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She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.

Boris Pasternak

It is no longer possible for lyric poetry to express the immensity of our experience. Life has grown too cumbersome, too complicated. We have acquired values which are best expressed in prose.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Best Complication Expression Lyrics Poetry Possible Value
During the last years of Mayakovski’s life, when all poetry had ceased to exist . . . literature had stopped.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Existence Life Literature Poetry Stop
As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world.
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Erupt Explosion Myself Understand Wonderful World
As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Modern Paint Rare Translation Writing
I have the impression that if he didn’t complicate his life so needlessly, he would die of boredom.
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Boredom Complication Death Impression Need
In life it is more necessary to lose than to gain. A seed will only germinate if it dies.
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Death Life Lose Necessary
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Artist Discover Himself
Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Blade Creation Poetry Rich Tears
The whole wide world is a cathedral; I stand inside, the air is calm, And from afar at times there reaches My ear the echo of a psalm.
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Calm Myself Reach Religious Stand World
No bad man can be a good poet.
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Bad Goodness Man One Liner Poet
Salvation lies not in the faithfulness to forms, but in the liberation from them.
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Faith Form Liberty Loyalty Lying
Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time Be crushed by the spirit of light.
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Believe Cruelty Grave Light Spirit Time
He comes as a guest to the feast of existence, and knows that what matters is not how much he inherits but how he behaves at the feast, and what people remember and love him for.
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Existence Himself Inheritance Love People Remember
And remember: you must never, under any circumstances, despair. To hope and to act, these are our duties in misfortune.
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Act Circumstance Hope Misfortune Remember
But the division in him was a sorrow and a torment, and he became accustomed to it only as one gets used to an unhealed and frequently reopened wound.
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Accustom Division Healing Sorrow Torture Wound
Immensely grateful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed.
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Astonish Gratitude Proud Touch
I love you wildly, insanely, infinitely.
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Forever I Love You One Liner Sanity Wild
Yet the order of the acts is planned And the end of the way inescapable. I am alone; all drowns in the Pharisees’ hypocrisy.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Act End Escape Hypocrisy One Liner Order Planning
It is not the object described that matters, but the light that falls on it.
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Description Fall Light Object
As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth.
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Establishment Ignorance Man Myth Power
The last moments slipped by, one by one, irretrievable.
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Moments Oneself
I used to be very revolutionary, but now I think that nothing can be gained by brute force. People must be drawn to good by goodness.
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Character Force Goodness Myself Revolution Thinking
What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.
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Enough Life Order Truth
She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Earth Enchant Herself Magic Wild
I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Discussion Necessary Poetry Simplicity Talk
I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn’t of much value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.
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Beautiful Fall Myself People Reveal Value Virtue
The unarmed power of naked truth.
BORIS PASTERNAK

Arm Naked One Liner Power Truth

She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.

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She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.

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