Tuesday Poem: "Tristia" by Osip Mandelstam

I have studied the science of saying goodbye

in bareheaded laments at night.

Oxen chew, and the waiting stretches out,
it is the last hour of my keeping watch in the city,
and I respect the ritual of the cock-loud night,
when, lifting their load of sorrow for the journey,
eyes red from weeping have peered into the distance,
and the crying of women mingled with the Muses’ singing…
Who can know when he hears the word goodbye
what kind of separation lies before us…?

by Osip Mandelstam

For more information about the poet, Osip Mandelstam, see: 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/osip-mandelstam