Great Regulars: "And I Was Alive," composed a year before

[Osip] Mandelstam died while he was in exile, is another poem translated by [Christian] Wiman that advocates for this spirit of poised defiance. It calls attention to that place in existence that is balanced between the present and the moment that follows the present when language exists as the elegy of that existence.

And I Was Alive

from David Biespiel: The Oregonian: Poetry: A poet's poise in the face of evil

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