Bella Akhmadulina (Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina), 1937-2010, was a Russian poet of Tatar and Italian heritage. She was married to Evgenii Evtushenko, the famous Russian poet, for a time in the 1950s and had a powerful voice of her own, as we see in “Volcanoes.”
VOLCANOES
Two burned out volcanoes—
Ash rain chokes the cratered lovers.
Bodies seized by relentless throes--
Woe as ecstatic prey
Colder than psychic possession.
Tragedy being comedy theatre--
But the same tumescent visions
Must night spurt later.
A dreamed city doomed
To its parallel dimension’s fate--
Skyward poured basalt columns
And lilting frames for garden gates.
There girls gather flower bunches
Fraught bloomed yesterdays ago,
Waved to summon satyr/men
Slurping fetish fantasies with vino.
Fraught bloomed yesterdays ago,
Waved to summon satyr/men
Slurping fetish fantasies with vino.
Raucous stroked with lava hot sweeps,
Orgy suggestions prance unrehearsed--
Oh my little girl Pompei,
Child of a slave and a princess.
Held by good fortune a captive,
What and who did you think about,
When so boldly did Vesuvius
Erect stand against your elbow?
Entranced by his tales
With ardent eyes you glance above
So as not to miss laughter’s gales--
Love unhandcuffed.
And he with his unzippered head,
As the day took its leave,
Falls to your feet now feared dead
And cries out “Forgive me!”
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