Osip Mandelshtam
This night has gone beyond redemption...

This night has gone beyond redemption
And it is daylight where you dream.
Today the black sun has arisen
Over Jerusalem.

Sun that is yellow is still scarier.
Goodnight, sleep tight,
Jews interred my mother's remnants
In the temple of the light

And without a divine blessing
And without a priest's sash
Judeans in a light temple
To the heaven sang her ash.

And then over my mother
Voices of Israelites rung
I awoke inside my cradle,
Shining with a blacker sun.

Translated by Ilya Shambat