Zima Junction...

[fajrdrako]

So far, every poem I've posted here is in its original text, usually straight from some book or other. I'm doing something different with this one; not only do I not have the text, it's a work in translation that I read decades ago and haven't seen since. I've found the poem, but not this particular translation, and I've lost my transcription long since. I don't like other translations, so you're stuck with what's in my memory. No guarantees as to accuracy of any kind.

The poem is an extract from Zima Junction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russian, born 1933). It's a reference to his birthplace, which at the end of this poem, speaks to him:

from "Zima Junction" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

"Think. Meditate. Listen.
Count happiness conatural to the mind,
More than truth is, and yet
No truth can exist without it.

Walk with a cold pride
Utterly ahead
Eyes flicked by the rain-wet
Green needles of the pine.
Eyelashes that shine
With tears and with thunders.

Love people.
Love entertains its own discrimination.
You may return to me; I will be waiting.
Now go."

I went, and I am still going.

Comments

[dejla.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely.

I wonder if I can find the copies I had of Les Dames du Temps Jadis translated into 16th century rhyming cant? If I can, I'll post it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I hope you do - I'd love to see that.

[dejla.livejournal.com]

I do remember the Envoi--

"Captain, why cut your whids in vain?
Don't ask who's backed at Trine today.
All the ballads have your same refrain--
Over the hills and far away!"

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

[g] It's worth finding the rest.