Insomnia. Homer by Osip Mandelstam
Channel: Oxana Holtmann
Date: 2020-02-01

Insomnia. Homer. The rows of stretched sails 
by Osip Mandelstam, translated by Dmitri Smirnov

Insomnia. Homer. The rows of stretched sails.
I’ve read the catalogue of ships just to the middle:
That endless caravan, that lengthy stream of cranes,
Which long ago rose up above the land oh Hellas.

It’s like a wedge of cranes towards the distant shores –
The foreheads of the kings crowned with the foam of Gods.
Where are you sailing to? If Helen were not there,
What Troy would be to you, oh warriors of Achaea

The sea and Homer – everything is moved by love.
Whom shall I listen to? There is no sound from Homer,
And full of eloquence the black sea roars and roars,
And draws with thunderous crashing nearer to my pillow.
Crimea, August 1915
(Translated 27 October 2006, St Albans)
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