The Nightingale Garden

 by Alexander Block (translated from Russian)


1

I 'm slaving 's if sentenced to galleys
Breaking boulders when waters are slack
And my donkey unhappily carries
Schistous rocks on his hairy back

Thus we stagger oppressed by the load
By the railway dumping  'em all
Then - again  'long the littoral road
And the donkey lets out a call

And his cry is triumphant and sudden
He is glad that his burden is gone;
And within a few paces - a garden
Whispers dreams in a silvery tone.

From a shimmering shadowy shroud
Wher' th' ivies are strong - all along
'Cross the fencing when passing around
You can hear a nightingale song

When my donkey the entrance nears
Through hot suffering blaring his way
Someone's laughing - and then - disappears
Like a bodyless image, away.

I attend to the singing and laughter,
Urge the beast discontentedly and
Heading further observe thereafter
Dusky air devouring the land.

2

Fading rays are on mountains playing,
Hazy bushes sneak out of sight
And the donkey is baffled ' sif saying -
- Why on Earth are you low to-night?

Is it heat that eventually got me?
Am I finally out 'f my mind?
How funny! My life is forgotten -
Someone else's is lulling behind...

I dunno why the hell I sit here!
In this hut - unbefitting and stale
When the heavenly tune is so near
When is close at hand nightingale?

From this garden the curses are distant,
Figured railings keep rivulets clean
From intruder. Sometimes, for an instant
In blue twighlight white tippet is seen.

Every evening when this I am passing
When I wander in fog by the gate
With a sorcery whirl of her dancing
She's luring me in like a bait

To this whirlwind of magical passions
Petrifying, I answer, because
Half-enchanted, I nurse expectations,
Unaccountable yearnings I nurse.

3

Off the crowbar! Away day has clamoured.
Donkey's resting 'fter feverish race
While his master is roaming enamoured
Deep in motionless summerly space.

Stony road tonight is suggestive
Strangely known - bewitched it lays,
And the peach-trees with welcoming jestures
Are seducing me into the haze

And sweet wae gets increasingly stronger
And the hours crawl by and by
And the roses show spears no longer
For in darkness they peacefully lie.

I am in for great penalties, maybe
If I venture for entrance beseach
No surprise if she, shocked - I'm so shabby -
Leaves unnoticed my ardurous speech.

Yet I norish the crazy idea
And aside every doubt dismiss,
Something tells me: long-waited and dear
Will be I to the nightingale miss.

4

'Twas prophetic, by blessed foretelling
Not a sign did I have to display -
Unexpectedly, placidly railing
With a squeak widely opened the way.

Undescribable lilies and sounds
Stupefied me. I stepped in a tale
Of a pixy. I yield to your bounds
Realm of sirens, your realm, nightingale.

Dreams were nothing compared with glare
Under blossoming patterns of trees,
With the odorous flood of her hair
With the trembles of rapturous bliss.

Here, every disharmony scared,
Golden spirit dislodging my soul
I forgot 'bout th' donkey, uncared,
I forgot all remembrance of toil.

5

Though muffling all tribulations
Birds have never been stronger than brine -
Its rebellious reverberations
Rose wall can but little decline

Entered Sea 'nto the singing of angels
Carried hither an anxious note...
All 'f suden I pictured old dangers
And the donkey's ungraceful trot...

And in darkness my waist feebly squeezing
With her arm, aromatic and neat
From her sleep in a hot worried breathing
Murmurs she "What's the matter, my sweet?"

But at nothingness fixing blank stare
Still absorbing this new Paradize
Troubled heart feels deserted and bare
By the mutinous tide hypnotized.

6

When from vapours I fully awakened
In the morning - which day can it be? -
Her expression was childly vacant -
She was probably dreaming of me.

How fine is the face of a maiden
At the first reappearance of dawn!
Free of passion, from sorrow unladen...
Distant billow again sent a moan

I swung open the window. Makers!
There suddenly came from the gate
Through the roaring swearings of brakers
A disconsolate bawl of my mate.

Loud shriek, by despair begotten
Pierced, havoced my soul like a weep
And I quietly lowered the curtain
To safeguard unemotional sleep.

Flying, skipping away to'ds the exit
In the murk I disturbed thorny rose;
Dewy hedge, like a sentinel vexed
To detain me set out its claws.

7

Stony pathway today is a torture
Winding endlessly onto the coast,
Outwearing. At last I'm approaching
Where my donkey and house are lost.

Am I losing my way absolutely?
Can be somebody mocking at me?
Nay, it seems I remember remotely
Lonely bush and the rock by the sea.

Wher's the house? I'm losing my balance:
Heavy, rusty, half-sucked by the sand
It's my crowbar 'sif bearing malice
Trips me down on slippery land...

Am I fancying things? I don't know.
Automatic'ly, just as before
I delivered a desperate blow
To the first piece of granite I saw.

Swiftly, thence wher'grey octopus, nomad
Hides himself in a deep azure hole
Roused crab, outrageous, crouched forward
Occupying a plot on the shoal.

I moved nearer - deftly he showed
His rapacious threat of embrace,
But at once with his kinsman he brawled
And they vanished without a trace.

Ther' comes clatter of hooves on the pathway,
Where once was my rickety shack -
That's another, strange labourer passing
'Long the vagely familiar track.

1914 - 2017