With peerless scorn, she looks upon the grimy day,
Her rainbow eye, so graceful-lazy, gleaming bright,
She knows for certain, sickness, virus, nor dismay,
Nor love, nor boredom, nor lethargy will take her sight.
So pure, the darkness! Keeper of reincarnation’s lore,
On the roof, she lounges, purring, triumphing with art,
Though losing her eye in a fight, she will restore
The wholeness of this day, so full of heart.
Borne by the winds to my city of contrasts and strife,
Nature’s will compels her, as she struts her stuff and saunters,
Just like me, she was never white, nor fluffy in her life,
In the night, we recognize each other as kindred hunters.
* * *
The Original:
КОШКА
С бесподобным презрением глядя в заплеванный день,
грациозно-лениво посверкивать радужным глазом,
точно знать – не пристанет ни хворь, ни какая зараза,
ни какая хандра, ни влюблённость, ни скука, ни лень.
Как чиста темнота! Тайну реинкарнаций храня,
наоравшись на крыше, мурлыкать победно, искусно,
в драке глаз потеряв – обрести драгоценное чувство
завершённости и полнокровия этого дня.
Занесённая ветром в мой город контрастов, в мой дом,
повинуясь природе своей, подошла между делом.
Как и я, отродясь не была ни пушистой, ни белой.
Те, кто видит в ночи – мы друг друга легко узнаём.
Olga Andreeva has authored eight poetry collections. Her poems have been published in major Russian-language magazines, such as Novyi mir, Emigrantskaya lira, Neva, etc. Her poetry won many awards and honors. Her prose has been published in Neva, Far East, and other Russian literary journals. Before the war, she worked as a highway designer.
“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.
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.