MANDELSTAM

I'm alive.
To whom do I owe this honour?

My soul staggers. Dante accompanies me
through the Soviet night.

I wander through the ruins
of Hellas.

I can't flee.
Hide
the poems, Nadezhda.

Caesar, how could you
destroy
our liveliness?

I have abandoned all hope
at the entrance to the camp.

The only man who speaks Russian
couldn’t forget.
A god forgives,
a demigod does not.

The shouts
are lost in the vastness of my country.