Olga Umansky, MLIS, is a librarian and archivist of the Hanns Sachs Library at BPSI. Her remarks below originally appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of the library newsletter, which can be read here.
Joseph Brodsky wrote this Russian chant fifty years ago. Some thought it mocked the absurd reality outside his Leningrad apartment, while others read it as a reproach to internal exiles popular among Soviet intellectuals. The poem is funny and bitter and brutally beautiful. Its much beloved quote “it’s not exactly France outside” still perfectly describes the world in many places, whether in reference to politics or the weather. When our planet shut down to deal with the pandemic, “Don’t Leave Your Room…” resurfaced and went viral in the Russian blogosphere. A British journalist and writer, Thomas de Waal, recently published a new English translation, nicknaming it “the Virus poem”:
Don’t Leave Your Room…
by Joseph Brodsky. Translated by Thomas de Waal
Originally posted on the Pushkinhouse.org blog
Don’t leave your room, don’t commit that fateful mistake.
Why risk the sun? Just settle back at home and smoke.
Outside’s absurd, especially that whoop of joy,
you’ve made it to the lavatory–now head back straight away!
Don’t leave your room, don’t go and hail a taxi, spend,
the only space that matters is the corridor, its end
a ticking meter. She comes by, all ready for caressing,
mouth open? Kick her straight out, don’t even start undressing.
Don’t leave your room, just say you have the influenza.
A wall and table are the most fascinating agenda.
Why leave this place? Tonight you will come home from town
exactly as you were, only more beaten down.
Don’t leave your room. Go dance the bossa nova,
shoes without socks, your body bare and coat tossed over.
The hallway holds its smells of ski wax and boiled cabbage,
writing even one letter more is excess baggage.
Don’t leave your room. Do you still look handsome?
Just ask the room… Incognito ergo sum,
as petulant Substance once remarked to Form.
It’s not exactly France outside. Don’t leave your room!
Don’t be an idiot! You’re not the others, you’re an exclusion!
Choreograph the furniture, essay wall-paper fusion.
Make that wardrobe a barricade. The fates require us
to keep out Cosmos, Chronos, Eros, Race and Virus!
1970
Check out the original post with translator’s commentary. You can listen to the Russian audio recording read by the author here. Image retrieved from this site.
Olga Umansky can be contacted by email here.
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