Стихи и переводы
О. Мандельштам Tristia


Я изучил науку расставанья
В простоволосых жалобах ночных.
Жуют волы, и длится ожиданже --
Последний час вигилий городских,
И чту обряд той петушиной ночи,
Когда, подняв дорожной скорби груз,
Глядели в даль заплаканные очи,
И женский плач мешался с пеньем муз.

Кто может знать при слове "расставанье",
Какая нам разлука предстоит,
Что нам сулит петушье восклицанье,
Когда огонь в акрополе горит,
И на заре какой-то новой жизни,
Когда в сенях лениво вол жует,
Зачем петух, глашатай новой жизни,
На городской стене крылами бьет?

И я люблю обыкновенье пряжи:
Снует челнок, веретено жужжит.
Смотри, навстречу, словно пух лебяжий,
Уже босая Делия летит!
О, нашей жизни скудная основа,
Куда как беден радости язык!
Все было встарь, все повторится снова,
И сладок нам лишь узнаванья миг.

Да будет так: прозрачная фигурка
На чистом блюде глиняном лежит,
Как беличья распластанная шкурка,
Склонясь над воском, девушка глядит.
Не нам гадать о греческом Эребе,
Для женщин воск, что для мужчины
Нам только в битвах выпадает жребий,
А им дано гадая умереть.

1918



Translated by Bruce McClelland

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/rus-on.html


Tristia

I've learned the science of parting
In the laments of night, her hair let down.
Oxen graze, and the waiting's drawn out.
It is the last hour of the town's vigil [*], and I
Observe the ritual of that night of the cock
When, lifting their load of wandering sorrow,
Exhausted eyes gazed into the distance,
And a woman's lament and muse's song combined.

Who can know, at the word "farewell,"
What separation awaits us,
What the cockscrow augurs
When fire glows in the Acropolis,
And on the dawn of some new life,
While an ox chews lazily in his shed,
Why the cock, herald of new life,
Beats his wings on the town's walls?

And I love the practice of spinning:
Shuttle weaves, spindle buzzes,
Look how barefoot Delia flies
To meet you, like swansdown.
Oh, the meager warp of our life,
How thin the language of joy!
Everything was of old, all will be again,
Only the instant of recognition is sweet to us.

So be it: a transparent figure
Lies on a clean earthen dish,
Like the spread pelt of a squirrel,
Bowing over the wax [*], the girl stares,
We cannot tell the fortunes of Grecian Erebus,
Wax is for women what bronze is for men.
Our fate slips out only in battle,
But they get to die telling fortunes.

Translated by A.S.Kline

http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/Webworks/Website/Tendmandelstam.htm


Tristia.


I have studied the Science of departures,
in night’s sorrows, when a woman’s hair falls down.
The oxen chew, there’s the waiting, pure,
in the last hours of vigil in the town,
and I reverence night’s ritual cock-crowing,
when reddened eyes lift sorrow’s load and choose
to stare at distance, and a woman’s crying
is mingled with the singing of the Muse.

Who knows, when the word ‘departure’ is spoken
what kind of separation is at hand,
or of what that cock-crow is a token,
when a fire on the Acropolis lights the ground,
and why at the dawning of a new life,
when the ox chews lazily in its stall,
the cock, the herald of the new life,
flaps his wings on the city wall?

I like the monotony of spinning,
the shuttle moves to and fro,
the spindle hums. Look, barefoot Delia’s running
to meet you, like swansdown on the road!
How threadbare the language of joy’s game,
how meagre the foundation of our life!
Everything was, and is repeated again:
it’s the flash of recognition brings delight.

So be it: on a dish of clean earthenware,
like a flattened squirrel’s pelt, a shape,
forms a small, transparent figure, where
a girl’s face bends to gaze at the wax’s fate.
Not for us to prophesy, Erebus, Brother of Night:
Wax is for women: Bronze is for men.
Our fate is only given in fight,
to die by divination is given to them.


Translated by Ilya Shambat.

http://www.geocities.com/ilya_shambat/mandelshtam.htm


Tristia

The essence of farewell I have extracted
From hatless laments of the sleepless night
As oxen chew, and waiting grows protracted,
And end of city vigil is in sight -
And I recall the rooster night with fear
When lost in doleful journey for too long
Into the void the tear-drenched eyes did peer
And woman's cry mingled with muse's song.

Who yet again can say farewell, unknowing
What longing and what sorrow waits for us,
What good is it to judge the rooster's crowing
When fire is burning in Acropolis;
And on the somewhere dawn of some new lifetime,
While in the shed the oxen calmly stall,
Why does the rooster, herald of new lifetime,
Flap his flamboyant wings on city wall?

And yet I love the way fate weaves her gown:
The shuttle runs, the spindle turns apace,
And straight ahead, look now, for like swan's down
The barefoot Delia is flying in your face!
Oh, of a life is but a shoddy structure
When tongue is starved so utterly for light!
All was before, all will repeat then rupture
And only recognition brings respite.

Thus it will be: A figurine, transparent,
Stands on an earthen dish that's clean and wide,
And like a snow-white winter squirrel pelt
A girl leans over wax and looks inside.
Ours not is to divine the Greek Erebus:
Wax is to her what bronze is to her mate.
Our dice falls only in the field of battle;
With divination women seal their fate.