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Goldfinch, friend I’ll cock my head

Goldfinch, friend, I’ll cock my head— by Osip Mandelstam translated from the Russian by Andrew Davis Goldfinch, friend, I’ll cock my head— Let’s check the world out, just me and you: This winter’s day pricks like chaff; Does it sting your eyes too? Boat-tailed, feathers yellow-black, Sopped in color beneath your beak, Do you get, you goldfinch you, Just how you flaunt it? What’s he thinking, little airhead— White and yellow, black and red! Both eyes check both ways—both!— Will check no more—he’s bolted! December 9-27, 1936 Poems on the Underground Reprinted by permission of New York Review Books from Osip Mandelstam, Voronezh Notebooks (2016)

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