Июль (July) by Boris Pasternak

A phantom roams through the house.
There are footsteps in upstairs rooms.
All day, shades flit through the attic.
Through the house a goblin roams.
 
He loafs about, gets in the way,
He interferes and causes trouble,
Creeps up to the bed in a dressing gown,
And pulls the cloth off the table.
 
He does not wipe his feet at the door,
But whirls in with the draft, unseen,
And hurls the curtain to the ceiling
Like a prima ballerina.
 
 
Who can this irritating oaf,
This ghost, this phantom be?
Of course, it is our summer guest,
Our visitor on the spree.
 
For all his little holiday
We let him have the whole house.
July with his tempestuous air
Has rented rooms from us.
 
July, who brings in thistledown
And burs that cling to his clothes;
July, who treats all windows as doors,
And sprinkles his talk with oaths.
 
Untidy urchin of the steppe,
Smelling of lime-trees, grass and rye,
Beet-tops, and fragrant fennel,
Meadowsweet breath of July.
 
 
by  Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к
(Boris Leonidovich Pasternak)
 (1956)
 from  Когда разгуляется 
 (When The Weather Clears)
 translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France 

Pasternak’s poem ‘July’ recited in it’s original Russian form by Irina Saglay

Beneath is the original Russian Cyrillic version of the poem.

По дому бродит привиденье.
Весь день шаги над головой.
На чердаке мелькают тени.
По дому бродит домовой.

Везде болтается некстати,
Мешается во все дела,
В халате крадется к кровати,
Срывает скатерть со стола.

Ног у порога не обтерши,
Вбегает в вихре сквозняка
И с занавеской, как с танцоршей,
Взвивается до потолка.

Кто этот баловник-невежа
И этот призрак и двойник?
Да это наш жилец приезжий,
Наш летний дачник-отпускник.

На весь его недолгий роздых
Мы целый дом ему сдаем.
Июль с грозой, июльский воздух
Снял комнаты у нас внаем.

Июль, таскающий в одёже
Пух одуванчиков, лопух,
Июль, домой сквозь окна вхожий,
Всё громко говорящий вслух.

Степной нечесаный растрепа,
Пропахший липой и травой,
Ботвой и запахом укропа,
Июльский воздух луговой.
 
 

Advertisement

‘No one will be in the house’ by Boris Pasternak

 No one will be in the house
 But twilight. Just the same
 Winter day in the gap
 The gathered curtains frame.
 
 Only swiftly beating wings
 Of white flakes as they fall.
 Only roofs and snow, and but
 For roofs and snow – no one at all.
 
 And frost again will start too sketch.
 And I again will find despairs
 Of last year whirling me back
 To another winter's affairs.
 
 And they again will sting me
 With last year's guilt, the same,
 Unexpiated. Lack of wood
 Will cramp the window-frame.
 
 Then suddenly the curtain
 Will shudder at the door
 And you will come in, like the future,
 Making no sound on the floor.
 
 And you will stand there wearing
 Something white, no lace, no braid,
 Something made from the fabric
 From which snowflakes are made.


 by  Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к
 (Boris Leonidovich Pasternak)
 (1931)
 translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France