CHRISTIAN
PEET
Mandelstam: Index to First Lines
MANDELSTAM: INDEX TO FIRST LINES
A found poem with translations by
David McDuff
A
luxury, this, in a threadbare village
Above
the yellow of the government buildings
Alone
I look frost in the face
Amidst
the noise and hurry of people
An
inexpressible sadness
And
Schubert on the water, and Mozart in the uproar
of the birds
*
Be
silent! I no longer believe in anything—
Be
silent! Of nothing, ever, to anyone—
*
Can’t breathe. The firmament all worms
Clacking
on purple granite
Covering
your mouth like a moist rose
*
For
the thundering glory of ages to come
Fragments
*
I
returned to my city, familiar to tears
I saw
a lake, standing sheer
I
say this as a sketch and in a whisper:
I
will never see you
*
It
is transparent and dark in the great pool
It
still has not been born
*
No,
not the moon, but the bright face of a clock
*
Still
I have not died, and still am not alone
Suddenly
in a light shawl
*
The
bear of my tongue shifts dimly about
The
careful and hollow sound
The
Christmas trees burn
The
light sows a meager beam
The
rose is cold in the snow
The
snowy hive is slower
The
stream of golden honey that flowed from the bottle
To some winter, arak and blue-eyed
punch . . .
*
We
live without feeling the country beneath us
We
shall die in transparent
We
shall meet again in
We
shall sit together in the kitchen for a while