hear me? Oh can you hear me -
Can the Wind from the Southern shores
Take your atoms and bring them near me
That I feel the one I Adore?

Can the air that last week caressed you -
Air that bathed you along its flight -
Bring to me Cosmic Truths which blessed you
And delight me with your sweet light?

Can the rain from Miami carried
Fall upon me and kiss my cheek
With the essence of my beloved
That I'm near to the one I seek?

Droplets! Wind! I am jealous of you
That you touch her, and I cannot -
And from gusts that come streaming from you
Wisps of Julia to me float.

Wind and clouds! Wanderers of heaven!
Flying from the South to the North -
As you Swirl, Sail, Uplift and Travel -
Bring to me my love!

Love, come forth!

And before my life will vanish
In the final glory of rays
I'll enfold you, the one I cherish,
With Horizon that I embrace.

Tonight I will dream the strangest dreams.
I will say not "I am" but "I am yours"
For otherwise the statement is merely axiomatic.
Tonight I will dream the strangest dreams
And the absolute exists within the relative
Which exists within the absolute.
I will say not, "Do I dare" but "I am alive"
And "I recognize" and "I know" and most importantly
"I love therefore I am."
Do I need to say the I before I can say I love you?
Or is love the bridge between I and You that makes both come to life?
Tonight I will dream strangest dreams
And in my delirious expectation
Will arise a palace of love
From which will be glimpsed a new world.
Tonight I will dream strangest dreams
Of a cobweb that will shine itself through me
And with its unrelenting viscosity reveal to the world the creatures it holds.
It is not I
It is not you
It is not everything and nothing
It is just life spread between tree limbs and flapping in the wind
Ensnaring what flies.
Only today
This evening
As the sun goes down over the Potomac
I will tell you
How tonight I will dream the strangest dreams
About love that lives through us both
And illuminates souls with its light.

1
In St. Petersburg again we come together,
As though Sun inside there we interred
As though for the first time and forever
We pronounced the blessed, thoughtless word.
In black velvet of a Soviet even,
In black velvet global emptiness,
Sing the darling eyes of blissful women,
Deathless flowers blossom and caress.
2
Like a wildcat the city her back arches
Over the bridge the patrol stands in line
An angry motor through the darkness marches
And like a cookoo-bird begins to whine.
I need no nightly pass across the bridge
I do not fear the nightly watchmen;
And this one time for blessed, thoughtless speech
I will make prayer on a Soviet even.
3
The light theaterical whispering sounds
A women's sighing and their gentle charm
And deathless roses in a giant mound
Lying upon white Kypris's gentle arm.
From boredom we are warming at a campfire,
Centuries will pass without harm,
And light ashes gather and inspire
The blessed, blissful women's darling arms.
4
Red garden rows of gallery somewhere,
In sumptious chiffon draped, boxes stand tall,
The windup doll of army officer -
Not for vile hypocrites and for black souls.
Well then, put out our candles with your finger,
Black velvet of world emptiness, sail free,
The blissful women's shoulders are singing
And the nocturnal sun you will not see.

By Osip Mandelshtam
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

They say that love is blind,
But my love for you isn't:
My heart is with my mind,
My soul is with my reason.

I know why I love you,
And it's completely real:
And unified and true:
I think it, and I feel it:

I love you for your heart,
Your sweetness and compassion,
I love you since you're smart
And filled with joy and passion,

I love you for your warmth
And excellence and wisdom;
For lights that through you course
In every time and season -

For beauty that you are
Both outside and inside,
Because you are a star
In nature and in mindset -

I love you for you will
To help, and for your honor:
For where you've gone and been
And came out all the stronger:

I love you for your grace
And for your dedication
To good deeds; your soft face
And glorious inspiration -

For your resplendent gifts
And what you're doing with them -
And all you are - it is
Completely true to reason:

I love you for your light
And unremitting kindness
All times of day and night -
No, my love is not mindless:

I love you for I see
The wonder that you're truly
And from it comes to be
The passion reasoned fully:

My heart and mind are clear
And doubt they both cast out
And there is nothing here
That's blind or not thought out:

I love you with my mind
And heart and strength and spirit
No, my love is not blind -
It's unified: So feel it.

I like it that you're burning not for me,
I like it that it's not for you I'm burning
And that the heavy sphere of Planet Earth
Will underneath our feet no more be turning
I like it that I can be unabashed
And humorous and not to play with words
And not to redden with a smothering wave
When with my sleeves I'm lightly touching yours.

I like it, that before my very eyes
You calmly hug another; it is well
That for me also kissing someone else
You will not threaten me with flames of hell.
That this my tender name, not day nor night,
You will recall again, my tender love;
That never in the silence of the church
They will sing "halleluiah" us above.

With this my heart and this my hand I thank
You that - although you don't know it -
You love me thus; and for my peaceful nights
And for rare meetings in the hour of sunset,
That we aren't walking underneath the moon,
That sun is not above our heads this morning,
That you - alas - are burning not for me
And that - alas - it's not for you I'm burning.

By Marina Tsvetayeva
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

He definitely said that there was a difference between the phenomenal (the thing as they appear) and the noumenal (the things as they are). I show where his approach is right and where his approach is wrong.

In the haunted house
Dead are living and living are not-quite-dead
And each day is a death of the soul.
In the haunted house
Air shatters against the lungs
And the water runs down into the basement
And dissolves all inside.
There is memory of the dead
And the death of the memory is desired
But desire is itself expropriated
And the knife cuts into the soul.
All day long the dead haunt the house
And the living
Aho should by any standard be dead
Forges on and delights all who live
With her beauty and tenderness and deliquescence.
Come to me haunting beauty
And let us haunt together the house
In which is imprisoned humanity
And all are made ghosts.
We that are seen as the shadow
Are most able to live with the shadows
And know their worlds.
Let us then lead the shadows
Out the cave
And into sunlight.
In the haunted house
Death and life merge into one
And intensity of the absolute
That is the ongoing battle of life and death
Startles all things into attained reality.
And when I discern
The haunted house
That is your mind
Where death and tragedy scream at you
In viciousness and deceit
And shadows play on the walls to confound you
But you remain life embodied
Giving, tender, warm, brilliant, principled, strong
And ethereally majestic,
I would rather be torn to pieces
And made a ghost
Than let the ghosts crowd you out of life.
So live my sweet, and the shadows will go their way
When you
As life's resplendent embodiment
Become transparent as diamond
And cast no shadow as you walk.

Bitter Crank: This thread is about Roy Wagner. You fit in as the audience for the requiem.

Sweetness and tenderness -- like sisters alike are your marks -
The wasp and the bee suckle honey then flutter as one -
Life ends, beach sand chills overnight, and the heaven gets dark,
And carried away on black litter is yesterday's sun.

Ah, tender rosebush, delicate emanation!
To know what you are is far harder than mountain to climb!
I have but one problem remaining in this incarnation:
To raise from the shoulders of man filthy burden of time!

I drink turbid air just like water with mildew diluted:
A visage appears in the sun, heart of darkness and clots:
Two roses that once were of earth but by man were polluted
Sweetness and tenderness, bound up in double knots!

By Osip Mandelshtam
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

A day in the life of Lilian
Is by most standards good:
She stands in her cot quite meekly
Until it is time for food -

With finger in side of her mouth
She yodels, "wa wa wa wa wa"
And then banging on her playpen,
"Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma"

And as I begin conversation
With her, "La la la la la,"
She looks at me intently
And screams, "BWA BWA BWA BWA BWA" -

How dare you not give me food now?
I am the queen of the house
And if you do not put this muesli
Right now in my mouth

I will raise such a howl
That you will take to your grave
So give it to me, right now,
Give it to me, you slave!

She happily laughs while I kiss her,
Then joyfully smacks my face -
What are you doing, mister?
Must I use my can of mace?

And then she is laughing at me
Her diaper and pants, on the rug -
Dad, why are you unhappy?
It's me, come give me a hug!

With a mouth full of fingers -
Other hand clutching a doll -
She is the charming princess
Of our little world -

The children all love this creature
With her big radiant eyes
With soft, delightful features
And open, teething smiles -

They cuddle and hold and kiss her
This teddy bear come alive
And people cannot resist her -
So how can I and my wife?

We feed her, clothe her, change her,
Kiss her, hug her, give her toys
Keep her from harm and danger -
And then in the sweetest voice

She speaks the word "Dada"
To a girl who tells her hello
And people are laughing out loud:
That's not your dad, don't you know?

I hold her in front of mirror
She laughs back at what she sees:
The face that reflects back at her
Lit up by infectious bliss.

She loves being bathed in water
And drinks milk from mother's breast
And yet she is daddy's daughter
And loathes to get dressed -

And then she is all her own:
The queen of all time and space -
And only eleven months old -
Why, if at such a pace

Exceeding great people and royals
One day she will be divine
And make even better worlds
For people to reside in!

More feeding, cuddling, adoring
And then her eyes have grown shut
Until the following morning -
The queen is asleep. All be quiet.

Hello my friend heat lightning!
How beautiful you are!
All of the sky alighting -
Exploding shooting star!

Illumined and transparent
Bathing the sky like milk -
Weaving the webs apparent
Of white majestic silk!

White, yellow, luminescent -
You shimmer through the clouds!
Delicate, iridescent,
And making not a sound -

Shining each place, all over,
Completely unafraid
In platinum, in silver -
Like cobwebs overhead!

And through them beams like sunshine
The electrical charge -
The unremitting passion
Of universe at large!

And then the rain starts drizzling
And thunder then erupts
Gentle, magnetic, sizzling -
Like coffee from a cup -

And as comes forth the power
Which in it was contained
The sky, on midnight hour,
Erupts like cannonnade!

Like nerves spread out and screaming,
Like bursting light-filled veins,
The lightning punctures Seeming
And augments joy and pain -

Is frame for all illusion
With its electric light -
Who can bear this intrusion?
Who can believe this sight?

The nerves of man, spilled out
And bursting in the sky!
Hate, fear, worry, doubt
In heaven - how? Why?

What makes you, and who are you?
You, madman's random trails,
You, baobabs on fire
You, masts without sails!

You, turmoil effervescent!
You, agony and glee!
You, passion incandescent!
Are you now seeking me?

I'll see you and I'll feel you
I'll sense you in my heart
The truths you are revealing
That you wish to impart,

And with my feet on gravel
And head held out high
I'll watch the roads you've traveled,
Unraveled, in the sky.

1
Equally with all others
I want to serve you,
Drying from jealousy
My lips turned blue.
Word does not slake
A mouth dry from despair
Without you I am breathless
In empty air.
2.
I am no longer jealous
But yet I want you, dear,
I carry me like sacrifice
To executioner,
And no I will not call you
Not love not glee;
The wild and foreign blood
Runs now through me.
3
Wait for one moment
And this I will tell you:
Not joy, but torment
I find in you.
And, like a sacrilege,
Bitten in frenzy
Your tender cherry mouth
Still calls to me.
4
Return to me at last, love,
It's awful without you
Never more strongly
Have I felt you.
And in the midnight drama,
Asleep, awake,
I call your name out loud
Even as I shake.

By Osip Mandelshtam
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

Rather than be a vandal and bandit,
I'd like to apply to be antisemite,
On their side, though laws are missing,
Is support and fervor of millions of people.

I've chosen, and that means to beat up somebody,
But I need to know who are all these semites,
And maybe they are after all decent humans,
And maybe from them I can get something useful.

But teacher and friend, alcoholic and grocer,
Has said that semites are Jews, nothing more, and
It is such a great luck, brothers dear,
I am now calm, there is nothing to fear.

I've kept myself strong, and with high admiration
I have in my life viewed Albert Einstein,
People will forgive, but I ask, unwilling,
How am I to view Abraham Lincoln.

Among them is Capler, whom Stalin made suffer,
Among them is Chaplin, respected by me,
My friend Rabinovich and victims of Nazism,
And even the very founder of Marxism.

But alkie told me after this conversation
That they drink the blood of the Christian babies,
And then at the pub the fellows told
That they crucified God a long time ago.

They suck people's blood, and not parking their truck
They tortured, damn creeps, elephant in the park,
And I know, they stole from the people
Bread crop from the last year completely.

And alongside the Russian railroads
They've built houses and live there like gods.
I'm ready for violence, and in righteous passion
I'm beating up kikes and am saving Russia.


By Vladimir Vysotsky
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

Where would you point the fingers?

When I am thinking deeply
I see the world in brown:
The colors mix completely
And in each other drown

Creating a commingling
Expressing every view
Through merger and intriguing
Revealing what is true -

When I am looking death-ward
I see the world in black
Where the ungentle shepherd
Leads toward a wayward track,

Where millions of creatures
Feed on the human ghosts
And lawyers, dressed as preachers,
Proclaim the heaven lost.

When I look at the clouds
I see the world in gray:
The hopes and the doubts
In them together play

And through their interaction -
All facets merged in one -
Bring lightning and refraction
Of rays of setting sun.

When I am with my loved one
I see the world in pink
The spirit-cloud above me
Reshaping all I think

Feeling my essence nurtured
And brought into sweet love -
Her heart, like gentle orchid,
Enfolds me in a glove.

When I burn with desire
I see the world in red:
My heart becomes a pyre
Inside which burns my head

And as it turns to embers
Where all things fleshly die,
My spirit soars and clambers
And falls into the sky.

When I am being rained on
The world is orange-clad,
The conic and Ukrainian
Combine inside my head

To manifest in eros
That courses through all life
And, through the trials and errors,
At consciousness arrives.

When I am full of glamor
The world is yellow, and
It turns into a lemon
And into shifting sand

From which, with just some patience,
I make a lemonade
That feeds the respiration
And all of me pervades.

When I am feeling open
I see the world in green
In which I feel and hope and
Know goodliness and sin

And, seeing the whole landscape
From elevated view
Conquer the inner wasteland
And make it bloom anew.

When I am full of willpower
I see the world in blue
And, certain, build a tower
That seeks attainment to

The transcendental wisdom
Of sky and ocean waves
Which holds the truth and freedom
And love that goodness saves.

When I am full of soul
In indigo am I
Feeling the cosmic whole
Expressed within the sky

That reaches earth with wisdom
Of millions of stars
And nurtures me, assisting
The healing of the scars.

When I am in a prayer
I feel the violet light
Reaching my spirit, where
It casts the lies aside -

Burning into the essence
With penetrating rays
And teaching many lessons,
From gratitude to praise -

And after darkest hour
Of darkest of the night
I'm happy as a flower
To see the world in white.

1
A ghostlike scene is glimmering
Weak choirs of shades remain
With silk has draped Melpomene
Her temple's windowpanes
Frost crunches in the yard
Black chariots stand in row
People and objects are disheveled
Street crackles with hot snow.
2
Bit by bit the servants pick apart
The abandoned heap of bear furs
A butterfly flies over and departs,
And rose plants are draped in furs.
Gnats and boxes fashionably shimmer
From the theater light sweat moves in streams
On the street the flat lamps glimmer
And like clouds arises heavy steam.
3
Coachmen have grown tired of their voices
And the night is black as if with coal.
Do not worry, darling Eurydice,
That our winter is unearthly cold.
Sweeter than the song of the Italians
Is the sound of Russian tongue to me,
For the sounds of harps from foreign countries
Clamor in it with great mystery.
4
Smell of smoke rises from lean mutton
With the mounds of snow the street is ringed
From a blissful songlike semitone
Flying at us is immortal spring,
That this aria will sound forever:
"To green meadows you will return"
And to our feet falls a living sparrow
On the snow that is so hot, it burns.

By Osip Mandelshtam
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

Amazing, this is the best pope in history.

Like seaweed, like branches of willows
Of Malmazonia are your limbs,
Thus you did lie in sprays of sea foam
And absent-mindedly transfixed

Upon the sweet light-golden melons
Of diamond and aquamarine
The eyes forever semi-open
So blue-and-grayish, bluish-green.

The waves are just like rabid lions,
The arrows of the sun did fly.
And from intolerable blueness
Too whitish, you did there lie.

Behind the back, the desert, somewhere
The station Djankoi had to be,
And underneath your arm stretched out
Melon grew golden quietly.

Thus, calm and precious, you lie there,
Don't give a glance and do not see,
But look - and waves will heave with power,
And mountains will be moved to sea.

And new moons will in sky be burning,
And joyful lions will lie down
Under the single downward leaning
Of your head beautiful and young.

By Marina Tsvetayeva
Translated by Ilya Shambat

Canadians have their own idea, and I think it is a good one. They haven't had domestic terrorism, and generally the place is quite nice. I know a number of Canadians, and I get along with them.

Like liquid glass, waters of sea,
Made of the tinted-bottle color,
Was pouring softly, heavily -
The appelation of this: summer.

And ships, appearing like white dots,
Forming the distance with their presence.
They went somewhere to end of earth -
The appelation of this: heaven.

*****

Like in childhood, I am walking barefot
With my feet feeling the trail.
For long time I did not walk like this.
For long time I was not this way.

Balmy breeze in my face is blowing.
I forgot how old I've become
And perhaps it's the joy of living
Wafting at me from the ground.

It's the day, it's the path, it's the summer...
Every blade of grass, dear to me...
And my bare-footed childhood
Smiling, is looking at me.

*****

From the bluish distance blown,
Wind, arrives on a spring day.
Arms and elbows smell of orange,
Air is full of jasmin smell.

Not agreeing with my years
My soul sings and sings and sings:
And the leaves' rustle makes clear
Something tender's whisperings.

*****

I live in condition
Of mood schizophrenia:
As if there's no distance
Between Russia and Israel.

I live in two mentalities
In two different spaces and times.
In two "hard" realities,
In noise of different tribes.

In news political
(From darkness where I can't see)
About both Russia and Israel
I say the word "We."

And I watch TV programs
Like fog that is full of blood:
All is woeful and horrible
Both here and there it's bad

Like in a monster fairy tale,
Like in a tale of horror -
The Arabian terrorism
And the Chechnya war

And I live in condition
Of split apart soul -
As if there is no distance
Between the two countries I know.

*****

Again - a cricket, or else maybe a cicada
Again - the moon and palms above my head...
And in my dream, blockade of Leningrad, and
The icy chill is blowing from the street.

Though life has not been smooth in any manner,
And flow of time has changed so much, I know,
WIthin my soul - I'm still a Leningrader,
And... cricket seems just like the Metronome.

By Ella Odeyash
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

numinous luminosities!
homes of the heart and mind!
gentleness, generosity,
genuineness in you hide!

in Bodhi tree's embodiments
battle the balms and banes;
solitude of ensoulment
twists their insides insane.

mandibles of mendacity
manacles of mankind
vehicles of veracity
violently divide.

throats tatter with timidity;
tenderness told to hide;
humorless honed humility
in a hex holds mankind.

bane of the banal barbarism -
bludgeoning blindness bland -
trite trickle-down terrorism -
chokes hope in churlish hand.

ambiance of ambivalence -
embers embroiled in brine -
malleable malevolence -
mangles, commands man's mind.

unbearable forebearances
tattered with trial and toil!
with an intense irreverence
bring bones to a boil!

coffee cups of cupidity!
seemingness without seam!
swing to the side similitude!
scream the exquisite scream!

through violent vivaciousness
shimmering sparkles, shine!
with soulful solaciousness
scatter the stain of time -

into sublime subliminally
sublimating the soul!
to the divine definitevely
delegating control!

inspired insane intelligence!
spring into mind and soul!
glimpse the magnetic galaxies!
glare into grail of all!

hopes hobbled with oblivion!
valiance wound in vain!
drink delights of delirium!
daringly dreams attain!

in an insane intensity -
inspired and immense -
attained to endless density -
spirits, spring into sense!

dilly-dally in delicacy!
shatter the habit's curse!
scatter cerebral celebacy!
bloom in the blood's rebirth!

in indigent indignity
inspire insight inside!
aim to attain infinity!
mentor and mend the minds!

incorporeal realities!
don't dare to be undone!
tell of untamed totality!
with oneness be made one!

sad tales and true atrocities
scatter and make untrue!
luminous numinosities!
live and let live - through you!

Teasing and tempting and playing
We loved like children, us both
But somebody, hiding a smile,
Set up the ungentle nets -
And here we are at the harbor,
Not seeing the wished-for abodes,
But knowing that I will be yours
In the heart, without words, until death.

You told me of all things - so early!
I guessed them so late! In our hearts
A wound is eternal, a silent
Question exists in our eyes,
The desert on earth is so endless,
The heaven, so high, has no stars,
Revealed is the tender secret,
And frost rules for centuries.

I will talk to shades! O my dear,
To forget you I do not have might,
Your visage can't move under shadow
Of eyelids gone over my eyes...
It's darkening... Shutters have closed,
On all things descending is night...
I love you, one ghostly-eternal,
And only you - and always!

By Marina Tsvetayeva
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

Mene: Numbered.

The number of my loves was few but each brought me to heaven.

A gentle spirit with a beautiful mind and an elegant body, now a yoga teacher imparting her inner magnificence to world.

A sexy little creature, exciting, misanthropic and brimming with insight.

A tortured soul with dozens of faces and personalities, introspective and poetic and now dead at 25.

And two luminous spirits, hearts full of light and creative passion, producing beautiful artwork and enriching the lives around them with their resplendor.

Tekel: Weighed.

My heart has been weighed and found heavy with memories.

When Michelle and I ran at 5 in the morning through the woods to the riverside, and I held her topless on a rock outcropping as we watched the sun rise.

When Layo sang "can't bring me down" and danced up and down and I kissed her all over her face.

When Michele undressed on the side of the lake and I penetrated her, and her skin had marks of pine needles when she stood up.

When Lisbeth missed her meetings at work so that we could climb trees and jump over streams and play with the clouds.

When Julia swam behind me and let me lean back into her and said "Let me be your ocean" and I asked if I could marry her and she said "Maybe," then swam away and came back and said, "I mean yes."

Uparsin: Divided.

I am divided among my loves and have given all of them pieces of me while retaining inside me their residue.

It is said that people keep objects of their loved ones to keep a memory of them alive.

I keep pieces of my loves - they live in me and I live in them, an interlocking hyperdimensional union that resembles the Holy Trinity and interconnectivity of Buddha and the Universe.

And I in them, them in me, create a unity that is divided so that it can be reuinited; weighed so that it be rendered weightless; and numbered so that through it infinity can be achieved.

The numbering, weighing, and dividing of my heart was done for the sake of achieving Heaven, that it could live through me and with my blood write its message - mene, mene, tekel, uparsin - upon the wall.

To what shall I compare you, my sweet love?
How, having known you, can I face the crowd?
You take my heart out with a velvet glove
And then establish it inside a cloud.

Your precious beauty and your tender heart,
The incandescent passion of your spirit -
However many miles we be apart,
You bring me to adore and to revere it.

Your elegance of motion and of dress,
Your gentle smile and your infectious laughter,
Your fierce resolve and will that seeks no less
Than knowing and attaining Hereafter -

The eyes that, like volcanic crater lakes,
Reflect the sky toward which you are so close -
That for the truth's and for the beauty's sakes
Dissolve the elements that from the earth arose -

Your playful, delicate and resurrecting mind
That weaves the pain and knowledge into sweetness -
The thoughts and feelings that are intertwined
And from their synthesis creates completeness -

Your intuition, powerful and true,
And genius producing divine splendor -
Not only do I say that I love you,
But to what made you, darling, I surrender -

However I compare you, my delight,
You're always something more and something greater,
And like a mountain climber in the night
I cannot see and fall into your crater.

I'm in the light, open to every eye -
I do as I do often; like an icon
I come up to a microphone; today
It's more like I'm approaching a cannon.

And I will not rub against the microphone
Yes, my voice is loathsome to any
Yes, I know, if a lie comes on
It will augment it surely without pity.

Rays beneath the lamp on ribs assail me
Lamps shimmer into the face unkindly
And from every side projectors beat
And the heat! The heat! The heat!

Today I rant again without control,
But in the tone I don't risk making change -
For if I make a turn inside the soul
It will correct the curve with rage.

It's thinner than a blade of knife, this beast,
The flawless hearing, it hears lies till the iota -
It does not care I don't fit in the beat
But that I more completely sing the notes!

Rays beneath the lamp on ribs assail me
Lamps shimmer into the face unkindly
And from every side projectors beat
And the heat! The heat! The heat!

Upon the supple neck this microphone
Is rolling with its snake head;
If I get silent - it will sting
I have to sing - till stupor, till the end.

Don't move, don't touch, don't dare!
I saw the sting - you are a snake, I know!
And I am like a charmer of a snake
Not singing, putting spell upon a cobra!

Rays beneath the lamp on ribs assail me
Lamps shimmer into the face unkindly
And from every side projectors beat
And the heat! The heat! The heat!

It wants to eat, and with a birdling's greed
It takes the sounds out of the mouth,
In forehead it will put nine grams of lead
I won't raise the hands - the guitar binds them!

Again it will not reach the end!
What is this microphone - who will respond!
Today it is like lamp against the face,
But I'm not holy, and there's no light from the microphone.

My melodies are simpler than the scales
But barely beating from a sure tone -
I am sickly beaten on the face
By an immobile shade of microphone

Rays beneath the lamp on ribs assail me
Lamps shimmer into the face unkindly
And from every side projectors beat
And the heat! The heat! The heat!

By Vladimir Vysotsky
Translated by Ilya Shambat

In the quiet valley where rocks do not stand in the way of the windstorm
In such places that no one got there or will get again
There joyfully lived a happy mountain echo
It answered the cry of mankind - yes it answered the cry of the man.

When loneliness comes up to throat as if with a stone
And moan once suppressed falls into the crevasse in the land
The echo would take up this cry that comes out of the throat
Augment manifold and then gently lift up in its hand.

Perhaps it was people, made drunk on a horrible potion
In order that no one would hear their stomping and shouts
Came over to kill, to make soundless the mountain valley
And they tied the echo and they placed a gag in its mouth.

All night they continued the bloody and cruel amusement
And nobody heard but a sound as on it people walked
In morning they shot in the face the quiescent mountain echo
And stones just like teardrops burst from the wounded rock.

By Vladimir Vysotsky
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

In intimacy there exists a line
That can't be crossed by passion or love's art -
In awful silence lips melt into one
And out of love to pieces bursts the heart.

And friendship here is impotent, and years
Of happiness sublime in fire aglow,
When soul is free and does not hear
The dulling of sweet passion, long and slow.

Those who are striving toward it are in fever,
But those that reach it struck with woe that lingers.
Now you have finally fathomed, why forever
Her heart does not beat underneath your fingers.

By Anna Akhmatova
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat

The golden tree, The Tree of Life -
Into its shadow I will dive
And feast upon the blessed fruit
Then dig until the very root.
Inside the root I'll find the seed
And share it with the ones in need:
The tattered hearts and spirits torn -
Between the sundown and the morn,
Between the wisdom and the bliss
Is found the fearsome abyss.
In savage light I'll find the day
And wait for love to burn away
Then conjure till the heart of Is
Corrodes and scatters - then the breeze
Will take away the Adam's feast -
As far as west is from the east
Will be the cause and the effect -
Between the impulse and the act
Between the method and the end
Will stand the rainbow. In the land
Of blind, the one-eyed man is king;
A condor with the broken wing
Will feel the presence of the light
To set himself again to flight.
And as light beams through all the earth
Will be dissolved all remorse,
Will be forgotten all the sins -
And condor with the broken wings
Will soar again, and all the blind
Will see with vision of the mind
The one in all, the all in one -
The life-tree blooming in the sun.

Project the mind - it resonates with thunder;
Reject the mind - around you it burns.
Intrepid joy - impassioned restless wonder -
The heart-suffused and life-rich way to learn -

Intrinsic conflaggrations, hard to pity
Or to respect, or even yet to see -
The nature's splendor reaching into city
To render its inhabitants half-free

Until joy drops, and out appears concept
And meaning - this, if only for some!
And from beneath the axioms, a rocket
Ballasts into the space, explodes and is gone

And then - another time, another meaning,
The meaning is constructed from all sides
And forms the structure that informs the seeming
Which then becomes the vision of mankind -

And then come other meanings and perceivings
Constructed like dynamic SQL…
The culture deepens, thickens as it's dreaming
And builds to levels more removed from hell.

The glorious enchanted she-spider
Is weaving her web again
The lights of the street lamps are wider
And branches are drenched with rain

The light of the moon pours diffusely
Through fog upon the ground,
The headlights of cars shine profusely
And through them the web is wound -

Night cloudy and full of vapor:
Night foggy that pours forth soul
The den of enchanted she-spider
Holds heart and then makes it whole

Caressing, expressing, impressing -
Delirium it will instil
To all of the world's faults confessing
And from it forging Will

Which she will in her web hold
And make it bear great fruit:
Who knows it? Who ever told?
And if so, who could refute?

The glorious enchanted she-spider:
She who makes love from pain,
Beauty and truth beside her:
Fog, and beyond it, rain:

Tender still night, and silent
And in it dwells respite:
Indigo, yellow, violet -
Greet this, the holy night!

Greet she-spider, her the angel
Of beauty and delight,
Greet the intent and danger -
Greet and gain second sight!

Greet her, she's again here
Showing what's warm and sweet,
Greet her, and her revere:
And in her web let's meet -

There within her embraces!
In her web midst the trees!
There where she life entrances -
And puts the mind at ease -

While making it to blossom
And bear the fruit that's true.
She-spider! You are awesome!
And I thank you for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnfsynjSnYA

Lift your lovely eyes up to Christmas heavens,
Conjure up the substance of your dreams,
Before you in my life I was never this happy,
Just for you, as you love them, it seems,
Take these flowers from me.

I'm in love with you to tears,
Every sigh just like first time,
Rather than more pretty lies
This rose cloud, my dear.
With the petals of white rose
I will carpet our home,
I'm in love with you to tears,
I'm in love madly.

In the splendor of your majestic hair,
In the whiteness of your hypnotizing skin
I take a delight, you are the most dear,
All has just begun between you and me.

I'm in love with you to tears,
Every sigh just like first time,
Rather than more pretty lies
This rose cloud, my dear.
With the petals of white rose
I will carpet our home,
I'm in love with you to tears,
I'm in love madly.

By Alexandr Serov
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat