Цю ніч в кафе ми смакували к'янті,
Коли ввійшов, спитавши шері-бренді,
Високий і немолодий ефенді,
Що ворог християнам у Леванті.
Йому я кинув: «Друже, перестаньте
Зневажливо кривитись — ви не денді,
У час, коли неначе у легенді
Зелену ніч минає Даяманті.»
Та він розвердився, ногою тупнув: «Баби!
На тому тижні чорний камінь Каби
Підробкою назвати утвердили.»
Тоді зітхнув, замислився глибоко,
Прошепотів із сумом: «Миші з'їли
Три волосини з бороди Пророка».
Fine the wine that loves us, / Good bread baked for our sakes / And the women who torment and tease / Yet please us and in the end let us take them. / / But what do we do with the red / Hue of sunset that lets the sky grow cold / With blue in a still, strange serenity? / What to do ...
While walking down a strange street / I suddenly heard the cawing of crows, / Distant thunder, and the tones of a lute - / Here came a streetcar flying past. / / How I managed to leap to its step / Is beyond me - even in the bright / Daylight it spewed behind itself / In the atmosph...
So this is all of life! Whirling, singing. / Oceans, metropolises, deserts, / A desultory reflection / Of what is lost forever. / / A flame rages, trumpets trumpet, / And chesnut-colored horses race, / Then the agitating lips / Of happiness, it seems repeat. / / And sorrow and ...
Right now my love for you is a baby elephant / Born in Berlin or in Paris, / And treading with its cushioned feet / Around the zoo director's house. / / Do not offer it French pastries, / Do not offer it cabbage heads, / It can eat only sections of tangerines, / Or lumps of sugar an...
In the old days, when God cast down / His gaze upon the just created earth, / Words stopped the sun, / Words tore down whole towns. / / The terror-striken stars / huddled round the moon / When words, like pink flaming tongues / Floated down through air. / / The lower levels of ...
On that faraway star, upon Venus, / Where the Sun burns golden and brightly. / And on Venus, ah... upon Venus, / The blue leaves of trees they waft lightly. / / And loudly the waters they sing / The river, the fountain, the fall / Their noon song of freedom they ring / That lights u...