Meditations have words that are soundless;
How I love to seek them in the silence!
It is necessary only that,
Night should forget itself more fully,
Night should forget itself faster
Among its sparse street lights,
Round the corner
Like a forsaken house...
Should forget itself among the quiet dining
Rooms above you, in the lilac-colored…
That from the tablecloth the trembling
Circle should not let down its yellow
Overflows, and gleamings of slowed hands
Should separate gray threads there,
And that you with anguish should separate
These threads one after the other, should
Separate and afterwards roll them up,
And with lilac openness the needle
Should go after the shining thread…
And then, unconcernedly bright,
With the quiet squeaking of straw
Hinges, carefully pinning the sheets,
There you too, Virtue, should fall sleep
Between confusedly tender skeins
...
~ Text: "The Work Basket" by the Russian poet, Innokenty Annensky (1856-1909)
~ Image from Docks of New York, Joseph von Sternberg, 1928
