(no subject)

[girlofprey]

In a grand crescendo of Brexit furiously chasing down my family's milestones, we're finally leaving on my MN's birthday. In a final fuck you. But in any case, I would like to mark this occasion:

Meeting by Boris Pasternak (trans. Henry Kamen)

When snow lies covering the roads,
And make the roofs its floor,
I'll start out for a walk - and see
You standing at the door;

Alone, in your autumnal coat,
Bare-haired, bootless, you stand:
You struggle with your thoughts, and chew
The damp snow in your hand.

Far out into the distant dark
Trees, fences fade away:
Alone amid the falling snow
Disconsolate you stay.

The water from your scarf rolls down
Your sleeves and lingers there:
Like morning dew the little drops
Now sparkle in your hair;

And suddenly a shining wisp
Of hair lights up your face:
It tints your scarf, your shabby coat,
Your figure's fragile grace.

The snow is wet upon your lashes,
There's anguish in your eyes,
But every feature of your face
Is a unique surprise.

As with an iron chisel
Dipped in antimony,
So clearly on my heart are you
Engraved undyingly,

And in it will for ever live
Your eyes' humility;
Be then the hard world merciless -
It has no claims on me.

And therefore this wide night of snow
Resolves itself in two:
I cannot draw the frontiers
Dividing me from you.

But who are we, and whence are we,
When of those long years' space
Only the idle words are left,
And of us not a trace?


It is about neighbours, and it made me think of the EU the first time I read it, shortly after all this Brexit stuff had started. And I like it very much.