[“TO EMPTY EARTH FALLING UNWILLED”]

To empty earth falling unwilled,

With sweet uneven gait, she goes,

Just barely keeping ahead

Of a quick girl and young brother.

She is propelled by the stifled freedom

Of inspiring deficiency;

And, perhaps, a lucent conjecture

Delaying in her gait:

About how spring’s weather

Is, for us, mother to the tomb,

And this, eternal, ever begins.

4 May 1937

Osip Mandelstam

translated with Kevin Platt