11. Forty kisses
|
Swineherd
|
As devotion does not require posture,
|
So my love does not wait for consolation.
|
I became an uninvited guest in your house,
|
I descended to a vulgar serenade.
|
I am under the balcony, as if under a heel ...
|
For whom does my bell toll, for whom?
|
For you, Your Highness, for you!
|
And the heart echoes to the beat: pabam - pabam ...
|
A princess
|
From you a poet, like from a piggy bank,
|
Excuse me, royal treasurer.
|
You have only sawdust in your head
|
And a thousand unnecessary little things.
|
You forgot, like all poets,
|
Sing to me about the moon and dawns.
|
Swineherd
|
Well, it's far from dawn today.
|
And the moon - just like you - is not close.
|
Let rhymes do not come easy to me,
|
However, what is creativity without risk?
|
Yes, I'm just a humble swineherd,
|
But for your sake, Princess, for your sake!..
|
What to offer you? |
Hand? |
A heart? |
Friendship?
|
Gardens of delight? |
Or the bliss of the abyss?
|
A princess
|
Thanks, I don't need anything.
|
I haven't been interested in this for a long time.
|
Swineherd
|
I still believe in you. |
Yes, and into yourself, as long as
|
Here in the bosom there is a small miracle.
|
Perhaps this miracle will suit you?
|
A princess
|
Tell me, how much does this miracle cost?
|
Swineherd
|
This miracle is worth forty kisses -
|
Kisses from the princess.
|
But, foreseeing unpleasant excesses,
|
I ask only forty kisses -
|
From court ladies, from ladies-in-waiting and cleaning ladies,
|
From royal concubines and heirs,
|
From mistresses of the first persons and their panders,
|
Waiting for chances, prostrate the railings of service stairs.
|
This miracle does not fit in an envelope
|
It is not taken out to the public and the stage.
|
This miracle is worth more, believe me
|
Much more, but I'm lowering the price...
|
A princess
|
Sorry, I don't believe in miracles.
|
I have a marriage contract tomorrow,
|
And my eyes are drooping...
|
Goodnight.
|
The curtain.
|
Intermission. |