1.
Under the sixth birch
At the corner church
On the frosty dawn
Wait, Don Juan!
But with groom, alas,
And my life I swear,
There is nowhere
In my land to kiss!
We don’t have a fountain,
And the well did freeze,
Strict, severe eyes
Does Madonna have.
And so that the beauties
Trifles would not hear
We have loud and clear
Ringing of the bell.
Here I would have lived,
But—I will grow old,
You don’t like my world
O the handsome one.
Ah, in a bear coat
It’s hard to recognize you,
If not for your lips too,
O Don Juan!
2.
Long upon the foggy dawn
The snowstorm did weep.
In a bed of snow they lay
Don Juan to sleep.
No hot stars above his head,
Not a roaring fountain …
Othodox cross is on the chest
Of our Don Juan.
I have brought a Sevillian
Fan, black, so that night
That’s eternal, for yourself
Would become more light.
That you’d see a woman’s beauty
With your own sight,
I will bring without a doubt
A heart to you tonight.
And for now—from distant lands—
Sleep now, sleep in peace!—
You have come to me. Complete,
Don Juan, is your list.
3.
Aren’t you tired, after so many roses,
Cities and toasts
To love me? You’re almost a skeleton,
I’m almost a ghost.
And why should I know, that you had to call
On a higher power?
And why should I know, that there was smell of Nile
In my hair?
No, I better tell you a tale:
January it was.
A monk with a mask carried a flashlight.
Someone threw a rose.
Someone’s drunken voice at cathedral walls
Prayed and swore.
Don Juan of Castille met Carmen
At this hour.
4.
Exactly—midnight.
Moon—like a hawk.
“Why—do you peer?”
“Thus—I peer!”
“Do you like me?” “No.”
“Do you recognize me?” “Maybe.”
“I am Don Juan.”
“And I am Carmen.”
5.
And this Don Juan had Donna Anna,
And this Don Juan possessed a sword.
Of the beautiful, unhappy Don Juan
This from people is the only word.
But I was a clever one today:
I at midnight stepped on roadside,
Someone went along with me in stride
Calling names.
And in fog the staff paled, a strange one …
There was no Donna Anna for Don Juan!
6.
And the silk sash is falling
To his feet—a snake heavenly …
And “someday, when she’s underground,
You will calm down” they tell me.
I see my profile, old
And arrogant in brocade white.
And somewhere—guitars—guitars—
And youths in a cloak like the night.
And somebody under mask hiding:
“Recognize!”—“I don’t know”—“Recognize!”
And the silk sash is falling
On a square round like paradise.
7.
And fanning in eyes of the coming
Sadness and sin,
You pass the city—brutally-black,
Heavenly-thin.
Covered with torment, like with fog,
Is your eye.
In loop—a rose, in all the pockets—
Words of love. Aye!
I hear your call over the restaurant
Violin.
I send a smile to you from the distance,
Robber king!
And then I recognize that same look,
Spreading my wings,
With which in Castille at me stared
Your older sibling.