When I am half a breath off from your lips,
When I am half a step away from you —
Your pupils are all woven out of wonder
And in your eyes, it’s all boundless and blue.
You whisper something quiet and bewitched.
That whisper bluely cuts my quiet through
And I forget that I know how to breathe,
And I forget my feet can walk to you.
Your eyelids’ raven rises black in flight
And whisks my confidence somewhere remote,
Now half a step is left behind unwalked
And half a breath is stuck here in my throat.
Your pupils are all woven out of wonder
And in your eyes it’s all boundless and blue
But there is half a breath left to your lips
And half a step left from my lips to you.
~ ~ ~
The Original:
Коли до губ твоїх
Коли до губ твоїх лишається півподиху,
Коли до губ твоїх лишається півкроку –
Зіниці твої виткані із подиву,
В очах у тебе синьо і широко.
Щось шепчеш зачаровано і тихо ти,
Той шепіт мою тишу синьо крає.
І забуваю я, що вмію дихати,
І що ходити вмію, забуваю.
А чорний птах повік твоїх здіймається
І впевненість мою кудись відмає.
Неступленим півкроку залишається,
Півподиху у горлі застрягає.
Зіниці твої виткані із подиву,
В очах у тебе синьо і широко,
Але до губ твоїх лишається півподиху,
До губ твоїх лишається півкроку
Hryhoriy Chubay (1949, Bereziny – 1982, Lviv) was a Ukrainian poet and translator, one of the most prominent representatives of the Lviv underground of the 1970s. In his lifetime, he published only in samizdat and abroad. Posthumously, his poetry books To Speak, to Be Silent and to Speak Again (1990), Crying of Jeremiah (1999) were published in Ukraine. He translated poetry from Spanish, Polish, Czech and Russian.
Alex Foreman (aka A.Z. Foreman) is a linguist and translator of poetry from Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, French, Greek, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Occitan, Persian, Polish, Spanish, Serbian, Russian, Romanian, Romani, Ugaritic, Ukrainian, Urdu, Welsh, and Yiddish.
A blog of his translations: https://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/p/my-poetry-translations.html
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)