My goldfinch, I'll toss back my head—

By Osip Mandelstam

My goldfinch, I'll toss back my head—

let's look at the world, you and I:

a wintry day, prickly as stubble,

is it just as rough on your eye?

Tail like a boat, black and gold plumage,

dipped in paint from the beak down—

are you aware, my little goldfinch,

what a goldfinch dandy you are?

What air there is on his forehead:

black and red, yellow and white—

the keeps a sharp lookout both ways,

won't look now, he's flown out of sight.

''My goldfinch, I’ll toss back my head'' by Osip Mandelstam, translated by Peter France, from Black Earth, translation copyright © 2021 by Peter France. Compilation copyright © 2021 by New Directions Publishing. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Source: Black Earth (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2021)