Поют свистками составы, составы
Сладкой доселе весной.
Вскормленные цветами бизоны
Давно миновавших лет
Отревели свое, отбодали свое,
Отрыскали по холмам свое,
И индейцев-поуни нет,
И черноногих нет.
THE GHOSTS OF THE BUFFALOES
Last night at black midnight I woke with a cry,
The windows were shaking, there was thunder on high,
The floor was a-tremble, the door was a-jar,
White fires, crimson fires, shone from afar.
I rushed to the door yard. The city was gone.
My home was a hut without orchard or lawn.
It was mud-smear and logs near a whispering stream,
Nothing else built by man could I see in my dream...
Then...
Ghost-kings came headlong, row upon row,
Gods of the Indians, torches aglow.
They mounted the bear and the elk and the deer,
And eagles gigantic, aged and sere,
They rode long-horn cattle, they cried "A-la-la."
They lifted the knife, the bow, and the spear,
They lifted ghost-torches from dead fires below,
The midnight made grand with the cry "A-la-la."
The midnight made grand with a red-god charge,
A red-god show,
A red-god show,
"A-la-la, a-la-la, a-la-la, a-la-la."
With bodies like bronze, and terrible eyes
Came the rank and the file, with catamount cries,
Gibbering, yipping, with hollow-skull clacks,
Riding white bronchos with skeleton backs,
Scalp-hunters, beaded and spangled and bad,
Naked and lustful and foaming and mad,
Flashing primeval demoniac scorn,
Blood-thirst and pomp amid darkness reborn,
Power and glory that sleep in the grass
While the winds and the snows and the great rains pass.
They crossed the gray river, thousands abreast,
They rode in infinite lines to the west,
Tide upon tide of strange fury and foam,
Spirits and wraiths, the blue was their home,
The sky was their goal where the star-flags are furled,
And on past those far golden splendors they whirled.
They burned to dim meteors, lost in the deep.
And I turned in dazed wonder, thinking of sleep.
And the wind crept by
Alone, unkempt, unsatisfied,
The wind cried and cried —
Muttered of massacres long past,
Buffaloes in shambles vast...
An owl said: "Hark, what is a-wing?"
I heard a cricket carolling,
I heard a cricket carolling,
I heard a cricket carolling.
Then...
Snuffing the lightning that crashed from on high
Rose royal old buffaloes, row upon row.
The lords of the prairie came galloping by.
And I cried in my heart "A-la-la, a-la-la,
A red-god show,
A red-god show,
A-la-la, a-la-la, a-la-la, a-la-la."
Buffaloes, buffaloes, thousands abreast,
A scourge and amazement, they swept to the west.
With black bobbing noses, with red rolling tongues,
Coughing forth steam from their leather-wrapped lungs,
Cows with their calves, bulls big and vain,
Goring the laggards, shaking the mane,
Stamping flint feet, flashing moon eyes,
Pompous and owlish, shaggy and wise.
Like sea-cliffs and caves resounded their ranks
With shoulders like waves, and undulant flanks.
Tide upon tide of strange fury and foam,
Spirits and wraiths, the blue was their home,
The sky was their goal where the star-flags are furled,
And on past those far golden splendors they whirled.
They burned to dim meteors, lost in the deep,
And I turned in dazed wonder, thinking of sleep.
I heard a cricket's cymbals play,
A scarecrow lightly flapped his rags,
And a pan that hung by his shoulder rang,
Rattled and thumped in a listless way,
And now the wind in the chimney sang,
The wind in the chimney,
The wind in the chimney,
The wind in the chimney,
Seemed to say: —
"Dream, boy, dream,
If you anywise can.
To dream is the work
Of beast or man.
Life is the west-going dream-storm's breath,
Life is a dream, the sigh of the skies,
The breath of the stars, that nod on their pillows
With their golden hair mussed over their eyes."
The locust played on his musical wing,
Sang to his mate of love's delight.
I heard the whippoorwill's soft fret.
I heard a cricket carolling,
I heard a cricket carolling,
I heard a cricket say: "Good-night, good-night,
Good-night, good-night,...good-night."
ПРИЗРАКИ БИЗОНОВ (перевод М.Зенкевича)
Я с криком проснулся во мраке ночном
Звенели все стекла, ударил гром
И пол колебался, и огненный шар
За дверью открытой блеснул, как пожар
Наружу я выбежал. Город исчез
Где сад был фруктовый - там девственный лес
Где дом мой - блокгауз, и рядом поток.
Пустынно и тихо, и я одинок.
Вдруг...
Боги индейцев помчались рядами,
Вздымая пылающих факелов знамя
Медведей, лосей и орлов оседлав
Неслись они бешеным смерчем, стремглав
С пронзительным воплем "А ля-ля!"
Неслись они, копья и луки подняв
Вздымая в кострах догоревших пламя
От топота тяжко гудела земля
И несся, угрюмую полночь тревожа
Вопль краснокожих
Вопль краснокожих
"А-ля-ля! А-ля-ля! А-ля-ля! А-ля-ля!"
Бронзовотелы, скопищем диким
Скакали индейцы с воинственным криком
Пронзительно воя, вопя и рыча
Мустангов серых своих горяча
Сниматели скальпов, охотники прерий
Неслись за добычей, как хищные звери
В погоне за грозным величьем былым
За славой, рассеянной ветром, как дым
За славой, погасшей, как отблеск кровавый
Упавшей дождями на тучные травы
На запад, чрез бурную реку, вброд
Промчались для диких привольных охот
Стремительным вихрем в померкшую синь
Как призраки, духи небесных пустынь
Их пастбище - небо, где звездные степи
Раскинулись в огненном великолепье
Исчезли. И пылью клубился свет
и я с изумленьем смотрел им вслед
В ночной тишине
Лишь ветер уныло
Нашептывал мне
О том, что было
Много лет тому назад
Об избиеньях бизоньих стад
Сова прокричала "Чу, я лечу"
И запиликал смычок
Полночь прокликал сверчок
Полночь прокликал сверчок.