Prospettiva Nevski
Battiato Franco
Nevski Perspective
A wind at thirty degrees below zero
unopposed in the empty squares and against the steeples
at times like bursts of gunfire disintegrating the snowdrifts.
And around us, the fires of the Red Guards lit to scare off wolves
and old ladies with rosaries.
Sitting on the steps of a church
we waited for mass to end and for the women to come out
then we stared blankly at Nijinsky's unnatural grace.
And then his impresario fell madly in love with him
and with the Russian ballets.
Winter with my generation
women hunched over looms near the windows
one day on Nevsky Prospect I happened to run into Igor Stravinsky
and the chamber pots tucked under the beds for the night
and an Eisenstein film about the revolution.
And we studied locked in a room
the dim light of candles and oil lamps
and when it came time to talk we always waited with pleasure
and my teacher taught me how hard it is to find
the dawn within the dusk.
