Eugen Kluev. The Second Marching Song. Translated by Anna Krushelnitskaya

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Eugen Kluev. The Second Marching Song. Translated by Anna Krushelnitskaya
Picture by L.M.
Eugen Kluev. The Second Marching Song. Translated by Anna Krushelnitskaya

 
Don’t go flying, jet-black raven, o’er my sorry weary head.

Don’t go lying, pie-bald gelding, through your long and worn-down teeth.

We do know, we do remember who said what, and what was said.

We do know, we do remember what was up and what beneath.

 
Stop your flying, jet-black raven! Pie-bald gelding, don’t you lie!

We did slurp from this old ladle, we did slurp on this bald lie,

We did walk the beaten trails, and we did stomp through same old rye –

Stop your flying, jet-black raven! Pie-bald gelding, don’t you lie!

 
In the sky, a dead man dances and a clay colossus cries.

Jet-black geldings, pie-bald ravens tied with ties and baked in pies,

Jet-black dealings, pie-bald gravens rave and shove the sky askew…

Please, sweet Sirin, bird of heavens, come and save us all anew!
 

Вторая походная песня
 

Ты не вейся, чёрный ворон, над моею головой.

Ты не бейся, сивый мерин, головою об заклад.

Мы-то знаем, мы-то помним, кто тут свой, а кто не свой.

Мы-то знаем, мы-то помним, кто тут прав, кто виноват.

 
Чёрный ворон, что ж ты вьёшься, сивый мерин, что ж ты врёшь!

Мы вот этой самой ложкой уже ели ту же ложь,

и вот этою дорожкой мы топтали ту же рожь —

чёрный ворон, что ж ты вьёшься, сивый мерин, что ж ты врёшь…

 
Пляшет в небе мёртвый воин, плачет глиняный колосс.

Чёрный мерин, сивый ворон — всё сплелось и всё спеклось.

Чёрный-верин-сивый-морон, покосились небеси…

Дорогая птица сирин, прилети и всех спаси!

 

About the Author:

Eugen Kluev portrait
photo by / Portrait by Vladimir Ivanovich Geidor
Eugen Kluev
Copenhagen, Denmark

Eugen Kluev is a writer, translator, poet, journalist, lecturer, playwright, doctor of philology, theorist of absurd literature. He is the author of poems and of several textbooks in the field of verbal communication for college-level students. His absurd novel “Between Two Chairs” was at the top of Russian electronic library charts for years. His novel “Boomerang” was nominated for the Russian Booker. Famous Kluev cartoons have been included in school textbooks. In 1996, Kluev moved to Denmark, and in 2005, he obtained Danish citizenship. Kluev’s fairytales, in addition to being published in Russian, were published in English, Danish, French, Polish, Belarussian, and German.

About the Translator:

Krushelnitskaya Pic_East West (1)
Anna Krushelnitskaya
Ann Arbor, MI. USA

Anna Krushelnitskaya (b.1975) lives in Ann Arbor, MI. Anna’s original texts and translations appear in Russian and in English in various print and online publications. She has authored two collections of poems in English. Anna’s most voluminous work is the 700-page bilingual interview collection Cold War Casual/ Простая холодная война (2019).

Eugen Kluev. Евгений Клюев
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