Boris Slutsky
All rules are incorrect...

All rules are incorrect,
all laws remain perverse,
until they’re firmly set
in well wrought lines of verse.

An age or era will
be merely a stretch of time
without a meaning until
it’s glorified in rhyme.

Until the poet’s «Yes!»,
entrusted by his pen
to print, award success
to this or that — till then

the jury will be out,
the verdict still in doubt.

Translated by Stephen Capus