Also in Poetry:

Julia Wiener photo self
Julia Wiener
Julia Wiener. I forgive

 
I forgive

my father for conceiving me

my mother for bearing me

my brother for looking alike

my sister for not being

my husband for dying

my children for not being born

but myself I do not forgive anything

(and I do not ask for forgiveness)
 
I forgive

the Germans for killing me

the Jews for thinking I’m one of them

the Russians for not thinking I’m one of them

the Japanese, the English and the Swedes

for not being Jewish

the earth for putting up with us all

But God I do not forgive anything

(most of all that he does not exist)
 
Translated from Russian by Nina Kossman
 
 
The Original:
 
Я прощаю

отцу за то что он меня зачал

матери за что она меня носила

брату за то что мы похожи

сестре за то что её нету

мужу за то что он умер

детям за то что они не родились

себе не прощаю ничего

(да и не прошу прощенья)
 
я прощаю

немцам за то что они меня убили

евреям за то что они меня считают своею

русским за то что они меня своей не считают

японцам англичанам и прочим шведам

за то что они не евреи

земле за то что она всех нас терпит

богу не прощаю ничего

(главным образом то что его нету)
 

About the Author:

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Julia Wiener
Jerusalem, Israel

Julia Wiener (July 22, 1935, Moscow – February 13, 2022, Jerusalem) was a bilingual writer, poet, scriptwriter, and translator. She said about herself: “I had lived the first half of my life as a Jew in the USSR and the second half of it as a Russian in Israel.” In the USSR, she earned her living by scriptwriting for Moscow TV; later, later by doing literary translations. She emigrated to Israel in 1971. She wrote and published both poetry and prose. She translated poetry and fiction from Hebrew, English, French, German, Polish, and Dutch. She was married to Johannes Hendrik Fernhout (1913—1987), a Dutch filmmaker, until his death in 1987.

Titles of her books (in Russian): «Снег в Гефсиманском саду», «На воздушном шаре — туда и обратно», «Собака и её хозяйка», «Смерть в доме творчества», «Былое и выдумки», «Красный адамант», «О деньгах, о старости, о смерти», «Место для жизни. Квартирные рассказы».

Julia Wiener Юлия Винер
Bookshelf
behind_the_border-cover
by Nina Kossman

“13 short pieces…pungently convey the effects of growing up under a totalitarian regime.”           —Publishers Weekly

Version 1.0.0
by Nina Kossman

 

A new book of poems by Nina Kossman. “When the mythological and personal meet, something transforms for this reader…” —Ilya Kaminsky

Other Shepherds: Poems with Translations from Marina Tsvetaeva by Nina Kossman
by Nina Kossman

Original poetry by Nina Kossman, accompanied by a selection of poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated from Russian by Kossman. “The sea is a postcard,” writes Nina Kossman. There is both something elemental in this vision and—iron-tough.”
—Ilya Kaminsky

cockroach cover
by Nina Kossman

A collection of nonsense poetry for readers who love Edward Lear, Hilaire Belloc, and all things delightfully peculiar.

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