English translations of 2 Ариозо для баса с сопровождением фортепиано (Ariozo dlja basa s soprovozhdeniem fortepiano), opus 49

Amid a desert, arid and bare, 
In soil, flaming with heat, 
The Upas tree, like a fearsome guard, 
Stands alone in the entire universe.

The nature of the barren steppes
Created it in the day of wrath
And soaked with deadly poison
Its green branches and its roots.

The poison percolates through its bark
Melting from the midday heat, 
And congeals by evening
Into a dense translucent resin.

Birds nor beasts roam not near it:
Only a black whirlwind
Occasionally would fly nearby - 
And rush away, but already deadly. 

And if a wondering cloud would sprinkle
Upon its dense foliage, 
From its branches the toxic rain
Flows down into the sizzling sand.
 
But a human sent another human
To the Upas tree with a commanding glance;
And he obediently set off on a journey, 
Returning by the morning with the poison.

He brought back the deadly resin
And a branch with withered leaves;
The sweat across his pale face
Was flowing in cold streams. 

He weakened and laid down
Under a tent upon a trestle-bed,
And the poor slave died
By the feet of an unconquerable sovereign. 

Meanwhile the Tsar drenched with that poison
His obedient arrows
And sent around death
To neighbours in foreign lands.

Tormented by spiritual anguish
I dragged myself through a grim desert, 
And a six-winged seraphim
Appeared to me at a crossroads;

With his fingers, light as a dream, 
He touched my eyes:
They burst open wide, all-seeing,
Like those of a startled eagle.

He touched my ears  
And they were filled with clamour and ringing:
I heard the rumbling of the heavens, 
The high flight of the angels, 
The crawling of the underwater reptilians
And the germinating of the grapevine in the valleys.
 
He pressed against my lips
And tore out my tongue, 
Both exuberant and sly, 
And into my frozen lips
The sting of a wise snake
He pushed with his bloody hand.

He cleaved my chest with a sword
And took out my trembling heart, 
And thrust into my opened breast
A flaming piece of coal.

I lay in the desert like a corpse. 
And God's voice called to me:
"Arise, my prophet, behold and hark, 
Submit to my will, 
And, traveling across the seas and lands, 
Spark people's hearts with verse."