Because we liked it.

[gryphonrhi]

I'm on a 'poem a day' list. So I'm sitting here, letting Dragon snooze for another twenty minutes or so, 'cause we've been tired and he stayed up last night while I slept. But... well, I read the first verse, thought of a friend's muse, and one of mine popped up, read it with me, and said, "That's him, all right. Post it."

So. No copyright infringement intended. To paraphrase Paul Simon? "For Vasili, wherever we may find him."

When Your Face Dawned ...

When your face dawned
over my crumpled life,
at first I understood
only the poverty of all I have.

Then its particular light
was shed on woods, rivers, and seas
and initiated into the world of colors
the uninitiated me.

I am so frightened, I am so frightened
of the end of the unexpected sunrise,
of the end of revelations, tears, excitement,
but I don't fight with this fear.

I understand--this fear
is what love is. I cherish it,
though I know not how to cherish,
a careless guard of his own love.

This fear has encircled me.
These moments--I know--are brief,
and for me these colors will vanish
when your face sets.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Yevtushenko, Yevgeny. Twentieth Century Russian Poetry.
Trans. by Albert C. Todd. (Univ of Iowa Press - 1992).