I love the uprise of a texture (1)

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Octets. I. I love the uprise of a texture… Osip Mandelstam (1891—1938) tr. D. Smirnov-Sadovsky (b. 1948)

I love the uprise of a texture (2) →

Дата создания: November 1933 — July 1935. • From Moscow Notebooks. See also Poems. In Russian: Люблю появление ткани 1.

Translated by D. Smirnov-Sadovsky:  Octets. I. I love the uprise of a texture, To see after two, three or some Air gasps, when there will be a gesture, And deep straightening breath then will come. 5 And space, like a child, half awoken Chalks arcs with the sail of the yacht, — The shapes so untied and unbroken, — And plays, never knowing its cot. November 1933, Moscow. July 1935, Voronezh (Translated 20 June 2007, St Albans)

O. Mandelstam:  Восьмистишия. I.

Notes

1. This poem was written in November 1933 – July 1935 (Moscow – Voronezh) opens the cycle of "Eight-Line Poems" ("Octets"). "First two "octets" with the same first stanza speak about the appearance of a poem. In the first one, the appearance of written in verse lines becomes similar to the understanding of space or to freedom of a movement in space. This is as if discovery of the world through the verses "the sailing arcs of a regatta", – they correspond in the initial version (if this it is possible to name version) in "arc expansion", which is the rhythmical side of poem. In the essence, in first "octet" there is as if comparison of the rhythmical side of line or stanza with the rhythm of sail panels. The second "octet" (written earlier), gives the description of the onset of verses, which sound in the mumbling, prompted by inner voice, and where rhythm appeares ("arc expansion")." Nadezhda Mandelstam. Memoirs, Book 3 (in Russian). "Tissue" – sometimes translated as "cloth" ("I love how the cloth appears" – Richard and Elizabeth McKane) or "sails" ("I love the suddenness of sails" – David McDuff). But it also suppose to be a "tissue of poem". Translated from Russian by D. Smirnov-Sadovsky. See the source: Eight-Line Poems

Previous version of translation:

I

I love the uprise of a texture, When after two or three Or perhaps four gasps It comes, the straight deep breath. And by the sailing arcs of a regatta, Drawing the open shapes, The space being only half-awake plays Like a child, never used to knowing the crib. November 1933, Moscow. July 1935, Voronezh (Translated 1989, Moscow. October 2006, St Albans)

© D. Smirnov-Sadovsky, translation.