Dorothy Parker

My hand, a little raised, might press a star-Where I may look, the frosted peaks are spun,
So shaped before Olympus was begun,
Spanned each to each, now, by a silver bar.
Thus to face Beauty have I traveled far

And let her loves, when she is dead,
Write this above her bones:
"No more she lives to give us bread
Who asked her only stones."

Sleep, pretty lady, the night is enfolding you;
Drift, and so lightly, on crystalline streams.
Wrapped in its perfumes, the darkness is holding you;
Starlight bespangles the way of your dreams.

I cannot rest, I cannot rest
In strait and shiny wood,
My woven hands upon my breast--
The dead are all so good!The earth is cool across their eyes;…

Вслед за солнечным лучом,
По путям ночных ветров,
Где земли и неба дом,
Вспенив моря серебро,…

There's little to have but the things I had,
There's little to bear but the things I bore.
There's nothing to carry and naught to add,
And glory to Heaven, I paid the score.There's little to do but I did before,…

Needle, needle, dip and dart,
Thrusting up and down,
Where's the man could ease a heart
Like a satin gown?See the stitches curve and crawl…

Because your eyes are slant and slow,
Because your hair is sweet to touch,
My heart is high again; but oh,
I doubt if this will get me much.

Should they whisper false of you.  Never trouble to deny;
Should the words they say be true,  Weep and storm and swear they lie.

Now it's over, and now it's done;
Why does everything look the same?
Just as bright, the unheeding sun, —
Can't it see that the parting came?

Достойней короля не встретить —
Я в том клянусь вам — меж людьми.
Союз с таким — до самой смерти,
И вместе в Рай войти. Аминь.(Льна пряжа, все вооруженье…

Her mind lives in a quiet room,
A narrow room, and tall,
With pretty lamps to quench the gloom And mottoes on the wall.
There all the things are waxen neat And set in decorous lines;

Lilacs blossom just as
Now my heart is shattered.
If I bowled it down the street,
Who's to say it mattered?

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.Four be the things I'd been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.Three be the things I shall have till I die:…

Солнце покрыла мгла, и
Тьма зачернила луну;
Я любовь ему отдала, и
Он её не вернул.Перевод Валентина Емелина

И чего только не было мне дано,
И чего только не стерпела без плача.
Ни отнять ничего, ни прибавить, но
Слава Богу, мой счёт оплачен.И чего только делать не довелось,…

When I was young and bold and strong,
Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong!
My plume on high, my flag unfurled,
I rode away to right the world.…

I never may turn the loop of a road Where sudden, ahead, the sea is Iying,
But my heart drags down with an ancient load- My heart, that a second before was flying.
I never behold the quivering rain- And sweeter the rain than a lover to…

Ghosts of all my lovely sins,
Who attend too well my pillow,
Gay the wanton rain begins;
Hide the limp and tearful willow,Turn aside your eyes and ears,…

Drink and dance and laugh and lie,  Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!  (But, alas, we never do.)

I always saw,
I always said  If I were grown and free,
I'd have a gown of reddest red  As fine as you could see,
To wear out walking, sleek and slow,  Upon a Summer day,

If I had a shiny gun,
I could have a world of
Speeding bullets through the
Of the folk who give me pains;

I never see that prettiest thing-
A cherry bough gone white with Spring-
But what I think, "How gay 'twould be
To hang me from a flowering tree."

Lady, lady, never
Conversation toward your heart;
Keep your pretty words serene;
Never murmur what you mean.