Читать книгу In Praise of Poetry - Ольга Седакова - Страница 18

8. THE ARGUMENT

Have I not lived on this earth a long time?

Adding it up, out loud, is enough to cause fear.

Yet even now the heart loves not itself.

It paces, a prisoner in its cell—

but what it doesn’t see in that window!

Then an old woman had this to say:

“How good, how warm to be in God’s world.

Like peas in a pod, we lie in rows,

we lie in the hands of the Lord.

The one you seek—will not return.

Anything you ask—will not be done.

Even this will gladden the heart,

like sweet-tasting grains

offered to a bird in its ornate cage—

this gift, too, is not in vain.”

I nodded, but said under my breath:

enough, you foolish old woman.

Anything is possible, and then some.