Эзра Лумис Паунд (Ezra Weston Loomis Pound)

The Lake Isle

O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Give me in due time, I beseech you, a little tobacco-shop,
With the little bright boxes
                piled up neatly upon the shelves
And the loose fragment cavendish
                and the shag,
And the bright Virginia
                loose under the bright glass cases,
And a pair of scales
             not too greasy,
And the votailles dropping in for a word or two in passing,
For a flip word, and to tidy their hair a bit.

O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Lend me a little tobacco-shop,
             or install me in any profession
Save this damn'd profession of writing,
             where one needs one's brains all the time.