My most favorite poet
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(Russian poet & author)
I was fortunate to meet Mr. Yevtushenko at my university two years ago. I don't think that anyone could fail to be very impressed with the man. He is currently past 80 years old and has more energy than most people half his age. He is considered a folk hero in Russia and was a leader in the fight for rights and freedom during the years of the USSR.
Momento
Like a reminder of this life
of trams, sun, sparrows,
and the flighty uncontrolledness
of streams leaping like thermometers,
and because ducks are quacking somewhere
above the crackling of the last, paper-thin ice,
and because children are crying bitterly
(remember children's lives are so sweet!)
and because in the drunken, shimmering starlight
the new moon whoops it up,
and a stocking crackles a bit at the knee,
gold in itself and tinged by the sun,
like a reminder of life,
and because there is resin on tree trunks,
and because I was madly mistaken
in thinking that my life was over,
like a reminder of my life -
you entered into me on stockinged feet.
You entered - neither too late nor too early -
at exactly the right time, as my very own,
and with a smile, uprooted me
from memories, as from a grave.
And I, once again whirling among
the painted horses, gladly exchange,
for one reminder of life,
all its memories.
1974
Translated by Arthur Boyars amd Simon Franklin