AUTUMN POEMS



AND LET ME TELL YOU MORE
Eugene Dubnov (Translated from the Russian)


And let me tell you more: the earth
in the painful beauty of falling leaves,
just as it is, I accept, with you,
and without you, need no other.

The sky deploys the clouds,
far away from us, over the horizon,
as though with a rheostat, dimming
the sunset across the zones of longitude.

So it must be: the shiver of foliage, wind,
the heart's disturbance and the spirit's,
the play of shadows in the light,
quickening sight and inward hearing -

autumn has spread out before us
all its painted merchandise
and in the sunset hour has agitated
the music of the earth's favourite story.



(from Outposts Quarterly. 180/181)