Yea, we are Scythians, yea, Asians, a squint-eyed, greedy brood

Oct 22, 2015 10:13

В 1918 году А.Блок написал странное, переполненное мощной энергией стихотворение - предупреждение Европе... Несмотря на почти прошедший век, "Скифы" все также гремят в наше время, как и в годы Первой Мировой и начало страшного русского братоубийства... Это пугает... Приведу тут понравившийся перевод на де-факто международный английский.



The Scythians

“Pan-Mongolism-though the word is strange,

My ear acclaims its gongs.”

-VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV.

YOU are the millions, we are multitude


And multitude and multitude.


Come, fight! Yea, we are Scythians,


Yea, Asians, a squint-eyed, greedy brood.


For you: the centuries; for us: one hour.
    

Like slaves, obeying and abhorred,


We were the shield between the breeds


Of Europe and the raging Mongol horde.


For centuries your ancient hammers forged


And drowned the thunder of far hates.
      

You heard like wild fantastic tales


Old Lisbon’s and Messina’s sudden fates.


Yea, so to love as our hot blood can love


Long since you ceased to love; the taste


You have forgotten, of a love
      

That burns like fire and like the fire lays waste.


All things we love: clear numbers’ burning chill,


The ecstasies that secret bloom.


All things we know: the Gallic light


And the parturient Germanic gloom.
    

And we remember all: Parisian hells,


The breath of Venice’s lagoons,


Far fragrance of green lemon groves,


And dim Cologne’s cathedral-splintered moons.


And flesh we love, its color and its taste,
    

Its deathy odor, heavy, raw.


And is it our guilt if your bones


May crack beneath our powerful supple paw?


It is our wont to seize wild colts at play:


They rear and impotently shake
    

Wild manes-we crush their mighty croups.


And shrewish women slaves we tame-or break.


Come unto us, from the black ways of war,


Come to our peaceful arms and rest.


Comrades, while it is not too late,
     

Sheathe the old sword. May brotherhood be blest.


If not, we have not anything to lose.


We also know old perfidies.


By sick descendants you will be


Accursed for centuries and centuries.
  

To welcome pretty Europe, we shall spread


And scatter in the tangled space


Of our wide thickets. We shall turn


To you our alien Asiatic face.


For centuries your eyes were toward the East.
      

Our pearls you hoarded in your chests,


And mockingly you bode the day


When you could aim your cannon at our breasts.


The time has come! Disaster beats its wings.


With every day the insults grow.
  

The hour will strike, and without ruth


Your proud and powerless Paestums be laid low.


Oh pause, old world, while life still beats in you.


Oh weary one, oh worn, oh wise!


Halt here, as once did Œdipus
   

Before the Sphinx’s enigmatic eyes.


Yea, Russia is a Sphinx. Exulting, grieving,


And sweating blood, she cannot sate


Her eyes that gaze and gaze and gaze


At you with stone-lipped love for you, and hate.
      

Go, all of you, to Ural fastnesses,


We clear the battle-ground for war;


Cold Number shaping guns of steel


Where the fierce Mongol hordes in frenzy pour.


But we, we shall no longer be your shield.
    

But, careless of the battle-cries,


Shall watch the deadly duel seethe,


Aloof, with indurate and narrow eyes.


We shall not move when the ferocious Hun


Despoils the corpse and leaves it bare,
     

Burns towns, herds cattle in the church,


And smell of white flesh roasting fills the air.


For the last time, old world, we bid you come,


Feast brotherly within our walls.


To share our peace and glowing toil
     

Once only the barbarian lyre calls.


стихи

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