On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran

With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:

But О that light!
– I slumber'd - Death, the while,

Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle

So softly that no single silken hair

Awoke that slept - or knew that he was there.

The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon

Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon

More beauty clung around her column'd wall

Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal,

And when old Time my wing did disenthral

Thence sprang I - as the eagle from his tower,

And years I left behind me in an hour.

What time upon her airy bounds I hung

One half the garden of her globe was flung

Unrolling as a chart unto my view

Tenantless cities of the desert too!

lanthe, beauty crowded on me then,

And half I wish'd to be again of men."

"My Angelo! and why of them to be?

A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee

And greener fields than in yon world above,

And woman's loveliness - and passionate love."

"But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft

Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft,

Perhaps my brain grew dizzy - but the world

I left so late was into chaos huri'd

Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,

And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.

Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar

And fell - not swiftly as I rose before,

But with a downward, tremulous motion thro'

Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!

Nor long the measure of my falling hours,

For nearest of all stars was thine to ours

Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,

A red Daedalion on the timid Earth.

"We came - and to thy Earth - but not to us

Be given our lady's bidding to discuss:

We came, my love; around, above, below,

Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,

Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod

_She_ grants to us, as granted by her God

But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl'd

Never his fairy wing o'er fairier world!

Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes

Alone could see the phantom in the skies,

When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be

Headlong thitherward o'er the starry sea

But when its glory swell'd upon the sky,

As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,

We paus'd before the heritage of men,

And thy star trembled - as doth Beauty then!"

Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away

The night that waned and waned and brought no day.

They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts

Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.

(1829-1845)

8. ИЗ ПОЭМЫ "АЛЬ-ААРАФ"

ГИМН НЕСЭСИ

"Дух! ты, кто в высоте,

Там, где в эфире ясном

Равно по красоте

Ужасное с прекрасным!

Где твердь завершена,

Где грань орбитам звездным,

Откуда плыть должна

Звезда назад по безднам!

Где твой предел святой,

Незримый лишь кометам,

Наказанным судьбой

За грех пред вечным светом,

Несущим пламя в даль,

Луч алый преступленья

И вечную печаль,

Вовек без промедленья!

Мы знаем: ты - во всем!

Ты - в вечности: мы верим!

Но на челе твоем

И тень - мы чем измерим?

Друзья весны моей

Хранили убежденье,

Что вечности твоей

Мы, в малом, отраженье.

Но все, как ты решил;

Звезда моя далеко.

И путь ей меж светил

Твое казало око.

Здесь мне мечтой взнестись

К тебе, что - путь единый:

В твою святую высь

Или в твои глубины.

Твой рок мне возвещен

Фантазией священной,

Пока не станет он

Открыт для всей вселенной!"

(1924)

Перевод В. Брюсова

9. TO

1

Should my early life seem,

(As well it might), a dream

Yet I build no faith upon

The king Napoleon