Selected Poems

Lilichka! In Place of a Letter

60 ✦ vladimir mayakovsky Lilichka! In Place of a Letter Tobacco smoke has eaten through the air. The room is a chapter out of Kruchenykh’s hell. Remember— just past that window, in a frenzy I first caressed your hands. Today you’re sitting there, heart wrapped in metal. Another day and you’ll throw me out, perhaps with a curse. In the dim front hallway, my arm, wracked with trembles, will take a long time to get into my sleeve. I’ll run outside, throw my body into the street. I’ll lose my mind, wild, lashed by despair. Let’s not do that, my darling, my dear, let’s say our good-byes now. All the same my love— such a heavy weight— hangs on you wherever you go. Let me roar out in one final shout the bitterness of resentful complaints. If you manage to drive a bull to exhaustion, he’ll leave, he’ll sprawl in the cool waters. Apart from your love, for me there’s no sea, and your love offers no respite—no use in tearful pleading. If an elephant gets tired and longs for peace, he’ll lie down regally in the fiery sands. Apart from your love, for me there’s no sun, and I don’t even know where you are, or with whom. If you were to wear out a poet this way, he’d trade his beloved for money and fame, but for me there is no joyful sound apart from the sound of your beloved name. I won’t throw myself down the stairs and I won’t drink poison; I won’t pull the trigger with a gun to my head. Apart from your gaze, there isn’t a blade that has power over me. Tomorrow you’ll forget that I crowned you, that I seared with love my flowering soul, and the whirling carnival of empty days will tatter the pages of my books . . . Will the dry leaves of my words force people to stop, gasping for breath? the early years ✦ 61 62 ✦ vladimir mayakovsky Let me, at least, as a final act of tenderness, pave your parting path. May 26, 1916, Petrograd ...