Янв
26
Monument to O. Mandelstam
Filed Under Monuments
Photo: Monument, opened on 28 November 2008. Zabelina st. Courtyard houses, in which the poet was visiting his brother
Mandelstam (January 15 1891 – December 27, 1938) was a Russian poet and essayist, one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school of poets.
In November 1933, Mandelstam wrote a famous Stalin Epigram:
We live, but we do not feel the land beneath us,
Ten steps away and our words cannot be heard,
And when there are just enough people for half a dialogue,
Then they remember the Kremlin Highlander.
His fat fingers are slimy like slugs,
And his words are absolute, like grocers’ weights.
His cockroach whiskers are laughing,
And his boot tops shine.
And around him the rabble of narrow-necked chiefs –
He plays with the services of half-men.
Who warble, or miaow, or moan.
He alone pushes and prods.
Decree after decree he hammers them out like horseshoes,
In the groin, in the forehead, in the brows, or in the eye.
When he has an execution it’s a special treat,
And the Ossetian chest swells.
Six months later, Mandelstam was arrested.
Comments
Leave a Reply