We are birds in migration from this world to that.
(That sounds coarse, like the German Tod.)
And when our hour is announced
When our season nears its end
A true compass awakens inside us
And shows the worlds fifth point.
Invisible wings flutter nervously
And the inner gaze slowly turns
In bitter longing as if prophetic
Toward the garden it knows: it
Sees miracles and longing
Lengthens doubled as
The caravans fly off.
This poem is part of BRs special package celebrating National Poetry Month.
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Elena Shvarts, one of the outstanding Russian poets of her generation, died suddenly in 2010. Her books in English include Birdsong on the Seabed and Paradise: Selected Poems.
Stephanie Sandler is the co-translator, with Genya Turovskaya, of The Russian Version: Selected Poems of Elena Fanailova. She is Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.