day's end. lourdes.
Originally uploaded by ata08
"Need" from The Collected Poems of Babette Deutsch
by Babette Deutsch
What do we need for love—a midnight fire
Flinging itself by fistfuls up the chimney
In soft bright snatches? Do we need the snow,
Gentle as silence, covering the scars
Of weeks of hunger, years of shabby having?
Summer or winter? A heaven of stars? A room?
The smiling mouth, the sadness of desire
Are everywhere the same. If lovers go
Along an unknown road, they find no less
What is familiar. Let them stay at home,
And all will still be strange. This they know
Who with each heartbeat fight the fear of change.
this is the first poem by babette deutsch that i've read. found it, somewhat randomly, tonight. i was immediately drawn in.
did a little googling, and uncovered a few tidbits. i am officially fascinated:
she's a new yorker...attended barnard (like me!)...and she, along with her husband, avrahm yarmolinsky, translated pushkin's eugene onegin, one of the finest, most treasured gifts i've received, from a great love of mine...
i love the reviews of her work (not "genius," but poems show feeling and integrity...ah, genius is overrated!)...
and i rather love this remark of hers: "the poet ... like the lover ... is a person unable to reconcile what he knows with what he feels. his peculiarity is that he is under a certain compulsion to do so."
