Translations into English

M.Lermontov
***
So, farewell! The sounds of this word
Till now haven't grieved so cruelly my heart.
Farewell!- eight letters- how much pain they've brought
Making me now from all I love depart!
Once again I'll meet her lovely glance,
But it may be my last, my final chance!
(1830)


V.Fyodorov
***
There was my love.
There were my painful doubts.
There were hopes.
There were my younger days.
Yes, there was my youth,
But why, I wonder now,
Didn't then the fortune
Turn to me its face?

My youth is gone,
But there's no grieving.
It's gone.
Then go.
Stop calling me. Enough!
No, no, I won't be
Of my young days dreaming,
The days when I
Didn't know you, my love.


V.Zhybul

SURVIVED
I was a needle
in a stack of hay
the stack burned down
I survived

A nail was made of me
and hammered into a wall
the wall went rotten
I survived

A screw was made of me
and twisted into a board
the board broke down
I survived

A bullet mas made of me
then loaded and shot
somebody fell down
I survived

The one who'd fallen down
was put to the cremation
I couldn't stand it
and me-e-
          elted

I wonder now who I am but it's all right
for I've
SURVIVED
SURVIVED
SURVIVED


UNLUCKY DIVER

I'm only shapeless biomass,
a lump of matter now.
And I am neither fish, alas,
nor flesh, nor even fowl.

As pliant as a rubber sole,
as weighty as a clowd,
I now have nothing in my soul
to think or dream about.

I'm overgrown with weedy hair,
my coat's a silty shell.
But I can't swim, to my despair,
and I can't sink as well.

I'm over head and ears now
all in a bog of mud.
My thirst is to get free somehow,
though it's for me too hard.

That's why I'm asking everyone:
Please mould me of this mass!
Make of me fish or flesh or fowl!
And that would be the best!