IVAN BUNIN, "The Waltz," ВАЛЬС Translation into English

Иван Бунин

(1870-1953)

Вальс

Похолодели лепестки

Раскрытых губ, по-детски влажных -

И зал плывет, плывет в протяжных

Напевах счастья и тоски.

Сиянье люстр и зыбь зеркал

Слились в один мираж хрустальный -

И веет, веет ветер бальный

Теплом душистых опахал.

(1906)

Ivan Bunin

The Waltz

Literal Translation

Petals of wide-parted lips,

Childlike-moist, now grown cold,

And the ballroom floats on, drifts on

In elongated notes of both yearning and joy.

The chandeliers’ gleam and the ripples in mirrors

Meld into one solid crystalline mirage,

And the breeze of the ball wafts on, wafts on,

Breathing the warmth of perfumed fans.

Literary Translation/Imitation by U.R. Bowie

Petals of wide-parted, childlike-moist lips,

Now gone to numbness and pursed full of chill,

While the ballroom floats on, and its sounds ever spill

Over long grievous longings that raptures eclipse.

The mirrors in undulance, chandeliers’ gleam

Meld to form crystalline ghostly mirage,

While fans' fragrance fashions a dim bricolage

Made of warm airy spectres from out of a dream.