Valentine poetry for the mortality-minded, existentially angst-ed among her readers! This one's got it all.
Colours
When your face
appeared over my crumpled life
at first I understood
only the poverty of what I have.
Then its particular light
on woods, on rivers, on the sea,
became my beginning in the coloured world
in which I had not yet had my beginning.
I am so frightened, I am so frightened,
of the unexpected sunrise finishing,
of revelations
and tears and the excitement finishing.
I don't fight it, my love is this fear,
I nourish it who can nourish nothing,
love's slipshod watchman.
Fear hems me in.
I am conscious that these minutes are short
and that the colours in my eyes will vanish
when your face sets.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko translated from Russian by Robin Milner-Gulland and Peter Levi
6 comments:
no better way to get brownie points on such a wonderful day then a candle light dinner and a great poem
thanks ... I think ?
The only valentines I have this year are the 7 year olds in my class. They all love me.
I am actually taking the viewpoint of one of my students, who announced after reading Thursday's assignment ("The Ethic of Compassion") that the Dalai Lama was going to be her official Valentine. She even made a red construction paper and doily cut-out heart and put his picture in the middle of it, in her journal entry for that assignment.
Totally. Awesome. I told her I bet she is the Dalai Lama's valentine too. :)
ohmigod, that is lovely. Thank you.
Sounds very Russian. Memorable and haunting.
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