Воздушный город (The Aerial City) by Afanasy Fet

At the peep o day in the lift forgether

bonnie cloods like a steepled toun,

wi mony a dome like a bubble o gowd

and white roofs and white waas blinterin doun.

 

O yon is my ain white city –

or I came to the earth I bade there!

abune the derk warld quhile it sleeps

in the reid lift skinklan fair.

 

But it hauds awa to the North,

sails saftly, saftly, and high –

and a voice is fain that I’d join it –

but gies me nae wings to try.

 

by Афанасий Афанасьевич Фет (Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet)

a.k.a. Шеншин (Shenshin)

(1846)

translated by Hugh MacDiarmid

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Fun fact: MacDiarmid translation of Fey’s poem into a Scottish brogue. Here is a brief glossary to aid those not familiar with it.

waas blinterin = walls gleaming

or … bade = Before… lived there

quhile = while

reid skinlan = red sky glittering

For those wanting a more straight forward English translation Воздушный город (The Aerial City) by Afanasy Fet a.k.a. Shenshin

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