НОЧЬ, УЛИЦА, ФОНАРЬ, АПТЕКА
Ночь, улица, фонарь, аптека,
Бессмысленный и тусклый свет.
Живи еще хоть четверть века
Все будет так. Исхода нет.
Умрешь—начнешь опять сначала,
И повторится все, как встарь:
Ночь, ледяная рябь канала,
Аптека, улица, фонарь.
10 октября 1912
*
Night, street, streetlight, a pharmacy.
A senseless, drab light all about.
Live twenty-five more years and see,
Nothing will change. There’s no way out.
Die and you will restart it all
As long ago. Things will repeat:
Night, icy ripple of a canal,
Streetlight, the pharmacy, the street.
Translated from Russian by A.Z. Foreman. This translation was first published in “Poems Found in Translation”.
* * *
Дома растут, как желанья,
Но взгляни внезапно назад:
Там, где было белое зданье,
Увидишь ты черный смрад.
Так все вещи меняют место,
Неприметно уходят ввысь.
Ты, Орфей, потерял невесту, —
Кто шепнул тебе — «Оглянись…»?
Я закрою голову белым,
Закричу и кинусь в поток.
И всплывет, качнется над телом
Благовонный, речной цветок.
5 ноября 1902
*
Houses rise like wishes,
But suddenly you look back:
Where you saw white niches,
You see only detritus, black.
Thus everything shifts and changes,
Imperceptibly flies away.
You, Orphée, lost your bride to Hades.
Who whispered to you “look astray”?
With white my head I will cover,
I’ll scream and plunge in a stream.
And a riverine fragrant flower
Above my body will rise a-gleam.
Translated from Russian by Nina Kossman. This translation was first published in “Silo” (Bennington College annual literary journal, 1980).
Alexander Blok (November 28, 1880, Saint Petersburg – August 7, 1921, Saint Petersburg) was one of the greatest Russian poets. He was a major poet of Russian Symbolism. He was also a playwright, translator, and literary critic.
Alex Foreman (aka A.Z. Foreman) is a linguist and translator of poetry from Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, French, Greek, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Occitan, Persian, Polish, Spanish, Serbian, Russian, Romanian, Romani, Ugaritic, Ukrainian, Urdu, Welsh, and Yiddish.
A blog of his translations: https://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/p/my-poetry-translations.html
Nina Kossman’s nine books include three books of poems, two books of short stories, an anthology she edited for Oxford University Press, two volumes of translations of Marina Tsvetaeva’s poetry, and a novel. Her English-language work has appeared in over ninety magazines and anthologies and has been translated into many languages, including French, Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Persian, Chinese, and Japanese. Her plays have been produced in several countries. Her work in her first language, Russian, was published in Russian-language periodicals in and outside of Russia. She is a recipient of an NEA fellowship, UNESCO/PEN Short Story award, grants from the Onassis Foundation, the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, etc.
This collection focuses on the war between Russia and Ukraine as seen by Russophone poets from all over the world.
“Monkey’s Defense” is a collection of short stories and parables by Nina Kossman.
This collection includes poems written in 2020-2023. (Russian edition)
“The Lingering Twilight” (“Сумерки”) is Marina Eskin’s fifth book of poems. (Russian edition)
