PART TWO
Imru
There were Pleiades in the sky, as on a woman’s dress,
Diamonds, full of fire.
Her brothers walked patrols,
And every one of them wanted to destroy me.
But I sneaked into her like a serpent.
Already she was undressed for bed
And said: " I won't be yours,
Why won’t you meet me openly? "
But anyway gave into me, we used
A counterpane to cover up the traces.
So we came there where calyxes of white lilies
Stand proudly in the middle of the water.
There I took her head in my hands and
She threw her arms around my torso.
How hot her mouth was, her shining breasts
Could only be compared to mirrors,
Her eyes were timid, as the eyes of a gazelle
With her young calf,
And since then the stupefying smell
Of musk in my bed is ineradicable.
… But what’s the matter? Why you are crying?
A Fragment from Gumilev (Part One)
Translated from the Russian by Simon R Gladdish
The whole night I saw strange and wonderful images.
All night long my soul was on an execution rack.
An eagle was turning in unknown skies,
And its scream was like the clash of steel swords.
But frequently in the shriek of steel
A shrill and inconsolable cry was breaking,
There were some lights shining …
And crying … and my heart was jumping like a ball.
There was a dark shame, inevitable as death,
Which weighs heavier than death …
After the woman, so loved,
The shame came creeping in dark lanes.
I awoke … The morning was so clear,
And the air was impregnated by roses.
But I know, that it was not in vain
This dreadful and beautiful dream.
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