NIGHT MORNING

To translate a poem

from thinking

into English

takes all night

night    nights and days

English does

the best it can    while

the mother’s tongue    Russian

omits the verb to be

again and again and

is always interfering

with the excited in-

dustrious brain    wisely

the heart’s beat asserts

control

also the newest English

argues with its old

singing ancestry

it thinks it knows best

finally    the night’s

hard labor peers through

the morning window    observes

snow    birds    the sun caught

in white and black winter

birches    disentangles itself

addresses the ice-cold meadow

for hours on the beauty of

the color green