Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad
Winter Isaac, Peter-Paul Fortress,
And Aurora, and Smolny, Neva,
And the wind that blows from the Baltic!
Fires looms in a far away Kronshtat
from the Finland Gulf waves always roll
I am opened to the winds so hostile
And my fire gets orgasms by cold.
And my Angel reigns there in the vast
And crusading she threatens the skies
Petersburg on the bones - like hell's past!
Madness flickers in vigils all-night!
And at nights there the bridges are bred
to your favorites you can not get
It is a city of infertile dreams
in its ice you will flounce and fling!
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I would like to translate this poem
Petersburg is one of the world's great cities, and no matter what it is called by present governments it will always be Petersburg. I've walked its streets by means of Dostoyevsky's writing, and more recently Andrei Bely's PETERSBURG (which I haven't finished yet - it's very dense and mercurial - I'm only on page 177!) The title of your poem is a capsule history of the city. And I can feel the love/hate which is so commonplace with regard to a city with such a vast history.