February by Boris Pasternak

One of the most beautiful poems I know is "February" written by Boris Pasternak, whom you might know for his famous novel Dr. Zhivago. I came across this gem when I went looking for the meaning of those beautiful words Regina Spektor is singing in Apres Moi. Can't get enough of the poem ánd the song ever since.

February. Get ink, shed tears.
Write of it, sob your heart out, sing,
While torrential slush that roars
Burns in the blackness of the spring.

Go hire a buggy. For six grivnas,
Race through the noice of bells and wheels
To where the ink and all you grieving
Are muffled when the rainshower falls.

To where, like pears burnt black as charcoal,
A myriad rooks, plucked from the trees,
Fall down into the puddles, hurl
Dry sadness deep into the eyes.

Below, the wet black earth shows through,
With sudden cries the wind is pitted,
The more haphazard, the more true
The poetry that sobs its heart out.

original

Apres Moi - Regina Spektor