Luminous Decay

justinehrlich

Justin Ehrlich was born in Essex in 1985 and has a degree in Philosophy. He writes poetry and short fiction dealing with themes of death, insanity and the supernatural.

Search

Vyacheslav Ivanov 1866 - 1949

Nomads of Beauty

	“You are artists, Nomads of Beauty.”
	—“Flamings.”

FOR you—ancestral acres,

And, choked, the graveyard waits.

For us, the free forsakers,—

The camp that Beauty fates.

For us—the daily treason,

The tents we daily flee,

Mocked by each dawning season

Of our captivity.

Believe the dimmer distance,

All curtains: magic veils,

All Springtides’ green persistence,

Whole heaven’s vasty gales!

Oh, vagrant artists, shepherd

Your droves of dreams unbound;

And sow, although you jeopard

The soon-abandoned ground.

And from your open spaces

Rush down, a whirling horde,

Where slaves tamed to the traces

Adore their overlord.

Trample their Edens, plow them,

Oh, Attila, with scars.

And grow—to Beauty vow them—

Your steppe flowers like stars.

Translated by Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky

Raymond Delamarre 1890 - 1986 - Attila the Hun on his Horse

Filed under Attila the Hun on his Horse Avrahm Yarmolinsky Babette Deutsch Nomads of Beauty Poetry Raymond Delamarre Translation Vyacheslav Ivanov

Posted

Luminous Decay

Search

Tags

Archive

Sites I Like

Vyacheslav Ivanov 1866 - 1949