A Tree

by Valery Chereshnya
     translated by Izabella Mizrachi

Just listen, I can’t describe it,
This tree, just listen, I can’t.
But when I suddenly turn
I can recall
That little town all the way to a station,
The dry dust, the sandy road,
The five-storey house where there was
Such silence, like a forest.
A buzzing fly in the half-dark room
Hitting the pillow
Where we were lying naked
Not only because of the stuffy air.
Then, later in the evening you,
Speaking on the narrow balcony.
The landscape was like Giorgione’s paintings
Wrapped in a bluish haze.
I could not fully feel and understand.
The guardian angel left,
The clouds came, it started to rain.

And it was then I saw a tree.