Odessa

Anna Margolin

Do you remember, handsome knight,

that happy flitter-flutter

of veils, eyes and braids?

When you passed by the courtyard

unknown, slim and perfect,

young girls would lean trembling

over the edges of the balconies.

Oh, sad knight, do you remember

a bright slender oval

in the dazzling, golden hall?

And a nostalgic, caressing,

half-forgotten waltz

at the youthful ball?

And spinning on the boulevards

into the gleam of electric suns

half-gliding, half-floating

completely locked into ourselves.

And from the band there lilted

the dreamy potpourri

demanding: "Flower!"

And can you remember

everything that has no name

is only a fragrance, a mystery?

and a breath of the steppe,

of sun and of tar?

The city lowered,

as if by a silken cord,

down a thousand marble steps

into the singing sea.

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