Nasta Kudasava during the presentation of her book «Lirika» in Vilnius, photo by Radio Svaboda
Again summer lights candles
in the churches of chestnuts,
where winged cockchafers in cassocks
celebrate mass.
And the litanies of wasps drone in the air… And beloved
is your every inhale
and your every exhale,
for which I write.
In branch-like fingers
a green prayer book trembles,
quietly, arriving starlings carry confession in their beaks…
You, with hot unknown light
filled my darkness,
and – if something can be asked – I ask, do not leave me!
Do not surrender me to cruel loneliness and caustic sorrow…
I, an unassuming female starling,
will sit by your windows,
with an unseen wing I'll enfold,
I'll sing,
I'll pray
before every chestnut tree
for your every exhale
and inhale.
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