A letter to a Roman friend

Laurel leaves so green they shiver on the branches
Door ajar, a dusty window, distant shoreline
An abandoned chair, a bed, two lonely benches,
Simple fabric that’s absorbed the midday sunshine…
Pontus heaving just beyond stone-pine hedgerow.
At the cape, a ship and winds engaged in battle.
On a weathered stump, - the Elder Pliny’s shadow.
In a cypress shag, a blackbird’s chirpy prattle.

March 1972
Joseph Brodsky
(Gennady Pritsker, translation)

A Baltic variant of letters to a Roman friend

Inscription on the chair

What keeps hearts from falseness in this flat region

is that there is nowhere to hide and plenty of room for vision