tinvan

  NORTHERN ELEGIES   “Everything is a sacrifice to your memory....”   Pushkin   FOURTH   “The last key — is the cold key of oblivion.   It gives sweeter satisfaction than all the ardors   of the heart.”   Pushkin   There are three ages to memories, And the first — is like just yesterday. The soul is under their blissful arch, And the body basks in their blissful shade. Laughter has not yet died, tears flow, The ink blot on the desk has not faded — And, like a seal on the heart, the kiss, Unique, valedictory, unforgettable ... But this does not long endure ... Already there is no arch overhead, but somewhere In a remote suburb, a solitary house, Where it is cold in winter, hot in summer, Where there are spiders, and dust on everything, Where ardent letters are decomposing, Portraits are ste

 

THE LESSON OF BIOLOGY     MUCH has been written on the poet as a person who differs from others in that his childhood does not end and who preserves in himself something of the child throughout his life. This is true to a large extent, at least in the sense that his childhood perceptions have great durability and his first poems, half-childish, already bear some traits of his subsequent oeuvre. After all, the moments of happiness or of horror experienced by a child determine the personality of the adult. But the thought of a poet also depends upon what he learns about the world from his parents and teachers. We should remember how many years of our lives are spent in school. There and nowhere else are we prepared to participate our civilization. In school we are indoctrinated everyday, until'our notions do not differ from those of our contemporaries and we dare not doubt certain axioms, for instance, that the Earth revolves around the sun. Varying political systems hav