It will always be in the grass.
It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it.
It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies.”
“Do not touch this cloud-dweller”
Josef Stalin, upon seeing Pasternak’s name in an arrest dossier
Hamlet
by Boris Pasternak, trans. Ann Pasternak Slater
The murmurs ebb; onto the stage I enter.
I am trying, standing in the door,
To discover in the distant echoes
What the coming years may hold in store.The nocturnal darkness with a thousand
Binoculars is focused onto me.
Take away this cup, O Abba, Father,
Everything is possible to thee.I am fond of this thy stubborn project,
And to play my part I am content.
But another drama is in progress,
And, this once, O let me be exempt.But the plan of action is determined,
And the end irrevocably sealed.
I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood:
Life is not a walk across a field.
❏