The trembling columns of the Forum
with remnants of the entablature.
What remains of empires? Only art,
acquiring new forms and meanings,
and therefore — eternity.
Rome is a bird set free,
and within it there are neither empires nor republics,
no terms, no expectations, no conversations
about freedom, about things,
about beauty, about meaning —
and yet meanings remain,
and in that sense
Rome is eternal.
