“Sorrowdrawl” (1937)
Shut up: to be alone is to be alive,
To be alive to be a man –
Even hazied, even queasied by this madsmash hinterland,
Lost and locked in the sky’s asylum eye.
This is my prayer to the air
To which I turn and turn expecting news or ease,
Nerves minnowing from shadowhands
Toward shadowlands inside of me. This is my prayer
To be of an under a human-scale sky,
To suffer a human-scale why, to leave
This blunt sun, these eternal furrows,
For the one country that comes when I close my eyes.
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Whose translation?
The translation comes from Christian Wiman’s book, “Stolen Air” (http://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Air-Selected-Poems-Mandelstam/dp/0062099426)
Just ordered! Thanks for this!