Translation of Poem by Osip Mandelstam, Осип Мандельштам, BLACK CANDLE

                                Czesława Kwoka , Polish Catholic Girl, 14; died at Auschwitz

Her dates: 15August 1928--12 March 1943

 

Осип Мандельштам

(1891–1938)

 

Твоим узким плечам под бичами краснеть,
Под бичами краснеть, на морозе гореть.

Твоим детским рукам утюги поднимать,
Утюги поднимать да веревки вязать.

Твоим нежным ногам по стеклу босиком,
По стеклу босиком да кровавым песком…

Ну, а мне за тебя черной свечкой гореть,
Черной свечкой гореть да молиться не сметь.

1934

 

d

Literal Translation

Your narrow shoulders are to grow red beneath the lashes,

Red beneath the lashes and to burn in the frost.

 

Your childish hands are to raise irons up,

Raise irons up and tie rope together.

 

Your tender feet are to walk on glass barefoot,

Walk on glass barefoot and on bloody sand . . .

 

As for me, I’m to follow behind you as a black candle burning,

As a black candle burning, and not daring to pray.

d

Literary Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie

Black Candle

 

The whippings will redden your shoulders pathetic,

You’ll live with red shoulders and chilblains splenetic.

 

Your childlike thin hands will do laundry and ironing,

You’ll iron and launder, enduring fault-finding.

 

Your soft gentle feet will walk barefoot on glass,

Barefoot on glass and by bloodied sands pass . . .

 

And I’ll follow behind you, through bogs of dismay,   

With black candle burning, not daring to pray.

 

 

                                                       Monument to Mandelstam in Vladivostok