Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Five Poems by Igor Kholin translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky























The following translations were first published in

A Night in the Nabokov Hotel.
20 Contemporary Poets from Russia












Dedalus Press, Ireland, 2006 (http://www.dedaluspress.com)


The other Russian poets from this anthology here


© Anatoly Kudryavitsky 2006

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form or by any means
without the prior permission of the copyright holder.



Пять стихотворений Игоря Холина


Плач / Weeping
Из военного цикла / From The War River
«Ни звезды…» / Common Grave
«Если ты одинок…» / For Edmund Iodkovsky
«Одни говорят…» / Truths


ПЛАЧ


Удивительная способность

Человека

Плакать

Вызывать жалость

Таким странным образом

Почему

Не плачут

Звери

Дома

Автомашины

Мне могут заметить

Что они тоже

Плачут

И что не всегда

Проливают слезы

От избытка чувств

Иногда просто

Соринка

Попала в глаз

Или что-то

Но я не об этом

Я о всемирном плаче

Когда содрогается

Вселенная

Когда все сливается

В единый

Вскрик

Вздох





WEEPING



Isn’t it amazing,

This human ability

To cry

And appeal for pity

In such a strange way?


Why animals

Don’t cry,

And houses

And cars?


Somebody may say

That they cry, too,

But seldom

Shed tears

Out of the fullness

Of the heart.


Sometimes

A speck of dust

Or something

Gets

Into somebody’s eye

But this is not

What I’m talking about.


I want to tell you

About world-wide weeping

When the universe

Shudders

And everything merges into

A single scream,

A deep-drawn sigh.





ИЗ ВОЕННОГО ЦИКЛА




Командир батареи

Безусый

Парнишка

Рассматривал в бинокль

Поле

Утыканное

Ромашками

И васильками

Затем

Вдохнул

Полной грудью

Окопную вонь

Крикнул

Огооонь

И все полетело

Вверх тормашками





From THE WAR RIVER




The gun-commander

a young lad

wearing no moustache

used his field glass

to examine the field


all about were dotted

daisies and cornflowers


the lad breathed in

the trench stink

and screamed:

Fire!


topsy-turvyness

the world is in a mess






* * *



Ни звезды

Ни креста

Ни черта

Волосы

Вместо травы

Торчат

Из земли

На братской могиле





COMMON GRAVE




No stars

No crosses

No nothing


Instead of grass

Hair

Sticks

Out of the ground

At the common grave






* * *


Э. Иодковскому




Если ты одинок,

Если тебе не с кем поговорить

Зайди

К самому себе

Поговори

Сам с собой






FOR EDMUND IODKOVSKY




If you are lonely

If you have no one

To talk to –

Why not

Visit

And try to talk

To yourself?







* * *




Одни говорят

Что я гений

Я говорю

Это

Действительно так

Другие говорят

Бездарен

Я подтверждаю

Третьи говорят

Я убил человека

Киваю головой

Все что говорят люди

Правда

Сотканная

Из пустоты








TRUTHS




Some say

I am a man of genius

I never

Deny it

Others assert that

I am dull

I readily

Agree

Somebody alleges that

I murdered a man

I nod

Everything people say

Is a truth

Woven from

Emptiness





Translated from the Russian by Anatoly Kudryavitsky

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Igor Kholin (1920 – 1999)
was born and lived in Moscow. In his youth, he was employed as a waiter, then joined the Russian Army, took part in the World War 2, was wounded, and retired when the war ended. At the beginning of 1950s he became a member of the now famous Lianosovo group of poets and painters. Under the Communists, his poems appeared only in émigré magazines, such as Strelets/The Archer and Tretya Volna/Third Wave. In 1989, the first book of his poems entitled Poems with Dedications was published in Paris in Russian and subsequently reprinted in Moscow. His next collection was appeared in 1995. At the end of 1990s, he published a number of his short stories. After his death in 1999, a big volume of his Collected Poems appeared in Moscow, followed by another big volume, this time of his Collected Stories.



Kholin in Russian Wikipedia

Kholin on the Unofficial Russian Poetry site: http://www.rvb.ru/np/publication/01text/05/02holin.htm


Website of the translator (Anatoly Kudryavitsky): in Russian and in English