to un ders tand his poetry as the wi d bit the bo es ret ur ned to Can ada a stra ger
forever
a
s
ever a d before
Osip Mandelstam, The Kremlin Mountain Man
Мы живем, под собою не чуя страны,
Наши речи за десять шагов не слышны,
А где хватит на полразговорца,
Там припомнят кавказского горца.
Его толстые пальцы, как черви, жирны,
А слова, как пудовые гири, верны,
Тараканьи смеются усища,
И сияют его голенища.
А вокруг него сброд тонкошеих вождей,
Он играет услугами полулюдей,
Кто свистит, кто мяучит, кто хнычет,
Он один лишь бабачет и тычет.
Как подковы, кует за указом указ —
Кому в пах, кому в лоб, кому в бровь, кому в глаз
Что ни казнь у него — то малина
И широкая грудь осетина.
*
We live, but feel not the land beneath us
In ten steps’ distance, you will not hear our words
But if they may utter a half-choked sound
They’ll remember the Kremlin Mountain man
His fingers are thick, glistening worms
But his words true like twelve pound weights
His moustaches laughing cockroaches
And his bootstraps are beaming
The thin-necked rabble of chiefs around him,
Half-man servants he toys with.
One squeaks, one mews, one whimpers, he only
Babbles and points.
Like horse shoes he forges ukas on ukas
For each one’s groins, foreheads, eyes
His every death sentence a raspberry
But the Ossete’s chest is broad.
_________________
Of various journeys that to Russia ad its territories is the closes t to what I am
the Slav an d Irish blood in me with the crying Jew of my Grandfather/
of those who travel and those who do not even when they move
there are worlds of differe nce
_____________ So we will make a map of the co tries
Engla nd & Irelan d
1970-1
all of Can da
exceptig the North
back to
see
Va Gogh
first trip
to Paris
the
Soth
Tolose
to
Italy
ad the oceaa
ad the archiecteres
of ifiite beaty
eye piercig
-boat
to gibraltor
ad
the old ferry to Irela d
Italy 1972 _ it was there I leared of the death of the poet Ezra Po d Greece I was ot sre of becase of the Geerals I wet later after they left bt the blood stak still
(87-89
back forth hither
ad thither
Irela d
Frace
Paris
Italy
Holla d
lodo
_____
Oe frighteig trip to East germay
i that period
a d
the to Filad
oce to uSSR (84)
followig Peter ad nan cy
Engla nd & Irelan d
1970-1
all of Can da
exceptig the North
back to
see
Va Gogh
first trip
to Paris
the
Soth
Tolose
to
Italy
ad the oceaa
ad the archiecteres
of ifiite beaty
eye piercig
-boat
to gibraltor
ad
the old ferry to Irela d
Italy 1972 _ it was there I leared of the death of the poet Ezra Po d Greece I was ot sre of becase of the Geerals I wet later after they left bt the blood stak still
(87-89
back forth hither
ad thither
Irela d
Frace
Paris
Italy
Holla d
lodo
_____
Oe frighteig trip to East germay
i that period
a d
the to Filad
oce to uSSR (84)
followig Peter ad nan cy
