Голубой шарик (Blue Balloon) by Bulat Okudzhava

The little girl weeps – her balloon is gone.
They try to comfort her, but the balloon flies on.

The young girl weeps – no one will marry her.
They try to comfort her, but the balloon flies on.

The woman weeps – her husband is untrue.
They try to comfort her, but the balloon flies on.

Grandmother weeps – life was too short.
The balloon came back, and it is sky-blue.

.

by ბულატ ოკუჯავა
a.k.a. Булат Шалвович Окуджава
a.k.a. Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava
(1957)
translated by Yakov Hornstein

Bulat Okudzhava singing the song featuring these lyrics

Beneath is the original Russian version of the poem in Cyrillic

Голубой шарик

Девочка плачет: шарик улетел.
Ее утешают, а шарик летит.

Девушка плачет: жениха все нет.
Ее утешают, а шарик летит.

Женщина плачет: муж ушел к другой.
Ее утешают, а шарик летит.

Плачет старушка: мало пожила…
А шарик вернулся, а он голубой.

Countering by R. S. Thomas

Then there is the clock's

commentary, the continuing

prose that is the under-current

of all poetry. We listen

to it as, on a desert island,

men do to the subdued

music of their blood in a shell.


Then take my hand that is

of the bone the island

is made of, and looking at

me say what time it is

on love's face, for we have

no business here other than

to disprove certainties the clock knows.


by R. S. Thomas

from Experimenting with an Amen (1986)

‘People, Years and Nations’ by Velimir Khlebnikov

People, years and nations

run away forever

like a flowing river.

In nature’s supple mirror

We’re the fish,

dark’s ghosts are gods,

and the constellations

knot night’s nets.

 

by Велимир Хлебников (Velimir Khlebnikov)

a.k.a. Виктор Владимирович Хлебников

(Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov)

(1915)

translated by Robert Chandler

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Fun fact: This was written shortly before the centenary of Derzhavin’s death, continuing the theme’s of his last poem.

‘What’s War? What’s Plague…’ by Anna Akhmatova

What’s war? What’s plague? We know that they will pass,

Judgement is passed, we see an end to them.

But which of us can cope with this fear, this –

The terror that is named the flight of time?

 

by Анна Ахматова (Anna Akhmatova)

Komarovo, 9 September (1964)

from Седьмая книга (The Seventh Book)

translation by D. M. Thomas

‘Blows The Swan Wind…’ by Anna Akhmatova

Blows the swan wind,

The blue sky’s smeared

With blood; the anniversary

Of your love’s first days draws near.

 

You have destroyed

My sorcery; like water the years

Have drifted by. Why

Aren’t you old, but as you were?

 

Your tender voice even more ringing…

Only your serene brow

Has taken from time’s wing

A scattering of snow.

 

– by Анна Ахматова (Anna Akhmatova) (1922)

– from Anno Domini MCMXXI translation by D. M. Thomas