Winter bird, turn me into snow,
Helplessly falling past the staircase,
Its steps are up there, unnoticed,
Passing through a cloud without me.
Winter bird, turn me into а garden
Of frozen trees, their roots running
Into the autumn water of the timid streams,
Standing still without any obstacle.
Winter bird, turn me into a fruit,
Shielded by its tiniest skin from death,
Spotted in childhood behind a tiny door
Through tiny drops of sweat.
Winter bird, turn me into running
Of cold minutes in a transparent light,
Reflected by a glass,
Searching for a summer
Of one boy from the past.
May 13, 2020
Translated into English by Svetlana Gluzman
Зимняя птица
Преврати меня, зимняя птица, в лёд,
Вбирающий краски вечернего неба,
В забытость во времени детского следа,
В прозрачный осколок с отсутствием нот.
Преврати меня, зимняя птица, в снег,
Идущий беспомощно лестницы мимо,
Ступеньки её наверху и незримо
Проходят сквозь облако, где меня нет.
Преврати меня, зимняя птица, в сад
Замерзших деревьев, корнями ушедших
В осеннюю воду ручьёв оробевших,
Застывших на месте без всяких преград.
Преврати меня, зимняя птица, в плод,
Закрытый тончайшей корою от смерти,
Увиденной в детстве за маленькой дверцей
Сквозь проступивший каплями пот.
Преврати меня, зимняя птица, в бег
Холодных минут по прозрачному свету,
Стеклом отражённому в поисках лета
Каким-то мальчишкой из пройденных лет.
13 мая 2020
Born in Moscow, Ilya Bronshteyn is a poet and photographer. He graduated from Moscow State University of Arts and Culture. He came to the US in 1991; he lives and works in New York City.
Svetlana Gluzman is a philologist and an educator. She graduated from the philological department of Moscow State University where she studied classics. She has lived in New York City since 1992.
Launched in 2012, “Four Centuries” is an international electronic magazine of Russian poetry in translation.
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967) was one of the most prolific Russian writers of the twentieth century. Babi Yar and Other Poems, translated by Anna Krushelnitskaya, is a representative selection of Ehrenburg’s poetry, available in English for the first time.
Young readers will love this delightful work of children’s verse by poet William Conelly, accompanied by Nadia Kossman’s imaginative, evocative illustrations.
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.
The first bilingual (Russian-English) collection of poems by Aleksandr Kabanov, one of Ukraine’s major poets, “Elements for God” includes poems that predicted – and now chronicle – Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
A book of poems by Yulia Fridman.
“I have been reading Yulia Fridman’s poems for a long time and have admired them for a long time.” (Vladimir Bogomyakov, poet)