how great it can be
This poem was published in the Big Bridge Twenty-First Century Russian Poetry Anthology.
View it here: http://bigbridge.org/BB17/poetry/twentyfirstcenturyrussianpoetry/twenty-first-century-russian-poetry-contents.html#
A review: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/07/a-new-anthology-of-21st-century-russian-poetry/ http://rbth.ru/arts/2013/07/23/fifty_russian_poets_unveiled_in_online_anthology_28317.html
Как хорошо, когда дни, иногда и недели
ничто в голове не толпится, на ум не приходит,
будто на уши наушники с музыкой вздели
и музыка плавно качается, как пароходик.
Вот капитан у руля, а вот и матросы,
над радиорубкой вполсилы играет динамик,
к дальнему брегу доносятся лишь отголосы,
а к ближнему — голосы, но на мгновение, на миг.
Oh, how great it can be when for days, weeks sometimes
nothing crowds in my head, nothing comes to my mind
as if headphones with music slid over my ears,
music that smoothly sways like a small ship at sea.
Here's the captain at helm, there the sailors on board,
over the radio shack the loudspeaker plays at half-swell,
but mere echoes are all that reach to the far shore;
voices reach the near shore—but just for an instant, a spell.