To read only children's books
Only childish thoughts, throw
Grown-up things away
And rise from deep sorrows.
I'm tired to death of life,
I accept nothing it can give me,
But I love my poor earth
Because it's the only one I've seen.
In a far-off garden I swung
On a simple wooden swing,
And I remember the dark tall firs
In a hazy fever.
--Osip Mandelstam, from Stone (1908)
