Celebrating Poets: MARINA TSVETAEVA

Hi Everyone,

I usually focus on celebrating contemporary poets but every once in a while, I like to recommend a long ago favorite. Here’s a beautiful poem by Marina Tsvetaeva:

WHERE DOES SUCH TENDERNESS COME FROM?

Where does such tenderness come from?

These aren’t the first curls

I’ve wound around my finger—

I’ve kissed lips darker than yours.

The sky is washed and dark

(Where does such tenderness come from?)

Other eyes have known

and shifted away from my eyes.

But I’ve never heard words like this

in the night

(Where does such tenderness come from?)

with my head on your chest, rest.

Where does this tenderness come from?

And what will I do with it? Young

stranger, poet, wandering through town,

you and your eyelashes—longer than anyone’s.

(1916)

Translated from the Russian by Ilya Kaminsky and Jean Valentine.

Abrazos,

Cristina