This is What I Want Most, by Osip Mandelstam. Translated by A. S. Kline
Posted by Radical Jew on November 14, 2013
in Breathing
This is what I most want
This is what I most want
un-pursued, alone
to reach beyond the light
that I am furthest from.
And for you to shine there-
no other happiness-
and learn, from starlight,
what its fire might suggest.
A star burns as a star,
light becomes light,
because our murmuring
strengthens us, and warms the night.
And I want to say to you
my little one, whispering,
I can only lift you towards the light
by means of this babbling.
Note: Written for his wife, Nadezhda.
More of Kline’s translations of Mandelstam: Osip Mandelstam
