Тишина в доме, и тишина в мире.
Читатель стал книгой, летняя ночь –
Одушевленным бытием этой книги.
Тишина в доме, и тишина в мире.
Слова звучат так, будто нет книги –
Только читатель, склонившийся над страницей
В поисках опоры, желавший бы стать
Ученым, для кого эта книга истинна, для кого
Летняя ночь стоит, словно завершение мысли.
Тишина в доме, потому что дом должен быть тихим.
Тишина – часть смысла, часть разума:
То, что завершает прочитанное.
___________________________
Wallace Stevens. The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.