Nefertiti-A Poem
EVTUSHENKO, EVGENY
Nefertiti However you may twist Or turn Nefertiti did live. Once, In a world long gone She lived with Pharaoh, But even if she lay with him, She belonged to eternity. He wore his robes with...
...Through everything In which time has been deceived The throat of Nefertiti, thrown back, Stretches down to us today...
...Evgeny Evtushenko...
...She purifies Without corroding, Without tarnishing, And again someone feels His inferiority Beside her...
...It is she whom the schoolboys sketch, It is she whose head is on the broochs of the girls...
...He had armies, Chariots But she Has eyes, eyelashes A brow Lit with stars And her throat curves astoundingly...
...Nefertiti Through all our humdrum lives, Through the battles, People, Dates, Still reaches out somewhere, However you may twist, However you may turn— Nefertiti lives on...
...He wore his robes with pomp, He passed judgement, He strengthened the foundations of the Kingdom, But, as an Arab sage once said, Beside beauty All sovereign power is inferior...
...You and I often sink in the mire of humdrum life...
...And the Sphinxes Slowly Were effaced And faiths Were Mortally modified But through the ideas and happenings...
...Pharaoh was sullen in his caresses, Crude in his actions Because he felt the fragility of power Beside the power of this fragility...
...But Nefertiti...
...When they were carried through the streets The eyes of every passer-by were Turned, As if by instinct, Not towards Pharaoh But towards Nefertiti...
...And Pharaoh was tormented By his inferiority complex . . . ?t dinner he trampled The carpet underfoot As the thought crossed his mind...
Vol. 47 • May 1964 • No. 10
