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Poem ("Vecher dymchat i dolog," "Nepravil'nye yamby")
Written in Ithaca, September 1953.
Published in Novyy Zhurnal 46 (1956). Translated by DN.

LONG and hazy the evening,
and I stand, as in prayer,
a young entomologist,
with some honeysuckle near.

How I crave, unexpected,
Midst those flowers to glimpse,
With proboscis projected,
a heavenly sphinx!

A quick throb -- and I see it.
At an angel I hit,
and a demon's entangled
in the haze of my net.

[Stikhi 288]

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