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I’ve checked out of my old life
and into a new
with a first-of the-month stipend
and a room with a view.
A one-room in Finntown
on the second floor
with a cubical fridge
and a sign on the door.
A self-contained kingdom,
a rarified hovel,
no shower to fix
or sidewalk to shovel.
Just a bed and a table
and a weekly let,
an ashtray and a remote
for the television set.
A blind for the window
when the cold morning’s break
but a clear view of the sunset
over Bailey’s lake.
Whole days for drinking
while the counsels convene
and never once thinking
what I might have been.
~ ~ ~
ВОЗРАЩЕНИЕ В ФИННТАУН
Выписался из жизни старой,
И в новую прописался,
комната с видом, пособие даром,
остальное меня не касается.
В Финнтауне комната целая
на втором этаже,
куб холодильника белый,
на двери табличка уже.
Чем не царство и благодать,
редкостная дыра,
Нет ванной – нечего починять,
Снег не сгребаю с утра.
Кровать, стол, стул,
просто, зато не тесно,
телевизионный пульт
достаю, не вставая с места.
Скрывая рассвет холодный,
на окнax шторы висят,
а вечером, вход свободный –
над озером Бейли закат.
Пока соц. работникам судьбы решать,
могу пить, хоть целый день,
а кем я мог бы в той жизни стать
мне даже и думать лень.
Перевела с английского Марина Эскина
Wayne Pernu is an American poet who grew up in Minnesota and now lives in Portland, Oregon.
Marina Eskin was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), and is a physicist by training. She is the author of four books of poetry in Russian, her texts and translations appear in various print and online publications. She is a member of the editorial board of “Interpoesia” journal.
These English poems by Gari have the same energy and elegance as his Russian poems, and they are enriched by his multilayered, polyphonic use of the English language to express thoughts and feelings with sophistication and humor.
This new edition by Shearsman Press (UK) contains translations of Marina Tsvetaeva’s narrative poems (поэмы). They can be seen as markers of various stages in her poetic development, ranging from the early, folk-accented On a Red Steed to the lyrical-confessional Poem of the Mountain and Poem of the End to the more metaphysical later poems, An Attempt at a Room, Poem of the Mountain, a beautiful requiem for Rainer Maria Rilke, New Year’s Greetings, and Poem of the Air, a stirring celebration of Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight and the quest for the soul’s freedom. These translations were first published by Ardis in 1998 and reprinted by Overlook in 2004 and 2009. The current edtion was published by Shearsman Press (UK) in 2021.
