Joseph Brodsky
I, who have traveled half my earthly road...

I, who have traveled half my earthly road,
make my appearance in the Luxembourg
and contemplate the petrified gray curls
of thinkers and of scribblers. Gents and broads
are strolling to and fro ; a whiskered
blue copper glistens from the thicket ;
the fountain purrs, the children laugh
and not a soul to greet with “Bugger off”.
And you, untiring, Mary, stand and stand,
in the stone garland of your girl-friends –stunned
French queens of once-upon-has-been,
in silence, with a sparrow in your hair.
You’d think the garden was a cross between
The Pantheon and Déjeuner sur l’herbe.

Translated by Peter France and Joseph Brodsky