from EVENING

• IN TSARSKOYE SELO
•  
• 1. “They’re leading the horses. . .”
• 29
• 2. “. . .And there’s my marble double. . .”
• 31
• 3. “A dark-skinned youth wandered. . .”
• 31
• “Under her dark veil she wrung her hands. . .”
• 33
• “The heart’s memory of the sun grows faint. . .”
• 35
• The Song of the Last Meeting
• 37
• “When you’re drunk it’s so much fun. . .”
• 39
• The Gray-Eyed King
• 41
• He loved. . .
• 43
• “The park was filled with light mist. . .”
• 45
• “And when we had cursed each other. . .”
• 47
• “At the new moon he abandoned me. . .”
• 49

from ROSARY

• Outing
• 51
• “We are all carousers and loose women here. . .”
• 53
• “How many demands the beloved can make!”
• 55
• “We met for the last time. . .”
• 57
• “It drags on forever—this heavy, amber day!”
• 59
• “I’ve learned to live simply, wisely. . .”
• 61
• Confession
• 63
• “Under the icon, a threadbare rug. . .”
• 65
• The Guest
• 67

from WHITE FLOCK

• Solitude
• 69
• “They are flying, they are still on their way. . .”
• 71
• “There is a sacred boundary between those who are close. . .”
• 73
• “For us to lose freshness of words. . .”
• 75
• “Somewhere there is a simple life. . .”
• 77
• JULY 1914
• 1. “It smells of burning. . .”
• 79
• 2. “The sweet smell of juniper. . .”
• 81
• In Memoriam, July 19, 1914
• 83
• “I don’t know if you’re living or dead. . .”
• 85
• “The twenty-first. Night. Monday. . .”
• 87
• “I dream of him less often now, thank God. . .”
• 89
• “How I love, how I loved to look. . .”
• 91

from PLANTAIN

• “I am listening to the orioles’ ever mournful voice. . .”
• 93
• “Now no one will listen to songs. . .”
• 95
• “Over the snowdrift’s hard crust. . .”
• 97
• “When in suicidal anguish. . .”
• 99

from ANNO DOMINI MCMXXI

• Petrograd, 1919
• 101
• “I am not with those who abandoned their land. . .”
• 103
• “Submissive to you? You’re out of your mind!”
• 105
• “He whispers: I’m not sorry. . .”
• 107
• Lot’s Wife
• 109
• Michal
• 111
• “Everything has been plundered. . .”
• 113
• “Terror, fingering things in the dark. . .”
• 115
• “Today is the nameday of Our Lady of Smolensk. . .”
• 117
• Apparition
• 119

from REED

• “I hid my heart from you. . .”
• 121
• The Poet
• 123
• Voronezh
• 127
• “Wild honey smells like freedom. . .”
• 129
• REQUIEM
• 131
• Cleopatra
• 153
• Dante
• 155
• The Last Toast
• 157
• Mayakovsky in 1913
• 159

from SEVENTH BOOK

• “The first lighthouse flashed over the jetty. . .”
• 161
• Creation
• 163
• “I don’t need martial hosts arrayed in odes. . .”
• 165
• “Probably much still remains. . .”
• 165
• To the Memory of a Friend
• 167
• “I haven’t been here for seven hundred years. . .”
• 169
• “When the moon lies like a slice of Chardush melon. . .”
• 171
• “Those lynx eyes of yours, Asia. . .”
• 173
• CINQUE
• 1. “As if on the rim of a cloud. . .”
• 175
• 2. “Sounds die away in the ether. . .”
• 177
• 3. “For so long I hated. . .”
• 177
• 4. “You know yourself that I’m not going to celebrate. . .”
• 179
• 5. “We hadn’t breathed the poppies’ somnolence. . .”
• 179
• The Burnt Notebook
• 181
• “You invented me. There is no such earthly being. . .”
• 183
• “Don’t be afraid—I can still portray. . .”
• 185
• One More Toast
• 187

from ODD NUMBER

• Seaside Sonnet
• 189
• The Last One
• 191
• Native Land
• 193
• The Last Rose
• 195
• To the Memory of V.S. Sreznevskaya
• 197
•  
•  
• NORTHERN ELEGIES
• 199

UNCOLLECTED POEMS
AND FRAGMENTS
1904-1917

• “In the corner an old man resembling a ram. . .”
• 221
• “Some great misfortune happened to me here. . .”
• 223
• “You, the leader, standing by the spring. . .”
• 225
• White Night
• 227

1919-1941

• “In the city of the gatekeeper of paradise. . .”
• 229
• “It would be so easy to abandon this life. . .”
• 231
• “Why did you poison the water. . .”
• 233
• Imitation from the Armenian
• 235
• To the Memory of M.B.
• 237
• Belated Reply
• 239

1941-MAY 1945

• “De profundis. . .My generation tasted little honey. . .”
• 241

SEPTEMBER 1945-1956

• “I wouldn’t have known how the quince tree blossoms. . .”
• 243
• “Everyone left and no one returned. . .”
• 245
• Festive Song
• 247
• “Others go off with their loved ones. . .”
• 249

1957-1966

• “They will forget?—How astonishing!”
• 251
• “I was captivated by mistake. . .”
• 253
• Creation
• 255
• “You are to live, but I, not very much longer. . .”
• 257
• “These praises for me are not due to rank. . .”
• 259
• Listening to Singing
• 261
• The Publication of a Book
• 263
• The North
• 265
• Christmastime (December 24)
• 267