The tiny appendage of the sixth sense

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Octets (IV) ~ The tiny appendage of the sixth sense… ⧼written by⧽ Osip Mandelstam ⧼translated by⧽ Dmitri Smirnov

Overcoming the firmness of nature →

From the cycle Octets (IV) in Moscow Notebooks. See also Poems. Translated from Russian by Dmitri Smirnov. In Russian: Шестого чувства крошечный придаток...

IV.

The tiny appendage of the sixth sense,
The pineal eye of the lizard,
The monasteries of snails and shells,
Or the gabble of the gleaming eyelids, —
The unreachable — it is so close!
You can’t unfasten or observe it,
Like the message put in your hand
That you have to answer right away.

May 1932, Moscow

Notes

First printed in "Vozdushnye puti" II (almanac), New York, 1961, p. 26.

© Dmitri Smirnov, translation. Can be reproduced if non-commercial.

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