Edna St. Vincent Millay (Эдна Сент-Винсент Миллей)

* * *


I know the face of Falsehood and her Tongue
Honeyed with unction, Plausible with guile,
Are dear to men, whom count me not among,
That owe their daily credit to her smile;
Such have been succoured out of great distress
By her contriving, if accounts be true:
Their deference now above the board, I guess,
Dishcharges what beneath the board is due.
As for myself, I’d liefer lack her aid
Than eat her presence; let this building fall:
But let me never lift my latch, afraid
To hear her simpering accents in the hall,
Nor force an entrance past mephitic airs
Of stale patchoulie hanging on my stairs.

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s other poems:

  1. Inland
  2. Two Sonnets in Memory
  3. When the Year Grows Old
  4. Not Even My Pride Shall Suffer Much
  5. Sonnets 09: Let You Not Say Of Me When I Am Old

982




To the dedicated English version of this website