The Zodiac signs grow dim
Above the open fields.
The animal Dog is asleep,
The bird Sparrow dozes.
Broad-hipped mermaids
Fly straight into the sky,
Arms firm as sticks,
Breasts round as turnips.
A witch, seated upon a triangle,
Turns into a wisp of smoke.
With forest witches, a dead man
Gracefully dances the cakewalk.
Following them, in a pale chorus,
Sorcerers are catching a Fly,
And above the sloping hill
Stands the motionless face of the moon.

The Zodiac signs grow dim
Above the village roofs,
The animal Dog is asleep,
The fish Flounder dozes,
Knock—knock—knock,
The animal Spider sleeps,
The Cow sleeps, the Fly sleeps,
Above the earth the moon hangs.
Above the earth — a great bowl
Of overturned water.

The wood-spirit pulls a little log
From his shaggy beard.
From behind a cloud a siren
Stretches one leg down,
A cannibal from a gentleman
Bites off something obscene.
Everything is mixed in a single dance,
And in sleep the ends go flying —
Baboons and Britons,
Witches, fleas, the dead.

Candidate of vanished centuries,
Commander of coming years,
My reason! These creatures —
Only invention and delirium.
Only invention, dreaming,
The swaying of a drowsy thought,
A comfortless suffering —
That which does not exist.

High is the dwelling of the earth.
Late, so late. Time to sleep!
Reason, my poor warrior,
Sleep now until the morning.
What are doubts? What are fears?
The day is gone, and we with it —
Half-beasts, half-gods —
Fall asleep on the threshold
Of a new young life.

Knock—knock—knock,
The animal Spider sleeps,
The Cow sleeps, the Fly sleeps,
Above the earth the moon hangs.
Above the earth — a great bowl
Of overturned water.
The plant Potato sleeps.
Fall asleep, you too.

1929