When you are old/Когда ты станешь старой

These lines were written by William Butler Yeats, probably the most renowned of Irish poets. They are dedicated to Maud Gonne, an actress, Irish activist and beautiful woman, whom Yeats was passionately in love with for a good 50 years of his life. Maud Gonne never became his wife.

W.B. Yeats, translation by Serafima Kuropatkina

Когда ты станешь сонной и седой,

Кивая у огня, возьми тот том,

Листай его и вспоминай о том,

Как был глубок и мягок взор младой.

Как много тех, что радость твоих дней

И красоту превозносили вслух,

Но лишь один любил скитаний дух

И на лице печальный бег теней.

И у камина голову склонив,

Шепнешь, немного грустно, что с тех пор

Любовь гуляет по вершинам гор,

Его лицо в мерцаньи звезд сокрыв.

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true;

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars

Murmus, a little sadly, how love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.