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To read only children's books

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← From the semi-dark hall, suddenly

To read only children's books… ~ Только детские книги читать…
written by Osip Mandelstam

More tender than tender →

PD ⁽¹⁾

^[1]. From Stone (No. 4). See also Poems. Translated from Russian by Dmitri Smirnov.

* * *

To read only children's books,
To cherish only children's thoughts.
All grown-up things to disperse far away,
And to rise from a deep sorrow.

I am mortally tired of life,
I accept nothing of it,
But I love my poor earth,
Because I’ve seen no other.

I swung myself in a far-off garden
On the simple wooden swing,
Remembering tall dark fir trees
In an obscure delirium.

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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