By Aleksey Porvin 4

Woods, too tired to walk into the white,
did you not find a way to warm up
to the blue amid the branches, wrapped
round pines along a squirrel run ?

The opposite with people.  They must squeeze
their bodies into heavy clothes,
and yet they do not manage to get warm
their blood squeezed slowly into numbness.

In people, too: a body with no room
for the warming of the soul, even
a body with sufficient ease of movement,
even when it’s comfortable.

What shall I be wrapped round by ?  On tree trunks
in a clearing there’s a squirrel run,
striving for a soft and fiery height
higher than the eye can see.

Translated from the Russian by Leo Yankevich.