Марионетки [Marionetki] [English translation]

Fading faces and lifeless colors,

Whether a man or doll.

Atta glance they're the same,

Like a day to any other day.

I'm asleep, I'm resting,

Yet I invite you to my booth,

Where dolls look so much like man.

Harlequins and pirates, ringmasters and acrobats, 1

And an adversary who instills fear. 2

The Wolf and the Hare, the Tiger Act,

All of them marionettes,

In deft-yet-tense hands, 3

The Wolf and the Hare, the Tiger Act,

All of them marionettes,

In deft-yet-tense hand.

Dolls maneuvered by strings,

Their faces smiling,

While a jovial clown plays his horn.

And in the process of performing,

An illusion is made,

That the dolls are really alive!

Oh, but what a shame,

That their creator is not seen,

Suspended by their strings from the void,

The dolls are obedient to him,

And innocently we believe,

That the dolls can talk,

The dolls are obedient to him,

And innocently we believe,

That the dolls can talk.

But their creator blows the candles out for the final time.

The Great Ball is over, and the evening ends,

Soon the moon will shimmer through the clouds,

And the dolls will be pulled from their strings,

Resting on a bed of mothballs,

Wrapped in rags within an antique chest.

And the dolls will be pulled from their strings,

Resting on a bed of mothballs,

Wrapped in rags within an antique chest.

1. Lynch me! I dare you!2. I went with adversary for poetic reasons.3. Deft - skilled or dexterous, Tense - overworked. In literature (and poetry) you can accomplish "Deft and overworked" in a more poetic way using a method like the one I use. And I'm not copying off of Barsiscev, I actually applaud him for his usage of deft in this case.