By Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938)
And I was Alive
And I was alive in the blizzard of the blossoming pear,
Myself I stood in the storm of the bird–cherry tree.
It was all leaflife and starshower, unerring, self–shattering power,
And it was all aimed at me.
What is this dire delight flowering fleeing always earth?
What is being? What is truth?
Blossoms rupture and rapture the air,
All hover and hammer,
Time intensified and time intolerable, sweetness raveling rot.
It is now. It is not.
(May 4, 1937)
Translated by Christian Wiman
Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938) was a Russian poet and essayist who lived in Russia during and after the revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union. He died in a labor camp in 1938. This is believed to be one of the last poems he wrote. From Stolen Air: Selected poems of Osip Mandelstam, selected and edited by Christian Wiman (CCCO, 2012), p. 71.
Amy Frykholm: amy@journeywithjesus.net
