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✦ 76 ✦ The Effort to Untie My Soul The effort to untie my soul Still echoes like a plaintive chord That aches inside me when I hear The names of Rzháksa and Moochkáp. I love them as if they were you, As if those names were flesh of thine, With all the hopelessness of rue, Till darkness overwhelms my mind. Like night too weary now to gleam, Like muslin that can barely breathe, Like lofts that trembled at the sight Of shoulders naked to the night. Whose whisper fluttered in the dawn? My own? Oh, no—your soul’s, I swear; As if a drop of spirits touched, Then melted from these lips like air. How tenderness can clear the mind! Impeccably. And like a moan. The way a headland’s shape at night Is suddenly lit up with foam. Rzhaksa and Moochkap: these two villages in the Balashov area are also stops on the Kamyshinsky railroad line. The poet associates the names with journeys from Moscow to the south to visit his beloved. ...

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