«He was sitting by the river, among reeds / that peasants had been scything for their thatch. / And it was quiet there, and in his soul / it was quieter and stiller still. / He kicked off his boots and put / his feet into the water, and the water / began talking to him, not knowing / he...»
«If all who have begged help / From me in this world, / All the holy innocents, / Broken wives, and cripples, / The imprisoned, the suicidal — / If they had sent me one kopeck / I should have become ‘richer / Than all Egypt’... / But they did not send me kopecks, / Instead the...»
«Torpid summers, snow-choked winters, / at all your weddings, birthdays, funerals, / always I listen for a dim, unheard chime / to drive away my deadly boredom. There . . . ! Now, with cold concentration, I wait / — to understand, to pin it down, to kill it. / And as I wait intently, a t...»
«Those born in backwater years / forget their own way. Russia / gave birth to us in her years of anguish / and we can forget nothing. Years of holocaust, do you / herald madness, or the advent of hope? / Days of war, days of freedom, / have stained our faces with bloody light. We are sp...»