they tamed the pungent pug-nosed thrust
and force of the life-giving earth
the silly snow and foolish frost
managed at last to bury her
over her blossoming love spell
they set the crust and pulled the shroud
and gagged her with ripe age to quell
her malleable virgin mouth
and the matured earth fell to silence
like an upset disgruntled child
just murmured grumbling in defiance
for unaccounted and unfiled
warmth gone for good or lying low
and out of mind but the new year’s
dawn with the down of pristine snow
will cure the frozen clay of fears
The Original
смиряя терпкий тупорылый
нахрап живительной земли
снег и морозец-простодыра
похоронить её смогли
заволокли и задубили
её цветенья приворот
и кляпом зрелости забили
подвижной девственности рот
и возмужала замолчала
чуть не обиженно земля
мычала разве что начала
неподотчётного тепла
какого с холода приходом
простыл и след и пар но пух
снегов излечит новым годом
застывшей грязи перепуг
2017
Andrey Lopukhin was born in 1958. In 1996, he graduated from the Literary Institute. Born in Kamchatka, he lives and writes in the Moscow region.
Dmitri Manin is a physicist, programmer, and translator of poetry. His translations from English and French into Russian have appeared in several book collections. His latest work is a complete translation of Ted Hughes’ “Crow” (Jaromír Hladík Press, 2020) and Allen Ginsberg’s “The Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems” (Podpisnie Izdaniya, 2021). Dmitri’s Russian-to-English translations have been published in journals (Cardinal Points, Delos, The Café Review, Metamorphoses, etc) and in Maria Stepanova’s “The Voice Over” (CUP, 2021). In 2017, his translation of Stepanova’s poem won the Compass Award competition. “Columns,” his new book of translations of Nikolai Zabolotsky’s poems, was published by Arc Publications in 2023 (https://eastwestliteraryforum.com/books/nikolai-zabolotsky-columns-poems).
“Monkey’s Excuse” is a collection of short stories and parables by Nina Kossman, bilingual author of eight books of poetry and prose, compiler of the anthology “Gods and Mortals” (Oxford University Press), artist, and translator of Tsvetaeva’s poems into English.
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.
