"Nameless Day" ("Bezymyannyi Den' "), "Sovetsky Pisatel' ", Moscow, 1977. – Collection of poetry:

* * *

Look, my darling,
the cradle is hanging over an abyss
and all the winds rock
the cradle from night to morning.
And why, living on the edge,
do we play with our fate
and construct a solid home
and give birth in that house.
And the smile of the mother
blossoms over the light cradle.
The edge of the lacy baby-blanket
has slipped off the earth's surface.

          1976

Translated by Richard McKane

          In Russian

* * *

Diversity of grass and flower!
Go catch them in the leisure hour
In rain or sun net – and be rich!
I catch them in my word net...which
Is why they're very hard to capture
And all too often they flit past you
So once more you've an empty net,
No grass or petal in it yet.
But my wish is that when it's chilly
I still may see a flowering lily,
That every moment of delight
Should stay, not vanish from my sight.
That fair June days and nights star-sprangled
In my fair net of words entangled
Should gladden with their warmth sublime
The very dead of wintertime;
That every one now seen or seeing,
Now singing songs of joy or weeping,
All who tomorrow shall be gone
Should in my poetry live on.

          1975

Translated by Peter Tempest

          In Russian
          Read by the Author