Osip Mandelshtam
Lived Alexander Gertsevich...

Lived Alexander Gertsevich,
Musician and a Jew –
He ground the works of Schubert out
Like diamond, pure and true.

He gaily played by day and night
A crackling piece he’d learned,
The one sonata’s tune that he
Had memorised he churned.

What, Alexander Gertsevich,
Has day now ceased to glow?
Stop, Alexander Heartsovich,
It’s all the same, you know.

So let the fair Italian girl,
As long as snow is dry,
On narrow sledge’s runner’s skirl
Behind old Schubert fly.

And hearing dovish music’s flow
Of death we’re not afraid,
And there, just like a thieving crow
We’ve on coat-hanger swayed…

All, Alexander Gertsevich,
Was finished long ago,
Stop, Alexander Scherzovich,
It’s all the same, you know.

Translated by Rupert Moreton