Belfast tune [Russian translation]

Here's a girl from a dangerous town

She crops her dark hair short

so that less of her has to frown

when someone gets hurt.

She folds her memories like a parachute.

Dropped, she collects the peat

and cooks her veggies at home: they shoot

here where they eat.

Ah, there's more sky in these parts than, say,

ground. Hence her voice's pitch,

and her stare stains your retina like a gray

bulb when you switch

hemispheres, and her knee-length quilt

skirt's cut to catch the squall,

I dream of her either loved or killed

because the town's too small.

• Artist:Joseph Brodsky