In spite of the years which hold us apart
(a fathomless labyrinth hope can’t renew)
a line you wrote still cuts to the heart.
This world covets what it most despises,
finding veracity in what is least true.
The vast constellations are fixed in the heavens
for pseudo-astrologers to misconstrue;
time lags while the same moon rises
Homer and Dante knew.
~ ~ ~
Смятенье чувств с годами нарастает,
Мы не дойдём до середины мненья,
И только строки сердца достигают,
Скорейшее найдя нам примененье.
Созвездий расточительны разломы,
Догадки наши безнадежно плохи,
Но Данте и Гомер вершат подъемы,
Сплетая нами прожитые сроки.
Russian translation by Alexander Markov
Wayne Pernu is an American poet who grew up in Minnesota and now lives in Portland, Oregon.
Alexander Markov is a philologist, culturologist, professor of cinema and contemporary art at the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow).
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.
A new collection of poems by Ian Probstein. (In Russian)