Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece. - Vladimir Nabokov
The English translation of "Moskow Carol" from Joseph Brodsky is provided by courtesy of Alexei Vernitskii.
Alexey Vernitskii is a postgraduate in University of Essex and his hometown is Ekaterinburg. He is a poet known in Ekaterinburg and in "Vavilon" union in Moscow.
In such an inexplicable blue,
Along the stonework to embark,
The little ship of glowing hue
Appears in Alexander park.
The little lamp, a yellow rose,
Arising - ready to retreat -
Above those ones whom it adores;
By strangers' feet.In such an inexplicable blue
The drunkards' hive, the loonies' team.
A tourist takes a snapshot to
Have left the town and keep no dream.
On the Ordynka street you find
A taxicab with fevered gnomes,
And dead ancestors stand behind
And lean to domes.
A poet's going through the town
In such an inexplicable blue.
A doorman watches him looking down
And down the street and catches the flu.
An old and handsome cavalier
Moves down a lane not worth a view;
A wedding-party guests appear
In such an inexplicable blue.
Behind the river, in the haar,
As a collection of the blues -
The yellow walls reflecting far
The hopeless accent of the Jews.
Move by the Sunday, to despair -
From love, by the New Year, and there
Appears a girl you cannot woo -
Not to explain us why she's blue.
The night spreads over all the stuff;
A train is clad in silver plush.
The draught of frost, the pallid puff
Will sheathe your face until you blush.
The honeycomb of windows fits
The smelling of halvah and zest.
The Christmas Eve is carrying its
Mince pies abreast.
Watch your New Year come in a blue
Seawave across the town terrain
In such an inexplicable blue,
As if the life can start again,
As if there can be bread and light -
A lucky day - and something's left,
As if the life can sway aright,
Once swayed aleft.
Joseph Brodsky.
©1996 Friends and Partners
Natasha Bulashova, Greg Cole
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