> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Arseny Tarkovsky’s poem “In the Middle of the World” about man between infusoria and the stars
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/posredine-mira/
- Published: 2022-07-16T17:09:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:52:10.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, People

**In the Middle of the World. Arseny Tarkovsky**

I am a man, I am in the middle of the world,  
Behind me are myriads of infusoria,  
Before me are myriads of stars.  
I have lain down between them at my full height,  
Two shores joined by the sea,  
A bridge that has united two cosmoses.

I am Nestor, chronicler of the Mesozoic,  
I am Jeremiah of the times to come.  
Holding a watch and a calendar in my hands,  
I am drawn into the future, like Russia,  
And I curse the past, like a beggar tsar.

I know more about death than the dead do,  
I am the most alive of the living.  
And, my God, some moth,  
Like a little girl, laughs at me,  
Like a scrap of golden silk.

*Literal translation*

**1958**