Heartlessness To Oneself Poem by Vic Postnikov

heartlessness to oneself -
mutilation as well.
has the time for your laziness come?
manifest the humaneness, at least, to yourself -
make it calm.

be relaxed.
get the books you have always adored,
do not argue with fools of your dole,
do not fear if you will be ignored,
how to urgently talk, how to urgently walk...

be relaxed.
and behold ancient shadow of hills,
that survived million years of yore...
let it share your long nights
and Voloshin's soft lines
bring to fore.

If you strain all life through,
you can go insane.
you allow that the silence be here.
In the calm lunar light, see the
art, human plight,
and yourself from outside...
calm and free.

and the dog-tired exhaustion is splendid to me
for it does not resemble the death,
and the writing on paper - a beautiful whim,
for the hand is still working with ease.
grief is splendid,
because it is not the last grief
and the magic of life and the sea...

there's a danger in wishes,
in deadly desires,
how it's good not to hasten the time!
just to leisurely live,
just to leisurely grieve
for it means you're perceptive to life.
and the lonesomeness - magic,
it means you're alive.

- Yevgeny Yevtushenko

2006, Trans. by V.Postnikov