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Thursday, June 19, 2008
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Listen!
Listen,
if stars are lit
it means - there is someone who needs it.
It means - someone wants them to be,
that someone deems those specks of spit
magnificent.
And overwrought,
in the swirls of afternoon dust,
he bursts in on God,
afraid he might be already late.
In tears,
he kisses God's sinewy hand
and begs him to guarantee
that there will definitely be a star.
He swears
he won't be able to stand that starless ordeal.
Later,
He wanders around, worried,
but outwardly calm.
And to everyone else, he says:
'Now,
it's all right.
You are no longer afraid,
are you?'
Listen,
if stars are lit,
it means - there is someone who needs it.
It means it is essential
that every evening
at least one star should ascend
over the crest of the building.
Fedor Tutchev
AUTUMN EVENING
There is a wistful charm, a tenderness,
Mysterious and soft, in autumn's even:
The trees in weird and brilliant garments dress,
The gory leaves to whispered talk are given;
Above the sad and orphaned earth the skies
Lie veiled and bleak, the sun's departure mourning,
And gusty winds with sudden anger rise,
Of pending storms the grim and chilly warning...
Fatigue, decline, and - over all - the worn
And wasting spirit's smile, doomed soon to vanish,
That lights a sufferer's face and that is born
Of modesty, the godlike pride of anguish.
1830
Fedor Tutchev
* * *
There is a spell in autumn early,
One all too brief, of an enchantment rare:
The nights are radiant and pearly,
The days, pellucid, crystal-clear.
Where played the sickle and fell the corn, a mellow,
A warm and breathless stillness reigns supreme;
Spanning the brown and idle furrow,
A dainty thread of cobweb gleams.
The birds have flown, we hear no more their clamour,
But winter's angry winds not soon will start to blow -
Upon the empty fields there pours the azure glow
Of skies that have not lost the warmth of summer.
1857
Federico Garcia Lorca
The Ballad of the Salt-Water
The sea smiles far-off.
Spume-teeth,
sky-lips.
‘What do you sell, troubled child,
child with naked breasts?’
‘Sir, I sell
salt-waters of the sea.’
‘What do you carry, dark child,
mingled with your blood?’
‘Sir, I carry
salt-waters of the sea.’
‘These tears of brine
where do they come from, mother?’
‘Sir, I cry
salt-waters of the sea.’
‘Heart, this deep bitterness,
where does it rise from?’
‘So bitter, the salt-waters
of the sea!’
The sea smiles far-off.
Spume-teeth.
Sky-lips.
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Ay, the pain it costs me
to love you as I love you!
For love of you, the air, it hurts,
and my heart,
and my hat, they hurt me.
Who would buy it from me,
this ribbon I am holding,
and this sadness of cotton,
white, for making handkerchiefs with?
Ay, the pain it costs me
to love you as I love you!