John W. Sexton. Asleep. Translated into Russian by Simon Patlis

Also in Poetry:

'Kilauea',_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Ogura_Yonesuke_Itoh,_1908
'Kilauea', oil on canvas painting by Ogura Yonesuke Itoh, 1908. Honolulu Museum of Art. (Public Domain)
John W. Sexton. Asleep. Translated into Russian by Simon Patlis

Moon, moon,

much smaller soon,

the night will eat you with its spoon;
 

a badger noses the moonlit verge

as I dance beyond the shadow’s edge
 

where in a dream I’ve a coat of fire,

for inside dreams the truth’s a liar

 
upon my feet are shoes of ice,

my pockets brimming with birds and mice
 

with seven words the lawn’s a door

and i descend a winding stair
 

and down that staircase made of earth

I find my one and only worth,
 

your heart inside a jewel case

that I’ll return to its only place,
 

inside you, love, within where beats

my own heart which i gave to keep;
 

and in your sleeping mind my dear

I’ll whisper secrets in your ear,
 

secrets to keep the dawn away

so beside each other we can stay
 

asleep in shadow beyond the edge

where owls in starlit dreams converge…
 

Moon, moon,

much smaller soon,

the night will eat you with its spoon.
 
 
Во сне
 
Луна, луна

едва видна,

ночь скоро съест тебя до дна.
 

Лис тычет носом в след луны,

А я за гранью, в той тени,
 

где явью управляет сон,

танцую, в пламя облачён,
 

в ботинки изо льда обут,

в карманах птицы гнёзда вьют;
 

в семь слов я луг заговорю,

и в землю дверцу отворю,
 

по лестнице сойдя, в конце

найду сокровище в ларце:

 
твоё сердечко бьётся там!

Его, – с моим, – тебе отдам,
 

так, чтоб вдвоём, любовь моя,

звучал их ритм внутри тебя,
 

и в спящем разуме твоём

я буду петь о том, о сём,
 

чтоб утро в небе задержать,

чтоб дольше вместе нам лежать
 

в тени, за гранью, где во сне

летают совы при луне…
 

Луна, луна

едва видна,

ночь скоро съест тебя до дна.
 

About the Author:

IMG_20240822_214722
John W. Sexton
Ireland

John W. Sexton is a Muse Pagan and identifies with the Aisling tradition, an Irish form of vision poetry. His work spans vision poetry, contemporary fabulism, experimentalism, and tangential surrealism. He is the author of eight poetry collections, the three most recent being Futures Pass (Salmon Poetry 2018), Visions at Templeglantine (Revival Press 2020) and The Nothingness Kit (Beir Bua 2022). A chapbook of his surrealist poetry, Inverted Night, came out from SurVision in April 2019. Under the ironic pseudonym of Sex W. Johnston he has recorded an album with legendary Stranglers frontman, Hugh Cornwell, entitled Sons of Shiva, which has been released on Track Records. In 2007 he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.

About the Translator:

1. photo simon
Simon Patlis
San Diego, USA

Simon Patlis grew up in the former Soviet Union (first in Tashkent, later in Kishinev.) Since moving to the US in 1991, he’s lived in San Diego, CA. Mathematician by education, he works as an IT consultant. He has been writing poetry since childhood and translates English and Russian poetry (English to Russian, Russian to English). He is the author of “Duda”, published in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in 2006. His work was published in “The Notebook. A Collection of Contemporary Russian Poetry in North America” (“Общая Тетрадь”, Moscow, 2007), as well as in other collections and almanacs of poetry published over the years in Russia and the US.

John Sexton Джон Секстон
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