Valery Bryusov

By ways, prohibited for humane meditations,
The prophets, dreamers, sibyls and diviners,
Out of consciousness, oozed into habitation,
Where reign in glory the majestic numbers.

An intuition helps unmask enigmas,
Lights, like a scout in the jungle gutters;
And, if a hint, by chance, just easy stings us,
We are at once caught by the sacred shudder.

I worship and desire you, o numbers!
Like shadows, fleshless, free in every action,
You are a rainbow that charitably ties
The spirit's heights with valleys of reflection.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, September, 2000