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Poetry

[Fate’s little pictures]

By Larissa Miller
Translated from Russian by Richard McKane

Fate’s little pictures
drawn by a most slender pen,
will hang in the damp air
on a little spider’s web.
The rains draw
with their own flying handwriting,
and the wind shuffles
light strokes like smoke.
They draw, as if on the run,
almost carefreely.
I shall treasure that drawing
where you are looking tenderly.
I live obediently and quietly.
Pianissimo
the wind shakes two strokes
and a little spider’s web.

English

Fate’s little pictures
drawn by a most slender pen,
will hang in the damp air
on a little spider’s web.
The rains draw
with their own flying handwriting,
and the wind shuffles
light strokes like smoke.
They draw, as if on the run,
almost carefreely.
I shall treasure that drawing
where you are looking tenderly.
I live obediently and quietly.
Pianissimo
the wind shakes two strokes
and a little spider’s web.

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