[Carl Copeland]

Mikhail Zenkevich (1886-1973) has been called the “fourth Acmeist”—a distant fourth in terms of popularity behind Gumilev, Akhmatova and Mandelstam. In the Soviet period, he published mainly translations, notably of American poetry. At his death in 1973, he was the last of the Acmeists.


No longer is the hot sun’s haze
a torment, but the lustrous chill
of moonlight in the grain still fails
to calm the crickets’ anxious trill.
As wispy clouds go flocking by,
across the desolate expanse,
their silver fleeces dust the sky
with streaks of fuzzy radiance.
And, thickening the milky night’s
oppression, lightning now and then,
as if a naughty girl, delights
in flashing a vermilion hem.


Crib

No longer does the sun torment with its heat haze,
but neither does the moon’s cool shine
among the grain appease
the anxious chatter of the katydids/bush crickets.
The moonlit sky is luminous and desolate,
and cirrus/feathery clouds
pass like a silver-fleeced flock,
lightly dusting [the sky] with a radiant haze.
And only occasionally silent lightning,
thickening/deepening the oppression/weight of milky night,
as if a naughty/saucy girl,
flashes a red hem.


Original

Уж солнце маревом не мает,
Но и луны прохладный блеск
Среди хлебов не унимает
Кузнечиков тревожный треск.
Светло, пустынно в небе лунном,
И перистые облака
Проходят стадом среброрунным,
Лучистой мглой пыля слегка.
И только изредка, зарница
Сгущая млечной ночи гнет,
Как будто девка-озорница,
Подолом красным полыхнет.