Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A poem from my diary, by Avrom Sutzkever


Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - String Quartet No.1, Op. 11 in D major, 1871
II. Andante cantabile, with Borodin Quartet

Who will remain, what will remain? A wind will stay,
the blindness of the blind man who has gone away,
a string of foam, the sign of the sea,
a little cloud entangled in a tree.

Who will remain, what will remain?
A primeval seed will sprout again
A fiddle-rose honoring herself will live.
Seven blades of grass will know what's hers to give.

Of all the stars due north of here,
the one that landed in a tear will stay.
There will always be a drop of wine left over in its jug.
Who will stay? God will stay. Isn't that enough?



translated from the Yiddish by Myra Mniewski

thank you VV for this post

8 comments:

Elaine Jarvis said...

Lovely. Thank you.

RNSANE said...

Manuela, this is so beautiful. I appreciate this music and the poetry translation.

Roxana said...

a little cloud entangled in a tree-

such a perfect image, and so humble... yet it says everything...

Manuela said...

go glad to know this poem and music and conversation spoke to you all.

VV said...

i am very happy to see this here!!

Manuela said...

and so am i, poem and music both! i remember first time you sent me this piece of music, a dark winter night, and how moved i was by it... and i thought then and felt since that it was just impossible to find a poem that would do it justice - i'm glad to be proven wrong :).

kanishk said...

this is so beautiful.

Work From Home

Manuela said...

i am glad you like it!