Poems by Varlam Shalamov
1949
1950
1952
1954
1955
- Alive not by bread alone...
- All that is human slips away...
- And so I keep going...
- Our court nightingale...
- Purple Honey
- They say we plough shallow...
«I will be silenced soon!.. If on the tragic day, / The strings would pensively begin to play; / If adolescents, sitting quietly, immersed, / Began to marvel at my passion’s madness; / If only you, surrendering to sadness, / In silence mumbled melancholy verse / And loved the way my ard...»
«This time’s the final time, my friend, / I enter through your door. / Love’s quiet hour has been spent / And now, there is no more. / Don’t wait for me all night and mope, / Held captive by the deceitful hope, / Don’t burn your candles, in a daze, / Til morning rays.»
« My friend, I have forgotten all that’s passed, / The passion of my youth was rather brief. / Don’t ask about the things that didn’t last, / Or how I felt in the times of joy or grief, / Or what I loved, on how I was betrayed. / I may not know true happiness today: / But...»
«Don’t covet goods of other beings — / My Goodness, You’ve commanded so; / The limits of my will You know — / Am I to manage tender feelings? / I wish not to offend my friend. / His village I do not desire, / And for his steer I don’t aspire, / I’m gazing at it all, content:...»