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Only to read childrens' books

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Only to read childrens' books… ~ Только детские книги читать…
written by Osip Mandelstam

PD ⁽¹⁾

^[1]. From Stone (No. 4). See also Poems. Translated from Russian by A. S. Kline. The source: http://www.tonykline.co.uk.

* * *

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

↑ First printed in almanac "Kovcheg", Feodosia 1920, also included in Tristia, 1922, and in "Stone", edition of 1923.

(English) This work is in the public domain in Canada, but may still be copyrighted in the USA and some countries in Europe. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether the works are in the public domain in his or her respective country.
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