| Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921. | | | | The God of Noon | | By Ivan Bunin (b. 1870) |
| | | BLACK goats I herded with my sister; they | |
| Grazed by red rocks; the grass rose stiff and stinging. | |
| Warming their backs, stones to the foot-hills clinging | |
| Slept dumbly on. And sheer blue shone the bay. | |
| By the gnarled silver of an olive flinging | 5 |
| My drowsy limbs, in its dry shade I lay,— | |
| He came—like a hot cobweb net, asway, | |
| Or like a cloud of flies about me singing. | |
| |
| He bared my knees. Kindled my quiet feet. | |
| The silver on my shirt his white fire burned. | 10 |
| His hot embrace is heavy, ah, and sweet. | |
| He laid me on my back. The whole sky turned. | |
| He tanned my naked bosom to the teat. | |
| From him the cammomile’s kind use I learned. | | | | |
|
|
