For your delight please take these from my hands | For your delight please take these from my hands

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by Osip Emil'evich Mandelstam (1891 - 1938)

Translation Singable translation © by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (1948 - 2020)

Возьми на радость из моих ладоней

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG

Возьми на радость из моих ладоней
Немного солнца и немного мёда,
Как нам велели пчёлы Персефоны.

Не отвязать неприкреплённой лодки,
Не услыхать в меха обутой тени,
Не превозмочь в дремучей жизни страха.

Нам остаются только поцелуи,
Мохнатые, как маленькие пчёлы,
Что умирают, вылетев из улья.

Они шуршат в прозрачных дебрях ночи,
Их родина — дремучий лес Тайгета,
Их пища — время, медуница, мята.

Возьми ж на радость дикий мой подарок —
Невзрачное сухое ожерелье
Из мёртвых пчёл, мёд превративших в солнце.

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Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

by Osip Emil'evich Mandelstam (1891 - 1938), written 1920, appears in Tristia, first published 1922 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Elena Olegovna Firsova (b. 1950), "Возьми на радость из моих ладоней", op. 22 no. 2, published 1979, first performed 1981 [ soprano and chamber orchestra ], from cantata Tristia, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov) , "For your delight please take these from my hands", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Dmitri Smirnov

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-29
Line count: 15
Word count: 81

For your delight please take these from my hands

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

For your delight please take these from my hands:
A little of honey and a little of sun --
As Persephone's bees have commanded.

As an untied boat cannot be loosed,
And a fur-booted shadow can't be heard,
Fears of the wilds of life can't be defeated.

The only thing remained to us -- is kisses
The furry kisses, like the little bees,
Which perish flying out of their hive.

They rustle in the clear wilderness of night,
Their homeland is dark forests of Taygetos,
Their food is time, and honeysuckle, and mint.

For your delight please take my awkward present:
This simple unadorned dried necklace
Of dead bees who turned honey into sun.

Text Authorship:

Singable translation by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (1948 - 2020), "For your delight please take these from my hands", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Russian (Русский) by Osip Emil'evich Mandelstam (1891 - 1938), written 1920, appears in Tristia, first published 1922
- Go to the text page.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-29
Line count: 15
Word count: 112