Mount Ararat

From Mandelstam’s ‘Journey to Armenia’:

I was lucky enough to observe the clouds performing their devotions to Ararat.

It was the ascending and descending motion of cream poured into a glass of ruddy tea, dispersing in various directions like curly-headed tubers.

The sky over the land of Ararat, however, brings little joy to the Lord of Sabaoth: it was invented by the blue titmouse in the spirit of the most ancient atheism.

Coachman’s mountain glittering in the snow, a small field sown with stone teeth, as if its intended purpose were mockery, the numbered barracks of construction sites, and a tin can brimming over with passengers – there you have the environs of Erevan.