THE BOOK OF POEMS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ... - TopReferat

this shines an evening star, a "guide to thoughtful meditation." At this elevation and level
of high abstraction, the speaker discusses the very nature of time and man’s place within
it (lines 47-58):
Как птица в воздухе, как рыба в океане,
Как скользкий червь в сырых пластах земли,
Как саламандра в пламени,—так человек
Во времени. Кочевник полудикий,
По смене лун, по очеркам созвездий
Уже он силится измерить эту бездну
И в письменах неопытных заносит
События, как острова на карте…
Но сын отца сменяет. Грады, царства,
Законы, истины—преходят. Человеку
Ломать и строить—равная услада:
Он изобрел историю—он счастлив!
Like a bird in air, or a fish in the ocean,
Like a slippery worm in moist layers of earth,
Like a salamander in flame—so is man
In time. The half-wild nomad,
According to the changing of the moons and the outlines of the constellations
Already tries to measure this abyss
And in inexperienced characters he notes down
Events, like islands on a map…
But the son takes the place of the father. Towns, kingdoms,
Laws, truths—all pass. For man
It is an equal pleasure to break down and to build:
He invented history—he is happy!
From his earliest nomadic days, man has tried to contain and quantify time in calendars
and chronicles. He is content with his invention of history—a linear record of the
progression and succession of families, kingdoms, laws and truths. He falsely believes
that he has achieved some degree of control over time—that he has successfully
measured its abyss (бездна). But an abyss is by definition immeasurable. Time’s terrible
expanse (ужасный простор, line 39), its wide-open chasm (пучина, line 46) can be
neither measured nor contained. It does not have an absolute beginning or end, but rather
is always present as an elemental container of human life, just as air contains the birds
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