Have no wide fears for Earth:
Its universal name is ‘Nowhere’.
If it is Earth to you, that is your secret.
The outer records leave off there,
And you may write it as it seems,
And as it seems, it is,
A seeming stillness
Amidst seeming speed.
Heavens unseen, or only seen,
Dark or bright space, unearthly space,
Is a time before Earth was
Froth which you inward move
Toward perfect now.
Almost the place it is not yet,
Potential here of everywhere—
Have no wide fears for it:
Its destiny is simple,
To be further what it will be.
Earth is your heart
Which has become your mind
But still beats ignorance
Of all it knows—
As miles deny the compact present
Whose self-mistrusting past they are.
Have no wide fears for Earth:
Destruction only on wide fears shall fall.
~~~
ЗЕМЛЯ
Оставь свои страхи за Землю,
Повсеместное имя ей – “Нигде”.
Тебе она Земля, но это твой секрет.
Записи на этом обрываются,
Пиши дальше, как тебе видится,
Ведь как видится, так и есть,
Видимый покой
Среди скорости видимой.
Небо незримое, иль только зримое,
Тьма иль сиянье, простор неземной –
Прежде, чем Земля была
Пеной, которую ты собираешь
В совершенное сегодня.
Почти такая, какой не стала еще,
Здесь и возможность повсеместности –
Оставь свои страхи за нее:
Проста ее судьба –
Будет и дальше, как будет.
Земля – твое сердце
Ставшее разумом, но все еще
Бьющееся неведеньем
Всего, что знает –
А просторы отрицают плотность настоящего,
Будучи его прошлым, себе не верящим.
Оставь свои страхи за Землю:
Лишь на страхи падет разрушение.
Laura Riding Jackson (born Laura Reichenthal; January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991), best known as Laura Riding, was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Although not as well-known as some of her famous contemporaries, such as Ezra Pound or H.D., she was one of the greatest American poets.
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).
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)