«2 Strange and beautiful brother — take this / city no hands built — out of my hands! Church by church — all the forty times forty, and / the small pigeons also that rise over them. Take the Spassky gate, with its flowers, where / the orthodox remove their caps, and the chapel of star...»
«5 Over the city that great Peter rejected / rolls out the thunder of the bells. A thundering surf has overturned upon / this woman you have now rejected. I offer homage to Peter and you also, / yet above you both the bells remain and while they thunder from that blueness, the / primacy o...»
«7 There are seven hills — like seven bells, / seven bells, seven bell-towers. Every / one of the forty times forty churches, and the / seven hills of bells have been numbered. On a day of bells I was born, it was / the golden day of John the Divine. / The house was gingerbread surround...»
«8 Moscow, what a vast / hostelry is your house! / Everyone in Russia is — homeless, / we shall all make our way towards you. With shameful brands on our backs and / knives — stuck in the tops of our boots, / for you call us in to you / however far away we are, because for the bran...»