Marina Tsvetaeva
Readers of Newspapers

The underground snake crawls,
Crawls, carries people.
And each — with his own
Newspaper (with his own
Eczema!) Newspaper
Bone eater, chewing tick.
Readers of newspapers,
Chewers of mastics.

Who's the reader? Old man? Athlete?
Soldier? Not features, not years,
Not faces. Skeleton — since no
Face: sheet of newspaper!
Which — entire Paris
From navel to forehead wears!
Enough, girl! You'll give birth to —
Reader of newspaper.

Rock — "lives with sister" —
ing — "his father he killed!" —
Rocking - of vanity
Pumped themselves full.

What do such men care
If it is dusk or dawn?
Swallowers of voids,
Newspaper-reading ones!

Read newspapers: slander,
Read newspapers: waste.
A column — calumny,
A paragraph — disgust...

With what on Terrible court
In the light you'll appear!
Seizers of minutes, you
Readers of newspapers!

He went! Vanished! Got lost!
Old is the mother's fear.
Mom! Guttenberg's press than
Schwartz's dust is scarier.

Better on churchyard
Than in hospital of pus
To cast scratchers of scabs,
Readers of newspapers!

Who is it that rots our sons
In their prime of years?
Mixers of blood, they are,
Writers of newspapers!

Here, friends, — and where
Stronger than in these lines!
What do I think, where
With writing in my palms

I stand before the face —
There is no emptier space!
That means — not with face
Of editor of news —

Paper filth.

Translated by Ilya Shambat