Everything As In a Good Old-Fashioned Novel — Andrey Dementyev To Maya Lugovskaya Translated by Simon Franklin Everything as in a good old-fashioned novel. Colonnaded house, light from a window. Black limes in blue haze. Elegaic quietude. Rustle of crows in drenched clumps of trees. Leaves float quietly in a pond. What the hell; I […]
Firing Back . . . — Aleksandr Gangnus Translated by Bradley Jordan Firing back at my heavy heart, I longed to run, run far away, but the stars are too high, too far apart, and for the stars there’s a lot to pay. *** This poem is carved on Gangnus’ headstone in Vagankovksy Cemetery, […]
Thanks to the wonderfully literate Artemis, whose library is apparently infinite, I have discovered several new poets, including Pavel Antokolsky and Georgy Ivanov. As many of the poets she features on her blog are not American, finding their works translated into English has been challenging. (While I have some abilities with French and Italian, that’s […]
A Fixed Idea ~ Amy Lowell What torture lurks within a single thought When grown too constant; and however kind, However welcome still, the weary mind Aches with its presence. Dull remembrance taught Remembers on unceasingly; unsought The old delight is with us but to find That all recurring joy is pain refined, Become a […]
As One Listens To The Rain ~ Octavio Paz Listen to me as one listens to the rain, not attentive, not distracted, light footsteps, thin drizzle, water that is air, air that is time, the day is still leaving, the night has yet to arrive, figurations of mist at the turn of the corner, figurations […]
