Where are you jews of the levant the wise men of megrib
where are you theologians of incomparable cappadocia
wisdom floats in a sea of sorrow like an ancient fish
four-legged fish of the past must have looked like this
there used to be scribes who counted letters in words
and commentators who interpreted numbers instead of meaning
because the meaning is buried in the ground
and nonsense hangs like a rainbow overhead
every hunter wants to know where the pheasants sit
every hunter goes ahead with a loaded shotgun
every punisher wants to know where the partisans hide
every fool thinks he was created in the image and the likeness
everyone believes the Eternal Master sculpted him
from the dust of the earth with his own hands
and the fish of wisdom in a sea of sorrow hesitates
floating away from us moving its four fins
* * *
где вы евреи леванта где мудрецы мегриба
где богословы несравненной каппадокии
мудрость плавает в море печали как древняя рыба
почти что четвероногая раньше были такие
раньше были писцы считавшие буквы в слове
и комментаторы толковали не смысл а числа
потому что смысл похоронен в земле в основе
а бессмыслица радугой над головой повисла
каждый охотник желает знать где сидят фазаны
каждый охотник идет напролом с ружьем заряженным дробью
каждый каратель желает знать где сидят партизаны
каждый глупец считает что создан по образу и подобью
каждый считает что его из праха земного
лепил Предвечный Мастер своими руками
и рыба мудрости в море печали помедлив немного
уплывает от нас шевеля четырьмя плавниками
Boris Khersonsky was born in Chernivtsi in 1950. Khersonsky has published over nineteen collections of poetry and essays in Russian, and most recently, in Ukrainian. A book of his poems in English translations, The Country Where Everyone’s Name Is Fear: Selected Poems, was published by Lost Horse Press in 2022. He is widely regarded as one of Ukraine’s most prominent Russian-language poets.
Nina Kossman’s nine books include three books of poems, two books of short stories, an anthology she edited for Oxford University Press, and a novel. Her work has been translated from English into French, Spanish, Greek, Japanese, Hebrew, Persian, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Danish, and Dutch. Her Russian work was published in Russian 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. Her website is https://ninakossman.com/.
A book of wartime poems by Alexandr Kabanov, one of Ukraine’s major poets, fighting for the independence of his country by means at his disposal – words and rhymes.
Every character in these twenty-two interlinked stories is an immigrant from a place real or imaginary. (Magic realism/immigrant fiction.)
In this collection, Andrey Kneller has woven together his own poems with his translations of one of the most recognized and celebrated contemporary Russian poets, Vera Pavlova.
This collection, compiled, translated, and edited by poet and scholar Ian Probstein, provides Anglophone audiences with a powerful selection of Mandelstam’s most beloved and haunting poems.
Four teenagers grow inseparable in the last days of the Soviet Union—but not all of them will live to see the new world arrive in this powerful debut novel, loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.
A book of poems in Russian by Victor Enyutin (San Francisco, 1983). Victor Enyutin is a Russian writer, poet, and sociologist who emigrated to the US from the Soviet Union in 1975.