Drunk from the Bitter Truth: The Poems of Anna Margolin

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contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii A Note on the Translation xxxv ROOTS Once I Was a Youth 3 Mother Earth, Well-Worn, Sun-Washed 5 Portrait 7 Years 9 In the Streets 11 My Ancestors Speak 13 A City by the Sea 17 My Home 19 I YOUR CALM AND I YOUR SWORD “We Went through the Days” 23 With Half-Closed Eyes 25 Slowly and Brightly 27 “I Have Wandered So Much” 29 You 31 “Drowse On, My Beloved” 35 Violins 37 In Copper and in Gold 39 “All Mute Things Speak Today” 41 “With Anxious Hands” 43 viii Full of Night and Weeping 45 “Hearing Your Step and Alarmed” 47 “All This Is Already Long Gone” 49 “Perhaps This Was My Happiness” 51 From a Letter 53 “I Walk in the Shadow” 55 Poem 57 Kissed My Hand 59 “No, There’s Nothing to Say” 61 “Primeval Murderess Night” 63 “When I Walk with My Beloved” 65 “A Friend Passes Us” 67 “Don’t Think That I’ve Changed” 69 “The Road Is So Still” 71 “I Did Not Know, My Dear” 73 “Just Like My Tearful Gaze” 75 “The Golden Peacock Flew Off” 77 SEALED LIPS Demons Whistled Sadly 81 Out of My Darkness 83 This Is the Night 87 Slender Ships 89 Quietly 91 “Often I Walk as If Behind a Veil” 93 Demons 95 Night 97 Weary 99 Dear Monsters 101 Night Came into My House 105 Hard Heart 107 Epitaph 109 ix Beautiful Words of Marble and Gold 111 SUN, ASPHALT, ROADS Autumn 117 Over Brown Roofs 119 Evening 121 Sun 123 Autumn 125 Rain 127 Autumn 131 Snow 133 Brisk (Brest-Litovsk) 135 Odessa 141 Discontented 145 At the Café 147 Girls in Crotona Park 151 Evening on Fifth Avenue 153 Broadway Evening 157 Gates 159 Through Coloured Panes 161 The Proud Song 163 The Masquerade Is Over 165 Reuben Ludwig 169 Dead Tired from the Burden of a Dream 173 Just One Poem 175 To Franz Werfel 177 We Will Build a Wall 179 MARY What Do You Want, Mary? 185 Mary’s Prayer 189 Mary and the Priest 191 Lonely Mary 193 x Mary and the Guests 195 Mary Wants to Be a Beggar Woman 201 Mary and Death 205 IMAGES A Human Being 209 The Madwoman 213 The Gangster 217 In the Dark Room 219 The Girl Declares 221 The Song of a Girl 227 A Woman Says 229 Entre’Acte 231 On a Balcony 233 My Venus Wears Silk Slippers 235 Forgotten Gods 237 Her Smile 239 Among the Chinese Lanterns 245 He Brings Sorrow 251 SUPPLEMENT The Bridge 261 My Lover’s Poem 263 Dusk in the Park 265 My Days Take Root in Stones 269 Drunk from the Bitter Truth 271 She of the Cold Marble Breasts 273 I Want, Angry and Tender One 275 Bibliography 277 Index to First Lines in English 281 Index to First Lines in Yiddish 285 ...