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
«Если ты одинок…»
«Одни говорят…» / Truths
ПЛАЧ
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
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
