"Today Is A Bad Day" (1911) by Osip Mandelshtam

An early poem by Osip Mandelshtam, "Today is a bad day..." . Translated from the Russian, set to music, and performed by Aleksey Calvin Tsukanov. More translations of poems by Mandelshtam and his peers at http://www.silveragepoets.com/the-poets-and-their-stories Today is a bad day: The grasshopper choir sleeps, More morbid than tomb plates - Are cliffs' dusky canopies. The arrows that flash and chime; Oracular crows scream... Now moments, now more, fly; I'm seeing a bad dream. Edge open each known thing! Demolish the Earth's jails! Ferociously sing, hymn, Bronze riling of mysteries! O, pendulum of the souls - Is strict, swinging deaf and sure, And wildly a doom knocks For us, on a barred door. - 1911 SOURCE: Сегодня дурной день: Кузнечиков хор спит, И сумрачных скал сень — Мрачней гробовых плит. Мелькающих стрел звон И вещих ворон крик... Я вижу дурной сон, За мигом летит миг. Явлений раздвинь грань, Земную разрушь клеть, И яростный гимн грянь — Бунтующих тайн медь! О, маятник душ строг — Качается глух, прям, И страстно стучит рок В запретную дверь к нам... 1911