Marina Tsvetaeva
trans. by Sasha Dugdale
[The white sun and the low, low clouds]
The white sun and the low, low clouds
Along the gardens—a white wall—the churchyard.
And in the sand a line of straw men
Life-sized, hanging from a crossbar.
And, leaning over the picket fence,
I see: roads, trees, soldiers in ones and twos . . .
An old woman stands by a gate and chews,
Chews at a black scrap, sprinkled with coarse salt.
Why do these grey shacks anger you so,
Lord! So many pierced through the breast—for what cause?
A train proceeds through and wails, and the soldiers howl,
And behind it the dust whirls, whirls over the tracks. No, to die now!
For it would be better never to be born
Than hear this pitiful, forlorn convicts’ bawl
Of black-browed beauties. Oh, and how
The soldiers are singing! Oh Lord! Oh my Lord.
3 July 1916
Moscow-born poet Marina Tsvetaeva lived in Russia at the turn of the twentieth century through times of turmoil including the Russian Revolution. She was inspired by writers such as Blok and Akhmatova. Tsvetaeva was married but had notable affairs with fellow writers Osip Mandelstam and Sofia Parnok, which she wrote about in Mileposts. Her work grapples with the female psyche, the effects of war, and homesickness following her exile to Europe.
Sasha Dugdale is a poet and translator. Her most recent translations include the play Bad Roads by Natalya Vorozhbit, produced by the Royal Court Theatre in 2017, and Maria Stepanova’s poetry and prose. She was shortlisted for the 2020 T.S. Eliot Prize for her Deformations, her fifth collection of poetry.