Лирика

Перевод В. Брюсова

37. AN ENIGMA

"Seldom we find", says Solomon Don Dunce,

"Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.

Through all the flimsy things we see at once

As easily as through a Naples bonnet

Trash of all trash! - how _can_ a lady don it?

Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff

Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff

Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it?

And, veritably, Sol is right enough.

The general tuckermanities are arrant

Bubbles - ephemeral and _so_ transparent

But _this is_, now, - you may depend upon it

Stable, opaque, immortal - all by dint

Of the dear names that lie concealed within 't.

(1847)

37. ЭНИГМА

"_С_ыскать, - так молвил Соломон Дурак,

Н_а_м не легко в сонете пол-идеи.

И ч_р_ез пустое видим мы яснее,

Чем _р_ыбин чрез неапольский колпак.

Сует_а_ сует! Он не под силу дамам,

И все ж, _а_х! рифм Петрарки тяжелей.

Из фили_н_а пух легкий, ветер, взвей,

И будет о_н_, наверно, тем же самым".

Наверняк_а_ тот Соломон был прав;

Смысл не ве_л_ик лирических забав,

Что колпаки _и_ль пузыри из мыла!

Но за сонетом _у_ меня есть сила,

Бессмертен мо_й_, как будто темный, стих:

Я имя поместил в словах моих!

(1924)

Перевод В. Брюсова

38. THE BELLS

1.

Hear the sledges with the bells

Silver bells!

_What_ a world of merriment their melody foretells!

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!

While the stars that oversprinkle

All the Heavens, seem to twinkle

With a crystalline delight;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

2.

Hear the mellow wedding bells

Golden bells!

_What_ a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

Through the balmy air of night

How they ring out their delight!

From the molten-golden notes

And all in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens while she gloats

On the moon!

Oh, from out the sounding cells

_What_ a gush of euphony voluminously wells!

How it swells!

How it dwells

On the Future! - how it tells

Of the rapture that impels

To the swinging and the ringing

Of the bells, bells, bells!

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

3.

Hear the loud alarum bells

Brazen bells!

_What_ a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

In the startled ear of Night

How they scream out their affright!

Too much horrified to speak,

They can only shriek, shriek,

Out of tune,

In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire

In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,

Leaping higher, higher, higher,

With a desperate desire

And a resolute endeavor

Now - now to sit, or never,

By the side of the pale-faced moon.

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells

Of despair!

How they clang and clash and roar!

What a horror they outpour

In the bosom of the palpitating air!

Yet the ear, it fully knows,

By the twanging

And the clanging,

How the danger ebbs and flows:

Yes, the ear distinctly tells,

In the jangling

And the wrangling,

How the danger sinks and swells,

By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells

Of the bells

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

4.

Hear the tolling of the bells

Iron bells!

_What_ a world of solemn thought their monody compels!

In the silence of the night

How we shiver with affright

At the melancholy meaning of the tone!

For every sound that floats

From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.

And the people - ah, the people

They that dwell up in the steeple

All alone,

And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone,

Fell a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone

They are neither man nor woman

They are neither brute nor human,

They are Ghouls:

And their king it is who tolls:

And he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls

A Paean from the bells!

And his merry bosom swells

With the Paean of the bells!

And he dances and he yells;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the Paean of the bells

Of the bells:

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the throbbing of the bells

Of the bells, bells, bells

To the sobbing of the bells:

Keeping time, time, time,

As he knells, knells, knells,

In a happy Runic rhyme,

To the rolling of the bells

Of the bells, bells, bells:

To the tolling of the bells

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

(1849)

38. КОЛОКОЛЬЧИКИ И КОЛОКОЛА

1.

Слышишь, сани мчатся в ряд,

Мчатся в ряд!

Колокольчики звенят,

Серебристым легким звоном слух наш сладостно томят,

Этим пеньем и гуденьем о забвеньи говорят.

О, как звонко, звонко, звонко,

Точно звучный смех ребенка,

В ясном воздухе ночном

Говорят они о том,

Что за днями заблужденья

Наступает возрожденье,

Что волшебно наслажденье - наслажденье нежным сном.

Сани мчатся, мчатся в ряд,

Колокольчики звенят,

Звезды слушают, как сани, убегая, говорят,

И, внимая им, горят,

И мечтая, и блистая, в небе духами парят;

И изменчивым сияньем

Молчаливым обаяньем,

Вместе с звоном, вместе с пеньем, о забвеньи говорят.

2.