С миру по нитке. Поэтические переводы

Выступил пот у солдата на лбу.
В подвале взорвался титан, а она на балконе, вздыхая,
Слёзы смахивая со щек, молилась.
И незнакомец шептал: – Je vous aime beaucoup, дорогая!
А пожар разгорался сильней и сильней,
Дым и смог повалил из дверей, из щелей.
И в этот последний час
Всё накрыла волна, и скрылась из глаз
Бухта Черный Алмаз.
Я в квартире своей в LA.
Восемь вечера – час новостей:
Вроде землетрясение опять…
Они вечно нас любят пугать!
Ничего интересного, так.
Нашли только пестрый берет и какого-то грека башмак.
Я выключил телик и пиво достал из буфета.
Не подфартило опять кому-то и где-то.
Чего не узнаешь из новостей!.
А я и бывать не стремился-то в ней,
Ни прежде, и ни сейчас,
В этой бухте Черный Алмаз.

W.H. Auden

1907–1973

As I Walked Out One Evening

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
“Love has no ending.

“I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

“I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

“The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.”

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
“O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

“In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

In the headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or today.

Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver’s brilliant bow.

The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white boy is a Roarer
And Jill goes down on her back.

O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you’ve missed.

O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress;
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbor
With your crooked heart.”

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;