Faina Grimberg's poem about a book by Plato, a winter window and Diotima

The snowflakes fall half-asleep.
In the small flat there is silence.
I have settled down with a book of Plato
By the big winter window.
Outside the window there is such a womanly picture.
Outside the window, the sweep of an arctic-fox fur coat.
Outside the window, the beauty Irina
In boots on thin heels.
A young, brisk fashionable lady
Hurries lightly forward.
Her little heels creak softly
And seem to pierce the ice.
How charming is this lightness of body,
This lively spring of youth.
But I did not want to be Irina,
I wanted to be Diotima.

Literal translation

Faina Grimberg (Gavrilina)

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Faina Grimberg's poem about a book by Plato, a winter window and Diotima

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