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Why is the soul so songful,
And the dear names so scarce,
And the instant rhythm – a mere windfall,
Aquilon by surprise?
A cloud of dust he will whirl,
Paper leafage will rustle,
And will never return – or
He will, but quite altered.
Oh, the Orpheus’ wind unabated,
To the edge of the sea you will fly,
Holding dear the world uncreated,
I forgot the unneeded “I”.
Through a toy-like grove I roamed
And a sky-blue cave I discovered…
Am I real any doubt beyond
And will death come without a doubt?
~ ~ ~
Отчего душа так певуча,
И так мало милых имен,
И мгновенный ритм – только случай,
Неожиданный Аквилон?
Он подымет облако пыли,
Зашумит бумажной листвой
И совсем не вернется – или
Он вернется совсем другой.
О, широкий ветер Орфея,
Ты уйдешь в морские края
И, несозданный мир лелея,
Я забыл ненужное «я».
Я блуждал в игрушечной чаще
И открыл лазоревый грот…
Неужели я настоящий
И действительно смерть придёт?
1911
Osip Mandelstam [Rus. Осип Мандельштам] (14 January 1891 – 27 December 1938) was one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century. He was arrested in the 1930s and sent into internal exile with Nadezhda Mandelshtam, his wife. Given a reprieve of sorts, they moved to Voronezh in southwestern Russia. In 1938 Mandelstam was arrested again and sentenced to five years in a GULAG camp in the Soviet Far East. He died that year at a transit camp near Vladivostok.
Naza Semoniff is a management consultant by day and a literary translator, poet, and writer by night. She holds an MBA and engineering degrees. Her published work includes edition, annotation, and translation of the original (1929) Kiki’s Memoirs by Kiki de Montparnasse from French and its original English (1930) translation, and translation of Mayakovsky by Elsa Triolet (1939) from French into Russian. Additionally, Naza has several essays and poems published in English and Russian.
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