All rules are incorrect,
all laws remain perverse,
until they’re firmly set
in well-wrought lines of verse.
An age or era will
be merely a stretch of time
without a meaning until
it’s glorified in rhyme.
Until the poet’s ‘Yes!’,
entrusted by his pen
to print, awards success
to this or that – till then
the jury will be out,
the verdict still in doubt.
by Борис Абрамович Слуцкий (Boris Abramovich Slutsky)
(early 1960s)
translated by Stephen Campus
Rambling At The Bridge Head 