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God (3)

Marina Tsvetaeva, Marina Tsvetaeva poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry by Marina Tsvetaeva
(1892 - 1941) Timeline

English version by
Paul Graves

Original Language
Russian

Secular or Eclectic
20th Century

No, you never will bind him
To your signs and your burdens!
The least chink -- he's inside it,
Like the supplest of gymnasts.

By the drawbridges
And flocks in migration,
By the telegraph poles,
God's escaping us.

No, you never will train him
To abide and to share!
He, in feelings' resident slush,
Is a gray floe of ice.

No, you never will catch him!
On a thrifty dish, God
Never thrives in the window
Like domestic begonias!

All, beneath the roof's vault,
We're awaiting the builder,
The call. Poets and pilots
-- All gave up in despair.

He's the sprint -- and he's moving.
The whole volume of stars
Is, from Alpha to Omega,
Just a trace of his cloak.

 

1922

 

-- from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield

Amazon.com

 


 
 
 
 
 


Recommended Books


Marina Tsvetaeva: The Double Beat of Heaven and Hell, by Lily Feiler
Milestones, by Marina Tsvetaeva / Translated by Robin Kemball
The Ratcatcher: A Lyrical Satire, by Marina Tsvetaeva / Translated by Angela Livingstone
A Russian Psyche: The Poetic Mind of Marina Tsvetaeva, by Alyssa W. Dinega
Tsvetaeva, by Viktoria Schweitzer

More >>

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
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