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And Schubert on the water, and Mozart in the bird's hubbub
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| ← When, after destroying the sketches | Octets (VII) ~ And Schubert on the water, and Mozart in the bird's hubbub… written by Osip Mandelstam | And the toothed paw of the maple → |
| From Moscow Notebooks. See also Poems. Translated from Russian by Dmitri Smirnov. In Russian: И Шуберт на воде, и Моцарт в птичьем гаме. |
VII
And Schubert on the water, and Mozart in the bird's hubbub,
And Goethe whistling on his twisting path,
And Hamlet thinking by the frightened steps,
They took the pulse of the crowd and trusted in the crowd.
Perhaps a whisper was born before the lips,
And leaves whirled in the woodless world,
And those to whom we dedicated our experience
Gained their traits before any experience.
January 1934, Moscow
© Dmitri Smirnov, translation. Can be reproduced if non-commercial.
