{"id":322,"date":"2004-10-08T05:25:00","date_gmt":"2004-10-08T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/may-24-1980\/"},"modified":"2004-10-08T05:25:00","modified_gmt":"2004-10-08T12:25:00","slug":"may-24-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2004\/10\/08\/may-24-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"May 24, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.poets.org\/poets\/poets.cfm?prmID=4\">Joseph Brodsky<\/a>.  Translated from Russian by the author.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I have braved, for want of wild beasts, steel cages,<br \/>\n<br \/>carved my term and nickname on bunks and rafters,<br \/>\n<br \/>lived by the sea, flashed aces in an oasis,<br \/>\n<br \/>dined with the-devil-knows-whom, in tails, on truffles.<br \/>\n<br \/>From the height of a glacier I beheld half a world, the earthly<br \/>\n<br \/>width. Twice have drowned, thrice let knives rake my nitty-gritty.<br \/>\n<br \/>Quit the country the bore and nursed me.<br \/>\n<br \/>Those who forgot me would make a city.<br \/>\n<br \/>I have waded the steppes that saw yelling Huns in saddles,<br \/>\n<br \/>worn the clothes nowadays back in fashion in every quarter,<br \/>\n<br \/>planted rye, tarred the roofs of pigsties and stables,<br \/>\n<br \/>guzzled everything save dry water.<br \/>\n<br \/>I&#8217;ve admitted the sentries&#8217; third eye into my wet and foul<br \/>\n<br \/>dreams. Munched the bread of exile; it&#8217;s stale and warty.<br \/>\n<br \/>Granted my lungs all sounds except the howl;<br \/>\n<br \/>switched to a whisper. Now I am forty.<br \/>\n<br \/>What should I say about my life? That it&#8217;s long and abhors transparence.<br \/>\n<br \/>Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelette, though, makes me vomit.<br \/>\n<br \/>Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx,<br \/>\n<br \/>only gratitude will be gushing from it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Joseph Brodsky. Translated from Russian by the author. I have braved, for want of wild beasts, steel cages, carved my term and nickname on bunks and rafters, lived by the sea, flashed aces in an oasis, dined with the-devil-knows-whom, in tails, on truffles. From the height of a glacier I beheld half a world, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellany"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}