Poem of the week: What Remains by Reginald Gibbons

This rendition of a work by the 20th century Russian poet Osip Mandelshtam is a rich celebration of poetry itself

What Remains by Reginald Gibbons

Yes, bread that’s poisoned. And not even one sip of air.
How hard it is for the wound of life to be cured.
Joseph himself, sold to Egypt as a slave,
could not have been more heavily grieved.

Osip Mandelshtam (1913).

Mandelshtam’s original poem, with an English translation by Bernard Meares, can be compared here.

Stuart Goldberg’s discussion of the poem in chapter one of his thesis, on Mandelshtam and Aleksandr Blok, is well worth reading.

What Remains is reprinted by kind permission of Reginald Gibbons, from Renditions (Four Way Books, 2021)