from EVENING

• IN TSARSKOYE SELO
  • 1. “They're leading the horses…”29
  • 2. “…And there's my marble double…”31
  • 3. “A dark-skinned youth wandered…”31
• “Under her dark veil she wrung her hands…”33
• “The heart's memory of the sun grows faint…”35
• The Song of the Last Meeting37
• “When you're drunk it's so much fun…”39
• The Gray-Eyed King41
• He loved…43
• “The park was filled with light mist…”45
• “And when we had cursed each other…”47
• “At the new moon he abandoned me…”49

from ROSARY

• Outing51
• “We are all carousers and loose women here…”53
• “How many demands the beloved can make!”55
• “We met for the last time…”57
• “It drags on forever—this heavy, amber day!”59
• “I've learned to live simply, wisely…”61
• Confession63
• “Under the icon, a threadbare rug…”65
• The Guest67

from WHITE FLOCK

• Solitude69
• “They are flying, they are still on their way…”71
• “There is a sacred boundary between those who are close…”73
• “For us to lose freshness of words…”75
• “Somewhere there is a simple life…”77
• JULY 1914
  • 1. “It smells of burning…”79
  • 2. “The sweet smell of juniper…”81
• In Memoriam, July 19, 191483
• “I don't know if you're living or dead…”85
• “The twenty-first. Night. Monday…”87
• “I dream of him less often now, thank God…”89
• “How I love, how I loved to look…”91

from PLANTAIN

• “I am listening to the orioles' ever mournful voice…”93
• “Now no one will listen to songs…”95
• “Over the snowdrift's hard crust…”97
• “When in suicidal anguish…”99

from ANNO DOMINI MCMXXI

• Petrograd, 1919101
• “I am not with those who abandoned their land…”103
• “Submissive to you? You're out of your mind!”105
• “He whispers: I'm not sorry…”107
• Lot's Wife109
• Michal111
• “Everything has been plundered…”113
• “Terror, fingering things in the dark…”115
• “Today is the nameday of Our Lady of Smolensk…”117
• Apparition119

from REED

• “I hid my heart from you…”121
• The Poet123
• Voronezh127
• “Wild honey smells like freedom…”129
• REQUIEM131
• Cleopatra153
• Dante155
• The Last Toast157
• Mayakovsky in 1913159

from SEVENTH BOOK

• “The first lighthouse flashed over the jetty…”161
• Creation163
• “I don't need martial hosts arrayed in odes…”165
• “Probably much still remains…”165
• To the Memory of a Friend167
• “I haven't been here for seven hundred years…”169
• “When the moon lies like a slice of Chardush melon…”171
• “Those lynx eyes of yours, Asia…”173
• CINQUE
  • 1. “As if on the rim of a cloud…”175
  • 2. “Sounds die away in the ether…”177
  • 3. “For so long I hated…”177
  • 4. “You know yourself that I'm not going to celebrate…”179
  • 5. “We hadn't breathed the poppies' somnolence…”179
• The Burnt Notebook181
• “You invented me. There is no such earthly being…”183
• “Don't be afraid—I can still portray…”185
• One More Toast187

from ODD NUMBER

• Seaside Sonnet189
• The Last One191
• Native Land193
• The Last Rose195
• To the Memory of V.S. Sreznevskaya197
•  
• NORTHERN ELEGIES199

UNCOLLECTED POEMS
AND FRAGMENTS
1904-1917

• “In the corner an old man resembling a ram…”221
• “Some great misfortune happened to me here…”223
• “You, the leader, standing by the spring…”225
• White Night227

1919-1941

• “In the city of the gatekeeper of paradise…”229
• “It would be so easy to abandon this life…”231
• “Why did you poison the water…”233
• Imitation from the Armenian235
• To the Memory of M.B.237
• Belated Reply239

1941-MAY 1945

• “De profundis…My generation tasted little honey…”241

SEPTEMBER 1945-1956

• “I wouldn't have known how the quince tree blossoms…”243
• “Everyone left and no one returned…”245
• Festive Song247
• “Others go off with their loved ones…”249

1957-1966

• “They will forget?—How astonishing!”251
• “I was captivated by mistake…”253
• Creation255
• “You are to live, but I, not very much longer…”257
• “These praises for me are not due to rank…”259
• Listening to Singing261
• The Publication of a Book263
• The North265
• Christmastime (December 24)267