Everything Is Possible

HAMLET 


The murmurs ebb; onto the stage I enter.
I am trying, standing in the door,
To discover in the distant echoes
What the coming years may hold in store.

The nocturnal darkness with a thousand
Binoculars is focused onto me.
Take away this cup, O Abba Father,
Everything is possible to Thee.

I am fond of this Thy stubborn project,
And to play my part I am content.
But another drama is in progress,
And, this once, O let me be exempt.

But the plan of action is determined,
And the end irrevocably sealed.
I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood:
Life is not a walk across a field.


Boris Pasternak  1946
translated by Ann Pasternak Slater

HAMLET

The buzz subsides.  I have come on stage.

Leaning in an open door

I try to detect from the echo

What the future has in store.

A thousand opera-glasses level

The dark, point-blank, at me.

Abba, Father, if it be possible

Let this cup pass from me.

I love your preordained design

And am ready to play this role.

But the play being acted is not mine.

For this once let me go.

But the order of the acts is planned.

The end of the road already revealed.

Alone among the Pharisees I stand.

Life is not a stroll across a field.

Boris Pasternak 1946

translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France