The secret cupboard of the mountain sun
Wishing you a climate where the light trades in the gold currency of cognac. Not the first mention I have...
Conversation as coffee
Likening conversation to ‘thick black coffee’ which you might have on the table in front of you, and you might...
Flea-bitten hermits
'On the island of Sevan, which is conspicuous for two most dignified architectural monuments that date back to the seventh...
Serenade in fur coat
Had to read this one a couple of times – it’s imaginative and convoluted. First the image of ‘the body...
Pink of old roses
Musty pink makes me think of an old breed of faded rose, or a soft-worn damask, or one of the...
From pantheon to palate
A piled up commentary of poets on poets: Heaney on Mandelstam on Dante. Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938), who died in uncertain...
Expressing allegiance
Mandelstam seems to have seen something timeless in the curve of a horse’s neck in Armenia, and discerned a proud...
A butterfly in a cactus library
Such an imaginative construct to describe a jagged script! I had fun looking for an image of a cabbage-looking butterfly...
Thalassa, thalassa
Osip Mandelstam is a favourite poet whose prose I only recently discovered.  His Journey to Armenia is a marvelous, textured complement to...
Straight as an avenue of poplars
When was the last time you received - or wrote - an 18 page letter? Â I think I have managed...
Waist-high grass
This conjurs a sweeping landscape of a breeze pouring over an endless prairie of grass.
Source: Osip Mandelstam, Journey to...
Language as refreshing as fresh-brewed tea
Such a fresh image to describe how a foreign language makes you feel. Here, a refreshing, fragrant black tea chucked...
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