I do not know how it is elsewhere, but here, in this country, poetry is a healing, life-giving thing, and people have not lost the gift of being able to drink of its inner strength. People can be killed for poetry herea sign of unparalleled respectbecause they are still capable of living by it. - Osip Mandelstam
The people need poetry that will be their own secretTo keep them awake forever,And bathe them in the bright-haired wave of its breathing. - Osip Mandelstam
The earth is buzzing with metaphor - Osip Mandelstam
Only in Russia poetry is respected--it gets people killed. - Osip Mandelstam