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YOU SWAM (a spiritual)
you swam breaking the waves
or diving under them
and a thousand suns spun
around your head
but this won’t be no more
not with anyone, nowhere
no, no it most surely will be
with everyone, everywhere
you saw the moon and stars
you saw grasses and flowers
you heard the birds sing
and the thunder rumble
but this won’t be no more
not with anyone, nowhere
no, no it most surely will be
with everyone, everywhere
you saw a woman as naked
as the day the Lord made her
you were an island for her
gone under a great wave
but this won’t be no more
not with anyone, nowhere
no, no it most surely will be
with everyone, everywhere
you’ll become bread and wine
but that will be later
you’ll arch your spine
and spread your arms wide
but this won’t be no more
not with anyone, nowhere
no, no it most surely will be
with everyone, everywhere
but this won’t be no more
not with anyone, nowhere
no, no it most surely will be
with everyone, everywhere
CREATION’S GOT
Creation’s got a blowdown squirt,
creaks and yawns,
a copper buckle, a sailor shirt,
and eyes that burn.
Creation’s got a wheeze, a belch
a bad haircut,
a fat red face, a brandy flask,
and a pension card!
Creation’s got iron glasses
gone green with rust,
and pockets crammed
with tobacco dust!
Creation’s got
sclerotic plaque,
armpits wet with sweat,
a looming heart attack!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creation’s got high rafters,
its nights are scorching hot—
it grabs hold of the railing
… and cries as it departs.
The Originals
ТЫ ПЛЫЛ
(спиричуэл)
ты плыл волну разбивая
подныривая под волну
и тысяча солнц качалась
вокруг твоей головы
но этого больше не будет
ни с кем никогда и нигде
нет-нет это будет, будет
со всяким всегда и везде
ты видел луну и звёзды
ты видел траву цветы
ты слышал как пели птицы
и как грохотал гром
но этого больше не будет
ни с кем никогда и нигде
нет-нет это будет, будет
со всяким всегда и везде
ты женщину видел нагую
какой её создал бог
ты был перед ней как остров
накрытый большой волной
но этого больше не будет
ни с кем никогда и нигде
нет-нет это будет, будет
со всяким всегда и везде
ты станешь вином и хлебом
но это будет потом
ты выгнешь дугой позвоночник
и руки раскинешь крестом
и этого больше не будет
ни с кем никогда и нигде
нет-нет это будет, будет
со всяким всегда и везде
но этого больше не будет
ни с кем никогда и нигде
нет-нет это будет, будет
со всяким всегда и везде
У МИРОЗДАНЬЯ
У мирозданья продувка-протяжка, скрипы, зевки,
медная пряжка, в полоску тельняшка, глаз огоньки.
У мирозданья одышка, отрыжка, неровная стрижка,
красная ряшка, коньячная фляжка, пенсионная книжка!
У мирозданья железных очков позеленевшая дужка,
а по карманам
табачная мелкая крошка!
У мирозданья
склеротическая бляшка,
сырая подмышка,
в спину дышит кондрашка!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
У мирозданья высокие стропила,
все ночи, полные огня –
хватается за лёгкие перила
… и плачет, уходя.
Arkady Shtypel (1944-2024) was a poet, translator, and author of several poetry books. He was born in 1944 in Kattakurgan, in evacuation. He spent his childhood and youth in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnipro). He studied physics at the Dnepropetrovsk University. He was expelled from the university for attempting to create a samizdat literary magazine and accused of both Zionism and Ukrainian nationalism. After serving in the army, he graduated from the university by correspondence. Since 1969, he has lived in Moscow and published several poetry books. His first book, “Visiting Euclid,” was published in 2002. In 2016, a book of his translations of Russian classical poetry into Ukrainian was published in Kyiv (Publishing House “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”). He was a regular participant of the Kyiv Laurels Festival and poetry programs of the Lviv Publishers Forum. Since 2021, he lived in Odesa; during the last three years of his life, he published two books of poetry in Ukraine (one of them in Ukrainian).
Maria Bloshteyn is a literary scholar, editor, translator, and essayist. She was born in Leningrad and she grew up and lives in Toronto. Maria studied Dostoevsky’s impact on American culture and is the author of The Creation of a Counter-culture Icon: Henry Miller’s Dostoevsky (2007). She is the translator of Alexander Galich’s Dress Rehearsal (2009) and Anton Chekhov’s The Prank (2015), as well as the editor and the main translator of Russia is Burning, a collection of Russоphone poems of World War II (Smokestack Books, 2020). Her poetry translations have appeared in journals and anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry (Penguin Classics, 2015).
“Justification of a Monkey” («Оправдание мартышки») is a collection of stories and parables by Nina Kossman, bilingual author of eight books of poetry and prose.
This collection includes poems written in 2020-2023. (Russian edition)
“The Lingering Twilight” (“Сумерки”) is Marina Eskin’s fifth book of poems. (Russian edition)
Launched in 2012, “Four Centuries” is an international electronic magazine of Russian poetry in translation.
A collection of moving, often funny vignettes about a childhood spent in the Soviet Union.
“Vivid picture of life behind the Iron Curtain.” —Booklist
“This unique book will serve to promote discussions of freedom.” —School Library Journal
A book of poems by Maria Galina, put together and completed exactly one day before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is Galina’s seventh book of poems. With translations by Anna Halberstadt and Ainsley Morse.
