<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Poetry Gives Off Smoke</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Poetry gives off smoke<br class="">
but it doesn’t die out.<br class="">
It acts kind of crazy, flutteringly, <br class="">
when it chooses us.<br class="">
This fellow’s no fool, <br class="">
sucking tranquillizers, <br class="">
toting in a little briefcase<br class="">
a boiled beet-root.<br class="">
Right now he’d like a mousse<br class="">
or baba au rhum, <br class="">
but the Muse-<br class="">
some kind of Muse! -<br class="">
grabs him<br class="">
by the scruff of the neck! <br class="">
Thoughts drill a hole in his forehead, <br class="">
and he’s mislaid the spoon-<br class="">
and he’s a giant! Socrates, for the Lord’s sake...<br class="">
in an Oblomov dust-jacket. O.K....<br class="">
he’s no Apollo-<br class="">
he’s puny and ugly, <br class="">
skinny: he’s like a golden mushroom, <br class="">
unsteady...<br class="">
transparent.<br class="">
But suddenly some sort of whistling<br class="">
is in his ears, and then...<br class="">
a period! <br class="">
And like a slugger’s hook<br class="">
across the chops of the ages, <br class="">
a line! <br class="">
And there<br class="">
an insane little bird<br class="">
falls off its feet, <br class="">
a crazy rag-picker, <br class="">
drunk, <br class="">
a kind of society clown. But something gives her the word<br class="">
and-<br class="">
like branches in winter, <br class="">
God rings from within, and her eyelids turn<br class="">
to marble.<br class="">
And here’s a bum<br class="">
a shaman, <br class="">
really-<br class="">
from among the lunatics! <br class="">
Pour him champagne, <br class="">
bring him<br class="">
women, not rum cakes! <br class="">
Suddenly an order from within<br class="">
will come through sternly, and he’s the instant<br class="">
voice of the people, damned near<br class="">
Savonarola! <br class="">
<br class="">
Poetry acts kind of strange, it flutters<br class="">
when it chooses us.<br class="">
And it has no mercy, either, <br class="">
afterwards. It stamps 'Pure Souls'<br class="">
on us...but who’s the judge? <br class="">
Yes, <br class="">
for the horse-blinkered multitudes we’re 'decadents, '<br class="">
but for ourselves, we ourselves are... are...<br class="">
well, yes! Redemption! </span></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Yevgeny Yevtushenko</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><br class="">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(Translated by James Dickey with Anthony Kahn) <br class=""></span></p></div></body></html>