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MASHIACH WON’T COME
Mashiach won’t come
shells explode
in the land
where my ancestors lie
Mashiach won’t come
my ancestors rise from shooting pits
in Chernihiv, Sumy
Donbas
Mashiach won’t come
gunshot wounds
are healed
in my ancestors
Mashiach won’t come
my grandparents
are fighting for the freedom
of lying in undisturbed graves
МАШИАХ НЕ ПРИДЁТ
машиах не придёт
землю
в которой лежат мои предки
разорвали взрывы снарядов
машиах не придёт
мои предки встают из рвов
в чернигове сумах
донбасе
машиах не придёт
у моих предков
затянулись
огнестрельные раны
машиах не придёт
мои дедушка и бабушка
воюют за свободу лежать
в не растревоженных могилах
* * *
BETRAYAL
so many hunters
do not join their chiefs
in killing mammoths
not much food in smaller game
but a lot less fear in catching it
so many moseses
but no one
follows them
they’d hand you flatbread from behind
while ahead
nothing but desert
sunburn, starvation
so many sing
“hosanna” today
and shout “crucify him”
tomorrow
don’t shout in vain
soon a legion will come
and the temple will be no more
ПРЕДАТЕЛЬСТВО
сколько охотников
не пошли за вождями
на мамонтов
в мелких животных не столько еды
но не страшно ловить каждый день
сколько моисеев
но за ними
нет никого
сзади лепёшку дадут
а впереди
только солнце
пустыня и голод
сколько сегодня
поющих осанну
а завтра кричащих
«распни его»
зря не кричите
скоро войдёт легион
и храма не станет
Translated from Russian by the poet
Gennadi Kazakevitch was born in Moscow and grew up in Siberia. He graduated from the economics department of Moscow State University. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he teaches economics at Monash University. He is a columnist in Australian media on matters of economics. He authored two collections of poetry in Russian with translations, and his Russian poems were published in various literary journals and collections. He won the first translators’ prize at a literary competition “Emigrantskaya Lira 2019” in Belgium.
The collection includes poems by the author written in 2020-2023. While they are distinguished by thematic and genre diversity, and the metrical form is adjacent to free verse, they are united by the author’s characteristic style and recognizable intonation. (Russian edition)
“The Lingering Twilight” (“Сумерки”) is Marina Eskin’s fifth book of poems. In Russian.
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)
