Був тихим дім і був спокійним світ.
Читач став книгою; і ніч була
Як книга, розуміюча буття.
Був тихим дім і був спокійним світ.
Немов не з книги мовились слова,
Коли читач схилявся до рядків,
Хотів схилятися, хотів ще більш
Ученості, правдива літня ніч
Являла книги істинні думки.
Був тихим дім, бо мало бути так.
Ця тиша - частка розуму і сенс:
Основа досконалості рядків.
І був спокійним світ. Правдивий світ,
Єдиний сенс якого сам в собі
Спокійний, літо й ніч самі в собі
Й читач схилилися над книгою.
WALLACE STEVENS The House Was Quiet and The World Was Calm
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.
And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.