Connor and Jack reach back to 1937 and discuss this unsettling, icy gem from Russian poet and essayist Osip Mandelstam. They talk embedded metaphors (embedaphors), possible political readings, and the value of treating a poem like this one as an experience rather than a puzzle. Learn more about Mandelstam, here: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/osip-mandelstam Read John High's translators' notes, here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/145574/translators39-note-alone-i-stare-into-the-frosts-white-face-by-osip-mandelstam Find us on Facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking  Find us on Twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking  Find us on Instagram: @closetalkingpoetry You can always send us an e-mail with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at [email protected]. Alone I stare into the frost's white face By: Osip Mandelstam Translated by: John High Alone I stare into the frost's white face. It's going nowhere, and I — from nowhere Everything ironed flat, pleated without wrinkle: Miraculous, the breathing plain. Meanwhile the sun squints at this starched poverty— the squint itself, at east... The ten-fold forest almost the same... And snow crunches in the eyes, innocent, like clean bread.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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