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“Good poems torment me much …” by Vladislav Khodasevich 🇷🇺 (28 May 188614 Jun 1939)
Translated from the Russian by Lyudmila Purgina
Good poems torment me much,
Bad ones—are nice without reason:
They can’t sting souls, nor they bite,
They have the warmth of home, isn’t it?
So—that’s a real lemonade, of course,
(They’re light, as a silk morning gown).
And genius ones takes minute to concern, oh …
The grey verses hold evening whole.