Russiantranslated toCanadian English  And you there, could you?

This are my two translations of «А вы могли бы?» by Владимир Маяковский [Vladimir Mayakovsky].

To Rose Guenther and
Rod Moody-Corbett


And you there, could you?

At once—paint splashed from flagon's belly—
I smeared the map of daily motion;
I showed atop a dish of jelly
The slanted jowls of the ocean.
Upon the tin scales of a sturgeon
I calls of brand-new lips compute.
And you
could you play
like a surgeon
a nocturne on a drainpipe flute?


And you there, could you?

I smeared at once the map of boredom
By splashing colours with a motion;
I showed atop a dish of aspic
The slanted jowls of the ocean.
Within the tin scales of the fishes
I calls of novel lips compute.
But
could you play
a nocturne's wishes
upon the troughs of drainpipe flutes?