Archive for January, 2016

Cento: Lines from Mandelstam

01.05.16

Posted by Bill Stifler  |  Comments Off on Cento: Lines from Mandelstam

Cento: Lines from Mandelstam

Where to start?
No one word’s better than another;
Here, taking form, is the first draft.

The air trembles with similes,
And sometimes the air is dark as water.
You can’t get out of it, and it’s hard to get in.

The breast of the sea breathes tranquilly,
And all the seas of the world lie open,
but it’s a hard sail, and the same stars everywhere.

Time gnaws at me like a coin,
Stirs itself from long sleep on the harsh avenues,
Hangs above the damned abyss.

Never mind if our candles go out.
Ahead of us we’ve only somebody’s word,
And there’s not even enough of me left for myself.

I have forgotten the word I wanted to say.
Everything’s happened before and will happen again.
What I’m saying now isn’t said by me.

I have studied the science of good-byes.
Who can tell from the sound of the word ‘parting’?
Memory, are those your voices?

– Bill Stifler

 

A cento is a patchwork collage of lines taken from other works. All of the lines from this poem are taken from translations of various poems by Osip Mandelstam from a 1987 world poetry text compiled by Richard Jackson for ENGL433 at UT Chattanooga. I wrote the poem while taking the class and recently edited it.