The Black Man Part 1 by Sergei Esenin

My  friend, my friсend,

I got  very, and very illness.

I don't know where from came this pain.

Either the wind over  the empty

Deserted  field whistles.

Or, like a grove in September, 

Alcohol showers my brain.

My head flaps its ears,

Like a bird does by wings.

It is beyond its power to loom

On the neck of my leg.

Black man,

Black, black,

Black man

Sits down on my bed kip;

Black man does not let me sleep all night crud.

Black inscrutably man

Runs his finger over a vile book

And, ululating over me

Like a monk over a defunct dead,

Reads me the unclear life

Of some scoundrel and drunksoak

Bringing me sadness and fear dread,

Black inscrutable man

Blackish, blackish…

"Listen, listen," he mutters to ear of mine,-

“The book contains many of beautiful

Thoughts and plans.

This man lived in a land clime

Of the most vile thugs and cunning charlatans.

In December at that country

The snow is pure as for the devil,

And blizzards set

Merry spinning wheels in motion.

That man was an adventurer evil,

But of the highest

And finest quality stamp.

He was graceful,

And a poet, low sort,

Although not with great,

But with a tenacious  forcefulness.

And he called some woman

Over forty years old,

By an infamous  girl

And his sweetheart miss.

"Happiness," he was saying, -

“Is sleight of mind and hand.

All clumsy souls

Are always known as unblest.

It doesn't matter

That many torments

Brought by broken

And deceitful gestures.

In thunderstorms, in tempests,

In the cold of life,

In the midst of heavy loses,

And when you get sad,

To appear smiling and simplified

The highest art in the universe."

“The black dark man!

You can not do that!

You're not living

On duty of divers.

What do I care about the life

Of a scandalous poet?

Please, read and tell only others!”

The Black, Black Man

Looks at me point-blank.

And his eyes are covered

With blue vomit slime. 

As if he wants to tell me

That I'm a thief and a crook,

So shamelessly and brazenly

Robbed someone.