To all of you —
those I liked or like —
cherished as icons in the cave of my soul,
solemnly, I raise as a goblet of wine
the skull filled with my poetry.

I contemplate —
so often —
ending my days
with the full stop of a bullet.
This evening,
for all of you —
just in case —
I am giving a farewell concert.

Memory,
pack the brain’s auditorium
with inexhaustible swarms of beloveds.
Spatter laughter from eye to eye,
sate the night with former weddings’ glory.
Fill every soul with a jocular mood
so that this night is forgotten by no one.
Today I shall play the flute —
my backbone.
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

— from Vladimir Mayakovsky’s The Backbone Flute, 1915