When, after destroying the sketches

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Octets (VI) ~ When, after destroying the sketches… written by Osip Mandelstam

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From Moscow Notebooks. See also Poems. Translated from Russian by Dmitri Smirnov. In Russian: Когда, уничтожив набросок.

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VI. When, after destroying the sketches, You thoroughly hold in your mind A period with no dull footnotes United in its inner shade, — 5And it just on its own power Is floating with eyes snapped shut, — It relates to the paper exactly Like cupola to the empty skies. January 1933, Moscow

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© Dmitri Smirnov, translation. Can be reproduced if non-commercial.

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