Pequena antologia goiabal

Óssip Mandelstam (1891-1938)

For the sake of delight
Take from my hands some sun and some honey,
As Persephone's bees enjoined on us.

Not to be untied, the unmoored boat;
Not to be heard, fur-shod shadows;
Not to be silenced, life's thick terrors.

Now we have only kisses,
Like little furry bees,
Which perish when they fly from the hive.

They rustle in transparent thickets
In the dense night forest of Taigetos,
Nourished by time, by honeysuckle and mint.

For the sake of delight, then, take my uncouth present:
This simple necklace of dead dried bees
That turned honey into sun.

(De 1920, na tradução de James Greene em "Selected Poems".)