Osip Mandelshtam

No, not the moon, but simple dial-plate
Is lightning me, and ‘tis my nasty fate,
That lights of stars I feel as light internal!

And loftiness of Batyushkov I hate:
"What time is it?" - he had been asked there
                                        late --
And he had answered with curiosity "Eternal!"


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver October, 1994