In memory of deceased
Inside this grave, below the humble willows,
He dreams under the soil,
His soul was clean and full of godly gusts,
His faith was - fiery dawn…
His sacred fires have quietly vanished,
Leaving the martyr heart,
Shadows outlandish laid down on his forehead,
Shadows are gloomy and dark.
He dreams, and the willows have bowed to the grave,
Hanging the branches down,
As if they are buried in desperate thoughts —
Thinking about who is gone.
Silence, — the air is poisoned with anguish.
Horizon frowns and cries,
As if everything mourns an unfortunate youth,
Youth, that untimely dies.
[1913]
Hello everyone! As a kind of hobby, I translate some Russian poems into English — in order to popularize it and to make at least an attempt to look at how it could look in another language. You know: translation of poetry is a difficult process, as it is always hard or even impossible just to set a focus — whether it is more correct to translate poem, not touching it rhythm, or to translate it without touching a meaning (which is in fact impossible). So I made my best with this earlier Esenin's poem (it is quite rough even in Russian, so rhytm is jumping sometimes). Hope it makes at least a little sense, even though I am not a professional at all :)