21 August 2011

From the last entries in Mayakovsky's notebook



She loves me? She loves me not?
I wring 
My hands and scatter the broken-off fingers.
LIke petals you pluck from some 
White little flower along your way.
You hold them up to the breeze,
They’ve told your fortune,
They drift off into May.
Though
Now a haircut
Lays bare thorns of gray,
Though my morning shave shows me
On the bib the salt of age,
I hope, I believe
I will never weaken.
Never be caught
Showing good sense.


                       - Vladimir Mayakovsky                         
                          (adapted by Frederick Seidel)

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