Osip Mandelstam quotes

Where to start? Everything cracks and shakes, The air trembles with similes, No one world's better than another; the earth moans with metaphors. (Osip Mandelstam)
Only in Russia poetry is respected – it gets people killed. Is there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive for murder? View quote
Osip Mandelstam
Perhaps my whisper was already born before my lips. View quote
Osip Mandelstam
We live, but we do not feel the land beneath us, Ten steps away and our words cannot be heard. View quote
Osip Mandelstam
My turn shall also come: I sense the spreading of a wing. View quote
Osip Mandelstam