John Cairns’s Reviews > Vladimir Mayakovsky and Other Poems > Status Update

I read it out in case the sound carried the sense, like Dylan Thomas'. Oh god I wrote on this: Leaves./ The tracks the fox/ leaves. I knew Pushkin doesn't translate well. I liked the bitter irony of 'and softly,/ kissing the sleepers' knees,/ a steam-engine's wheel will caress my nape.' and the ambivalence. 'Poet!/ They've declared you a prince.' gives some indication how he wants to be regarded on that basis.