Backbone Flute Quotes

“Tomorrow you’ll forget
that I have crowned you,
that I burned my flowering soul with love,
and the whirling carnival of trivial days
will ruffle the pages of my books…
Would the dry leaves of my words
force you to a stop
gasping for air?
At least let me
pave with a parting endearment
your retreating path.

—Vladimir Mayakovsky, from “Lilichka! (Instead of a Letter),” Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry Of Vladimir Mayakovsky. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform April 18, 2008)”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“Lilichka! (Instead of a letter)"

Tobacco smoke eats the air away.
The room,--
a chapter from Kruchenykh's Inferno.
Recall,--
by the window,
that day,
I caressed you ecstatically, with fervor.
Here you sit now,
with your heart in iron armor.
In a day,
you'll scold me perhaps
and tell me to leave.
Frenzied, the trembling arm in the gloomy parlor
will hardly be able to fit the sleeve.
I'll rush out
and hurl my body into the street,--
distraught,
lashed by despair
and sadness.
There's no need for this,
my darling,
my sweet.
Let's part tonight and end this madness.
Either way,
my love is
an arduous weight,
hanging on you
wherever you flee.
Let me bellow out in the final complaint
all of my heartbroken misery.
A laboring bull, if he had enough,
will leave
and find cool water to lie in.
But for me,
there's no sea
except for your love,--
from which even tears won't earn me some quiet.
If an elephant wants to relax, he'll lie,
pompous, outside in the sun-baked dune,
Except for your love,
there's no sun
in the sky
and I don't even know where you are and with whom.
If you thus tormented another poet,
he
would trade in his love for money and fame.
But
nothing sounds as precious to me
as the ringing sound of your darling name.
I won't drink poison,
or jump to demise,
or pull the trigger to take my own life.
Except for your eyes,
no blade can control me,
no sharpened knife.
Tomorrow you'll forget
that it was I who crowned you,
who burned out the blossoming soul with love
and the days will form a whirling carnival
that will ruffle my manuscripts and lift them above...
Will the dry autumn leaves of my sentences
cause you to pause,
breathing hard?

Let me
pave a path with the final tenderness
for your footsteps as you depart.

(1916)”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“Emotions are steep like cliffs, -
please,
step away farther.
Farther
step away, please.”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“Enter with passion,
climb into my soul!
My heart is now free! I’ve lost all control!
In others, I know where the heart had been placed.
Everyone knows - it beats in the chest.
But even anatomy
is absurd in my case
one massive heart
and no room for the rest.”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“Like a tightrope, I’ve stretched out my soul and juggling words, I totter there, baffled.”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“Perhaps, from these days, horrifying like the bayonet’s edge, when the centuries bleach my beard silver, only you shall remain unchanged and I, following you from city to city.”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“More and more often, I wonder, - why shouldn’t I place the period of a bullet at the end of my stanza? Today, just in case, I am giving my final, farewell concert.”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“Let me pave a path with the final tenderness for your footsteps as you depart.”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“আমার হৃদয়ের চোর,
যে তার সমস্তকিছু ছিনতাই করেছে,
যে আমার আত্মাকে পীড়ন করে চিত্তবিভ্রম ঘটিয়েছে,
গ্রহণ করো, প্রিয়তমা, এই উপহার--
আর কখনও, হয়তো, আমি অন্যকিছু সম্পর্কে ভাববো না ।
.
এই দিনটিকে উজ্বল ছুটির দিনে রাঙিয়ে দাও ।
হে ক্রুশবিদ্ধসম ইন্দ্রজাল,
তোমার সৃষ্টি বজায় রাখো ।
যেমনটা দেখছো--
শব্দাবলীর পেরেকগুচ্ছ
আমাকে কাগজে গিঁথে দাও ।”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry

“দীর্ঘ প্রসারিত পদবিক্ষেপে আমি
চূর্ণ করি মাইল মাইল পথ।
কোথায় যাব আমি, নিজেকে লুকিয়ে নরকে?
অভিশপ্ত নারী, স্বর্গের কোন কামার
গড়েছে তোমাকে তার নিজস্ব খেয়ালে?
উল্লাস ঝড়ের জন্য রাস্তাগুলো সঙ্কীর্ণ ভাড়ী,
উৎসবে শোভাযাত্রা আর মানুষেরা পথে বেরিয়েছে
রবিবারের সেরা সাজে-ঠমকে।
আমি ভেবেছিলাম,
চিন্তাগুলো, অসুস্থ ও ঘনীভূত
রক্তের টুকরো, হামাগুড়ি দিয়ে ঝাঁপিয়ে পড়ছে যত
আমারই করোটি থেকে।”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry