Osip Mandelshtam
Petersburg strophes

To N. Gumilyov

Above the yellow Offices of State
A muzzy blizzard long swirled and fanned,
And mounting in a sleigh, an advocate
Closes his greatcoat with expansive hand.

The steamers at winter moorings. In the sun
The thickened glass of cabins has caught alight.
Monstrous, like a battleship in dock,
Heavy Russia lies at rest.

Above the river — the embassies of half the globe,
The sun and silence and the Admiralty;
The Empire’s rigid porphyry robe
Is like the prickling shirt of poverty.

The northern snob has a lot to bear,
Onegin’s¹ old, outdated spleen:
A swollen snowdrift on Senate Square,
Bonfire smoke and bayonets’ cold sheen.

The wherries have gathered water and the gulls
Are thick about the hemp shed
Where only peasants from some opera set
Wander, selling honey drinks or rolls of bread.

Through the mist a chain of motors streams
And modest, arrogant eccentric Eugene,
Forced to go on foot, is shamed by lack of means;
He curses fate and breathes in gasoline.

____
1. Eugene Onegin, the title character of Aleksandr Pushkin’s famed verse novel.

Translated by Bernard Meares