Flight into Egypt (2), by Joseph Brodsky, translated by Seamus Heaney
In the cave—it sheltered them, at least, safer than four square-set right angles— in the cave the threesome felt secure in the reek of straw and old clobber. Straw for bedding. Outside the door, blizzard, sandstorm, howling air, Mule rubbed ox; they stirred and groaned like sand and snowflake scourged in wind. Mary prays; the […]
Three Ways of Looking at Rilke: Cadora, Snow, Brodsky
This week in Little Star Weekly a new translation of Rilke’s New Poems by Joe Cadora, with an introduction by Robert Hass, prompts us to revisit one of its most startling and enduring poems, “Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.” We offer Cadora’s translation: That was the fantastical mine of the soul. Like the reticent ore of silver, […]
A Christmas poem, by Joseph Brodsky, translated by Derek Walcott
…………………………………………………………To Elisabeth Leonskaya The air—fierce frost and pine-boughs. We’ll cram ourselves in thick clothes, stumbling in drifts till we’re weary— better a reindeer than a dromedary. In the North if faith does not fail God appears as the warden of a jail where the kicks in our ribs were rough but what you […]
“Flight Into Egypt,” by Joseph Brodsky, translated by Melissa Green
…where the drover came from, no one knew. Their affinity made the heavens slate the desert for a miracle. There, they chose to light a fire and camp, the cave in a vortex of snow. Not divining his role, the Infant drowsed in a halo of curls that would quickly become accustomed to radiance. Its […]