VLADIMIR VYSOTSKY

ВЛАДИМИР ВЫСОЦКИЙ

BALLAD ABOUT LOVE

When, after all, the great deluge was over,

The seas came back within their coastal lines,

Out of the foam of the receding water

The love came out qui'tly to the land.

And, for some time, it faded in the air,

And lasted for a forty forties span.

And some eccentrics that still do exist

Inhale with their full lungs that crazy mix

Expecting neither scolding nor rewarding

And thinking they are free to breath it in

They realize one day that they fit in

Somebody else's intermittent breathing.

But remember: feeling like a boat

Is afloat until you realize:

That the words «I love» mean simply that

«I can breath» and «I am still alive».

There will be plenty of despair and roaming.

The land of love is the most noble land.

The knights of love will have to go through testing

With ever higher standards and demands.

They will be separated by a distance,

Devoid of leisure, sleep without rest.

But nothing in the world can turn them back.

Those madmen do agree to pay it back

With any price, their lives won't be excepted

In order to preserve and to protect

Some indiscernible and magic thread

Which is by love between them now extended.

Wind and snow swept them off their feet,

Made them drunk and raised them from the dead

'Cause remember you have neither lived,

Nor have breathed, if you have never loved.

And most of them have choked with love forever.

They can't be reached no matter what you do.

They are accounted by idle talk and rumor,

And that account is kneaded on the blood.

But we will light up candles in the memory

Of those who died from the unknown love.

Their souls will always roam the blossomed rink,

And their voices then will blend in rhythm.

They will inhale eternity together.

And somewhere on a fragile river cross,

On narrow bridges of the universe

With a deep breath, they will then meet each other.

I will open fields for those who love!

Let them sing awake and in their rest.

I do breathe and that means I'm in love.

I'm in love and that means I exist.

БАЛЛАДА О ЛЮБВИ

Когда вода Всемирного потопа

Вернулась вновь в границы берегов,

Из пены уходящего потока

На сушу тихо выбралась Любовь --

И растворилась в воздухе до срока,

А срока было -- сорок сороков...

И чудаки -- еще такие есть --

Вдыхают полной грудью эту смесь,

И ни наград не ждут, ни наказанья, --

И, думая, что дышат просто так,

Они внезапно попадают в такт

Такого же неровного дыханья.

Только чувству, словно кораблю,

Долго оставаться наплаву,

Прежде чем поймешь, что «я люблю»

То же, что дышу или живу.

И много будет бедствий и скитаний:

Страна Любви -- великая страна!

И с рыцарей своих -- для испытаний --

Все строже станет спрашивать она:

Потребует разлук и расстояний,

Лишит покоя, отдыха и сна...

Но вспять безумцев не поворотить --

Они уже согласны заплатить:

Любой ценой -- и жизнью бы рискнули, --

Чтобы не дать порвать, чтоб сохранить

Волшебную невидимую нить,

Которую меж ними протянули.

Свежий ветер избранных пьянил,

С ног сбивал, из мертвых воскрешал, --

Потому что если не любил --

Значит, и не жил, и не дышал!

Но многих, захлебнувшихся любовью,

Не докричишься -- сколько не зови, --

Им счет ведут молва и пустословье,

Но этот счет замешан на крови.

А мы поставим свечи в изголовье

Погибших от невиданной любви...

И душам их дано бродить в цветах,

Их голосам дано сливаться в такт,

И вечностью дышать в одно дыханье,

И встретиться -- со вздохом на устах --

На хрупких переправах и мостах,

На узких перекрестках мирозданья.

Я поля влюбленным постелю --

Пусть поют во сне и наяву!..

Я дышу, и значит -- я люблю!

Я люблю, и значит -- я живу!

* * *

The hanging fir paws are trembled by wind,

While chirping of birds is quite anxious.

You live in a wild and so spellbound weald

From which an escape is so hopeless...

Let the bird-cherry tree dry to death in the blast.

Let the lilac leaves fall off like raindrops.

I am still gonna take you away from this place

To the palace with sounds of reed-pipes!

Your world by the wizards for ten hundred years

Is hidden from me and from sun rays.

Thus you still believe that there's nothing so dear

And beautiful as this blear forest.

Let the moon be at odds with the overcast sky.

Let the leaves have no dew in the morning.

I am still gonna take you away from this site

To the tower facing the briny!

Which day of the week, what a glorious hour

You'll come to me out of your hiding,

And I'll carry you far away in my arms

Where nobody will ever find you.

I will steal you away if it pleases your heart!

Didn't I squander in vain all those past years?

Look, I promise you heaven within our hut,

Should there be no tower or palace.

* * *

THE FASTIDIOUS HORSES

By the cliff, along the precipice, right over deadly ground,

With the rod, I strike my horses, strike them more to urge them forward.

There is no air to breath -- I gulp the haze -- I drink the rough wind.

With a fatal rapture, sensing: I am ruined, I am ruined!

Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!

Don't you listen to that stinging thong!

But what the horses I run into, so fastidious!

Neither lived I so long, nor I'll finish the song...

I'll let horses to drink, I'll complete this refrain,

Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...

I'll be gone -- swept off a palm -- like a fluff, by a heavy twister.

In a sledge -- I will be dragged -- galloping in a snowy morning.

Can't you switch from gallop race -- to unhurried pace, my horses.

Do prolong -- at least somewhat -- to the last refuge -- my final journey.

Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!

Don't take orders from my whip and thong!

But what the horses I run into, so fastidious!

Neither lived I so long, nor I'll finish the song...

I'll let horses to drink, I'll complete this refrain,

Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...

We're on time -- to visit God -- there is no such thing as lateness.

So why the angels, over there sing with those malicious voices?

Or perhaps it's just a bell -- which is choked with sob and wail as --

I beg to slow down the sledge -- I shout at my crazy horses.

Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!

I am begging you, don't rush along!

But what the horses I run into, so fastidious!

Since I haven’t lived long, let me finish the song...

I'll let horses to drink, I'll complete this refrain,

Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...

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