Перевод стихотворения А. С. Пушкина "Анчар" на английский язык.  

Amidst a desert barren country,
Upon the scalding earth,
Antiaris*, like a menacing sentry,
Stands all alone in the whole universe. 

The wold's emaciated nature
Begot it on a day of wrath
And filled its branches' dead verdure
And roots with fluids venomous.

The poison trickles through its bark,
At midday melting in the sun,
And freezes, as it grows dark,
In transparent and viscid gum.

Of birds thither flies none,
Nor comes a tiger - only a whirlwind harsh
Upon the tree of death will run
And forth already putrid rush.

And if a wandering cloud sprinkles              
The tree's rampant leaves,                           
The rain already poisoned trickles
Upon the ardent sand beneath.                          

But by a man a man was sent
To the antiaris on an errand,
And he obediently went,
And with the poison he returned.

Indeed the deathly gum he brought
And faded leaves upon a bough,
And down perspiration poured
In cold streams from his pallid brow.

He brought - and weakened and he lied
Upon a mat under a marquee's vault,
And there, the poor slave, he died
At the feet of an unconquerable lord.

And with the poison thus obtained         
The king imbued his loyal darts,               
With which destruction then he sent
To neighbors into foreign parts. 


* The Poison Tree. (Alexander S. Pushkin"s note.)