Polina Barskova
War
That day the
war broke out, that very day.
Khodasevich
It's not in vain I dreamt you all In battle with your shaven heads, And brandishing your bloody swords, In pits, high places, on the wall.
Adorno told you very clearly Writing's shameful living's dreary If you happen to be certain That beneath the daily warmth Like some timber sawed to bits Like a scattered bunch of seeds There lie bodies that are hollow On the surface of the earth
Out of them the spirit's -- gone They give off but stink and dust Between them wander pairs Of audacious crows
Awake, oh timid one! Deep in your cave The holy lantern Burns until morn.
I woke up near evening And went for a walk The moon rocked In the lilac sky Struck with the strong Solution of rain The flowers fluttered Down at the ground Like the first word Of newborn love They sounded Piercingly-new And moved slowly Like the fires Of funeral processions In days long ago
But I fear: that midst the clashes You will squander for all time The coy meekness of your motions, Charm of tenderness and shame.
A soldier hears a soldier say You see I'm burning out I'll be no more by end of day Come on and love me now
Then the soldier answers back You are lost my friend For farewell merriments you have Neither gums nor hands
All that's left of you's a voice It's intangible and deaf But I won't relinquish you Even now I strain my hearing When you finally finish dying I will strain my memory
The soldier answers him -- however How quickly you have moved Me down into the roadside darkness The ditch-side feather grass
So I am bodiless so why Are you already moving on? I ask you know not that you cry I simply ask that you slow down
I'm now a voice -- you be a voice And then we'll flow together Soon you'll continue down your path And I'll remain as water To lie in the earth's oarlock
The soldier counters him: through me You'll not continue farewell It's not for us to rive the course of things But for the Secret One Who is more firm Than we in definitions -- so farewell
