Карлик безрукий во фраке,
глупый, неловкий пингвин,
помнишь сиянье во мраке,
синие выступы льдин?
Помнишь зарницы ночные,
кольца и складки огня?
Помнишь туманы седые
длинного, длинного дня?
Грустная птица, смешная,
глядя на нас, на людей,
плачешь ли ты, вспоминая
ласковых черных моржей?
Помнишь ли птицу-подругу,
встречи на высшей скале,
вьюгу, волшебную вьюгу,
снежные вихри во мгле…
Ах, эти встречи! А ныне:
душный, искусственный грот,
имя твое по-латыни,
пятиалтынный за вход…
When will you arrive and why are you not replying? Warm regards.
My longstanding urge to try gymnastics has congealed into a decision to exercise regularly using the Miller system, which I have begun to study and apply in practice. I have taken to pouring cold water from my head to my toes carefully before an open window although it is hellish cold and there are frosts in the morning. See more
Portable hospital.
Saturday. An upsiring in Finland. The dissolved Seim assembled illegally and the tallyman ripped off the seals that were placed on Seim's doors by the Governor-General Nekrasov. Russian troops, stationed in Helsingfors—all Bolsheviks, not only refused to prevent the assembly of the Seim, but did not let new troops, sent from Petrograd, into Helsingfors. See more
In the last few days I learned that my mother had pneumonia, and went through it standing upright, and then contracted an inflammation in her middle ear. She is feeling better now, thank God. Since Kornilov’s speech they have been under even tougher arrest.
Here the weather is hopelessly bad… I have never in my life seen so much rain. Your only relief is that you don’t see the mountains, although it is sad to console oneself with the thought that others are in even worse circumstances… It seems that now I can truly say, if we had remained in Paris, it could have hardly been worse for me! See more
An alien Professor of Sociology visiting Russia came to see me in Petrograd. He had been informed by business men and intellectuals that the Revolution was slowing down. The Professor wrote an article about it, and then travelled around the country, visiting factory towns and peasant communities–where, to his astonishment, the Revolution seemed to be speeding up. See more
There is the story of Senator Sokolov, who in full tide of Revolution came to a meeting of the Senate one day in civilian clothes, and was not admitted because he did not wear the prescribed livery of the Tsar’s service!
The weather became quite warm. It was pleasant to walk and work in the backyard. I finished the story Oboidennie and began reading The Islander.