С миру по нитке. Поэтические переводы. Ирина Явчуновская

      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;

      The clocks had ceased their chiming

      And the deep river ran on.