Louise Glück

Ты спасла меня, ты должна меня помнить.Весна того года; юноши покупают билеты
на пассажирские катера.
Смех, оттого что воздух полон яблоневыми лепестками.Когда я проснулась, то поняла, что способна
на то же чувство.Я помню звуки, как будто из детства,…

Шипастое солнце. Гудзон
Кромкой льда сокращён.
Слышу щёлк игральных костей
Позёмки из гравия. Снег сеет,…

When Hades decided he loved this girl
he built for her a duplicate of earth,
everything the same, down to the meadow,
but with a bed added.Everything the same, including sunlight,…

The elements have merged into solicitude,
Spasms of violets rise above the mud
And weed, and soon the birds and ancients
Will be starting to arrive, bereaving points…

What can I tell you that you don't know
that will make you tremble again?Forsythia
by the roadside, by
wet rocks, on the embankments…

As I perceive
I am dying now and know
I will not speak again, will not
survive the earth, be summoned…

1.It came to me one night as I was falling asleep
that I had finished with those amorous adventures
to which I had long been a slave. Finished with love?
my heart murmured. To which I responded that many profound discoveries…

As a man and woman make
a garden between them like
a bed of stars, here
they linger in the summer evening…

One summer she goes into the field as usual
stopping for a bit at the pool where she often
looks at herself, to see
if she detects any changes. She sees…

At the end of my suffering
there was a door.
Hear me out: that which you call death

You saved me, you should remember me.
The spring of the year; young men buying tickets for the ferryboats.
Laughter, because the air is full of apple blossoms.

Sometime after I had entered

Once I believed in you; I planted a fig tree.
Here, in Vermont, country
of no summer. It was a test: if the tree lived,
it would mean you existed.

In your extended absence, you permit me
use of earth, anticipating
some return on investment. I must report
failure in my assignment, principally

Don’t listen to me; my heart’s been broken.
I don’t see anything objectively.
I know myself; I’ve learned to hear like a psychiatrist.

Several weeks ago I discovered a photograph of my mother
sitting in the sun, her face flushed as with achievement or triumph.

The nights have grown cool again, like the nights
of early spring, and quiet again. Will
speech disturb you? We're
alone now; we have no reason for silence.

On a small lake off
the map of the world, two
swans lived. As swans,
they spent eighty percent of the day studying

The Greeks are sitting on the beach
wondering what to do when the war ends. No one
wants to go home, back
to that bony island; everyone wants a little more

Mother died last night,
Mother who never dies.
Winter was in the air

We’re all dreamers; we don’t know who we are.
Some machine made us; machine of the world, the constricting family.
Then back to the world, polished by soft whips.

It is not the moon, I tell you.
It is these flowers
lighting the yard.

On nights like this we used to swim in the quarry,
the boys making up games requiring them to tear off the girls’ clothes
and the girls cooperating, because they had new bodies since last summer
and they wanted to exhibit them, the…

1
Is that an attitude for a flower, to stand
like a club at the walk; poor slain boy,
is that a way to show