Here you will find thePoemAs Psyche-Life goes down to the shadesof poet Osip Emilevich Mandelstam
As Psyche-Life goes down to the shades In a translucent forest in Persephone's tracks, A blind swallow falls at her feet With Stygian tenderness and a green branch. The shades flock to meet the fugitive, Welcome their new visitor with laments, Wring their feeble hands before her Bewildered and in timid hope. One holds a mirror, another a phial of perfume -- The soul is a woman, fond of trifles And the leafless forest is sprinkled with fine rain of Laments, dry transparent voices. And in the gentle confusion, not knowing what to begin, The soul does not recognize the spectral wood, Breathes on the mirror, and hesitates to give The copper coin from the misty crossing.
