Image and poem by Oleg Yuzefpolsky
If i didn’t see it –
i wouldn’t tell you about it.
But i did.
Music was flowing from the feeding sky –
you cannot mistake love for anything.
When leaves swayed – breeze went through me,
when rains poured – i drowned.
To carry candle alit through the winds
is my careful way of living.
To surrender to the darkness of night
is to arrive at the inner Burning Lake.
I wouldn’t tell you if
i didn’t see it.
But i did.
Here everything merges into one another-
where did sugar go in a cup of hot tea?
From here, your parents are your children,
the strangers are your children,
enemies are your friends,
and there is no other than one.
What you see depends
on your vision.
From here, empty hands are full,
teardrops are of happiness,
and immaterial is real.
What else did i see ?
That i’m a damn fool,
and my words are no-poetry.
Everything is minutely circumstantial.
You should know the voice within you as
you know that you are breathing.
Foolish were my all my prayers.
When i came down from the mountains,
rats were destroying villagers’ crops,
my skin ripped and i was bleeding.
i knew i was breathing
when i saw it.
