Mandelstam seems to have seen something timeless in the curve of a horse’s neck in Armenia, and discerned a proud allegiance to a people ‘older than the Romans’.

‘Once in a while my horse would bend down to the grass, and its neck expressed its allegiance to the Standpats, a people older than the Romans.’

Source: Osip Mandelstam, Journey to Armenia (London: Notting Hill Editions, 2011), p. 97 – reviewed here

Photo credit: Isabella Juskova, unsplash.com