Poetry Sunday: July

Just about all I knew of Boris Pasternak was that he was the author of Doctor Zhivago, the book about the Russian revolution that was later made into a wonderful movie starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. But it turns out he was also an accomplished and honored poet.

Here is one of his poems that is all about this time of year, July. "Unkempt" and "meadow-scented," "with summer air and thunder" - yes, that just about sums up our July so far.  

July

by Boris Pasternak 

A ghost is roaming through the building,
And shadows in the attic browse;
Persistently intent on mischief
A goblin roams about the house.

He gets into your way, he fusses,
You hear his footsteps overhead,
He tears the napkin off the table
And creeps in slippers to the bed.

With feet unwiped he rushes headlong
On gusts of draught into the hall
And whirls the curtain, like a dancer,
Towards the ceiling, up the wall.

Who is this silly mischief-maker,
This phantom and this double-face?
He is our guest, our summer lodger,
Who spends with us his holidays.

Our house is taken in possession
By him, while he enjoys a rest.
July, with summer air and thunder-
He is our temporary guest.

July, who scatters from his pockets
The fluff of blow-balls in a cloud,
Who enters through the open window,
Who chatters to himself aloud,

Unkempt, untidy, absent-minded,
Soaked through with smell of dill and rye,
With linden-blossom, grass and beet-leaves,
The meadow-scented month July.