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Only to read childrens' books

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From the semi-dark hall, suddenly Only to read childrens' books… ~ Только детские книги читать…
written by Osip Mandelstam, translated by A. S. Kline
More tender than tender
First printed in almanac "Kovcheg", Feodosia 1920, also included in Tristia, 1922, and in "Stone", edition of 1923. From Stone (No. 4). See also Poems. Translated from Russian.




* * *


Only to read childrens’ books,
only to love childish things,
throwing away adult things,
rising from saddest looks.

I am wearied to death with life.
There’s nothing it has that I want,
but I celebrate my naked earth,
there’s no other world to descant.

A plain swing of wood;
the dark, of the high fir-tree,
in the far-off garden, swinging;
remembered by feverish blood.


1908

Notes


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


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