English Poetry. Claude McKay. On Broadway. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) On Broadway About me young careless feet Linger along the garish street; Above, a hundred shouting signs Shed down their bright fantastic glow Upon the merry crowd and lines Of moving carriages below. Oh wonderful is Broadway — only My heart, my heart […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. North and South. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) North and South O sweet are tropic lands for waking dreams! There time and life move lazily along. There by the banks of blue-and-silver streams Grass-sheltered crickets chirp incessant song, Gay-colored lizards loll all through the day, Their […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Memorial. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Memorial Your body was a sacred cell always, A jewel that grew dull in garish light, An opal which beneath my wondering gaze Gleamed rarely, softly throbbing in the night. I touched your flesh with reverential hands, […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. In Bondage. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) In Bondage I would be wandering in distant fields Where man, and bird, and beast, lives leisurely, And the old earth is kind, and ever yields Her goodly gifts to all her children free; Where life is fairer, lighter, […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Futility. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Futility Oh, I have tried to laugh the pain away, Let new flames brush my love-springs like a feather. But the old fever seizes me to-day, As sickness grips a soul in wretched weather. I have given up myself […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Exhortation: Summer 1919. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Exhortation: Summer 1919 Through the pregnant universe rumbles life’s terrific thunder, And Earth’s bowels quake with terror; strange and terrible storms break, Lightning-torches flame the heavens, kindling souls of men, thereunder: Africa! long ages sleeping, O my motherland, awake! […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Enslaved. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Enslaved Oh when I think of my long-suffering race, For weary centuries despised, oppressed, Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place In the great life line of the Christian West; And in the Black Land disinherited, Robbed in the ancient country of its […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. December, 1919. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) December, 1919 Last night I heard your voice, mother, The words you sang to me When I, a little barefoot boy, Knelt down against your knee. And tears gushed from my heart, mother, And passed beyond its wall, But though the fountain […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Baptism. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Baptism Into the furnace let me go alone; Stay you without in terror of the heat. I will go naked in–for thus ’’tis sweet– Into the weird depths of the hottest zone. I will not quiver in the frailest bone, You will not […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. America. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) America Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth! Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. After the Winter. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) After the Winter Some day, when trees have shed their leaves And against the morning’s white The shivering birds beneath the eaves Have sheltered for the night, We’ll turn our faces southward, love, Toward the summer isle Where bamboos spire to shafted […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Absence. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Absence Your words dropped into my heart like pebbles into a pool, Rippling around my breast and leaving it melting cool. Your kisses fell sharp on my flesh like dawn-dews from the limb, Of a fruit-filled lemon tree when […]

English Poetry. Robert Burns. Epitaph on a Person Nicknamed ‘The Marquis,’ Who Desired Burns to Write One on Him. Роберт Бернс. Эпитафия некоему джентльмену по прозвищу «Маркиз», пожелавшему, чтобы Роберт Бернс и для него сочинил что-нибудь «посмертное»

Robert Burns (Роберт Бернс) Epitaph on a Person Nicknamed ‘The Marquis,’ Who Desired Burns to Write One on Him Here lies a mock Marquis whose titles were shamm’d, If ever he rise, it will be to be damn’d. 1794 Перевод на русский язык Эпитафия некоему джентльмену по прозвищу […]