The text of the piece is taken from the poem
Whoever Finds a Horseshoe by the Jewish-Russian poet
Osip Mandelstam. The composer has taken the lines directly from the original Russian text that connected most strongly with him, both in terms of meaning and in terms of musically interesting sound combinations.
For those who do not understand the Russian language, small fragments of the English translation are heard now and then to give hints of the multifaceted pictures of this fascinating poem. For Mezzo-Soprano and Piano.