Anastasya Shepherd
One story of this world
Begins with “Let there be light”.
I do not think that punctuation
Had been invented
When these words were first recorded.
But judging from what follows,
An exclamation mark
Should cap that sentence.
But what about Indra’s net?
What are the words
That first emitted and still carry
The light that knits it into one great whole?
What punctuation should we use?
A question mark seems most fitting.
You and I, like everybody else,
Are both:
Jewels linked into a net
And reflections bouncing within a hall of mirrors.
But let us not get trapped.
We have the power to play it
Like a game, a dance,
A laugh-inducing tickle.
2. Voyagers
Я список кораблей прочёл до середины
Осип Мадельштам
…The list Of soaring ships I’ve read up to the middle.
Osip Mandelstam (translated by Alex Sitnitsky)
Wake up! Wake up!
There is a porthole, a port, a portal,
A momentary gap
Right here,
Where the past
Meets with the future.
A dawn breeze is rising.
You can glimpse the swaying masts,
The white sails being hoisted.
You can hear the seagulls laughing,
The lines groaning, singing,
Taut with force
Ready to propel the ship.
Let us arise and cross the threshold,
Let us run
To where the land and the water
Meet.
It is for us to name the vessel,
To unfurl the flag,
To set course
Across an uncharted sea.
3. Exploration