Black Earth by Osip Mandelstam

Author:Osip Mandelstam
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811230988
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:01+00:00

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Can you praise a woman who’s dead?

All strength and alienation . . .

Her alien-loving power has led

to a tomb that is fiery, violent.

And the firm swallows of her brows

flew from her grave and told me

they had rested beneath the snows

of her funeral bed in Stockholm.

Your tribe prized the violin

of your ancestor, shapely and graceful,

and you’d open wide scarlet lips

and laugh, both Italian and Russian.

I cherish your memory’s load,

wild thing, little bear, and Mignon—

but the mill-wheels sleep under snow

and the postman’s horn is frozen.

June 3, 1935–December 14, 1936

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