“Your name is a -- bird in my handa piece of -- ice on the tongueone single movement of the lips.Your name is: five signs,a ball caught in flight, asilver bell in the moutha stone, cast in a quiet poolmakes the splash of your name, andthe sound is in the clatter ofnight hooves, loud as a thunderclapor it speaks straight into my forehead,shrill as the click of a cocked gun.Your name -- how impossible, itis a kiss in the eyes onmotionless eyelashes, chill and sweet.Your name is a kiss of snowa gulp of icy spring water, blueas a dove. About your name is: sleep.”

“Tonight - I am alone in the night,a homeless and sleepless nun!Tonight I hold all the keys to thisthe only capital cityand lack of sleep guides me on my path.You are so lovely, my dusky Kremlin!Tonight I put my lips to the breastof the whole round and warring earth.Now I feel hair - like fur - standing on end:the stifling winds blow straight into my soul.Tonight I feel compassion for everyone,those who are pitied, along with those who are kissed.”

“How quiet the writing, how noisy the printing.”

“Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name.”

“After a sleepless night the body gets weaker,It becomes dear and not yours - and nobody's.Just like a seraph you smile to peopleAnd arrows moan in the slow arteries.After a sleepless night the arms get weakerAnd deeply equal to you are the friend and foe.Smells like Florence in the frost, and in eachSudden sound is the whole rainbow.Tenderly light the lips, and the shadow's goldenNear the sunken eyes. Here the night has sparkedThis brilliant likeness - and from the dark nightOnly just one thing - the eyes - are growing dark.”

“Who sleeps at night? No one is sleeping.
In the cradle a child is screaming.
An old man sits over his death, and anyone
young enough talks to his love, breathes
into her lips, looks into her eyes.”

“Wings are freedom only when they are wide open in flight. On one's back they are a heavy weight.”