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More sluggish the snowy hive

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← [[ ]] More sluggish the snowy hive… ~ Медлительнее снежный улей…
written by Osip Mandelstam, translated by A. S. Kline
[[ ]] →
First printed in "Apollon", 1910. From Stone. See also Poems. Translated from Russian.




* * *


More sluggish the snowy hive,
clearer the window’s crystal,
on a chair, a turquoise veil,
thrown there, carelessly, lies.

A tissue, self-intoxicated,
as if it never felt winter’s
touch, experiencing summer’s,
by its own delicacy, caressed:

and, if in icy diamonds
frost is eternally streaming,
here — it’s dragonflies flickering,
blue-eyed, living, and gone.


1910

Notes



Cc-by.jpgCc-non commercial.jpg © A. S. Kline, translation. Can be reproduced if non-commercial.


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