Гостившие в их доме, неохотно
Простившись, вышли, не спеша, во двор,
Но сквозь окно, зашторенное плотно,
Донесся их негромкий разговор.
Мешал его расслышать шум в гостиной -
От головешки, выскочившей, враз
Осыпавшей весь пол вокруг лавиной
Трескучих углей. Тут со стенки час
Кукушка беспардонно огласила,
И день ушёл в разгул, штурмуя слух:
Квохтали куры, и блажил петух,
Пыхтел насос, повизгивали пилы, -
Скрип колеса, венчавший этот рёв,
Последней каплей стал - до скрежета зубов.


Sonnet VIII by
Edna St. Vincent Millay
"Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree"

She let them leave their jellies at the door
And go away, reluctant, down the walk.
She heard them talking as they passed before
The blind, but could not quite make out their talk
For noise in the room — the suddenly heavy fall
And roll of a charred log, and the roused shower
Of snapping sparks; then sharply from the wall
The unforgivable crowing of the hour.
One instant set ajar, her quiet ear
Was stormed and forced by the full rout of day:
The rasp of a saw, the fussy cluck and bray
Of hens, the wheeze of a pump, she needs must hear;
She inescapably must endure to feel
Across her teeth the grinding of a backing wagon wheel.

Selected poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, 2016, Yale University Press. Edited by Timothy F.Jackson, page 82.