RECONNAISSANCE ("Vo vremja vojny po-prezhnemu..." )

RECONNAISSANCE

During

the war

as before

the swallows fly,

the lilac blooms,

it rains or

it snows,

sometimes

the sun shines,

people are born and die,

in the cafe

they serve

black coffee

in tiny

white

cups,

they pray to God,

feed stray

cats,

dogs,

they read

the Gospel

by Braille,

they lose keys

and find....

At the outbreak of

the six hundred

and sixty-sixth

world

war.

Translated by Kevin Carey

AUTUMN TIRADE

I haven't been anywhere, besides somewhere,

somehow, don't remember, don't know, whenever.

My memory is bad, since it was harmed

by a wild invasion, by insolent seizure.

My fellow tribesmen became the enemies

and contemporaries too. What can you do?

To make me forget the real name

the tree branch was knocking on the window.

Thus I came over for the time extended,

this is a dark place, remote space,

to hold all of this against myself and

to give up a role of the outcast.

I am guilty for those and for these:

the degree of my guilt is really greater

than a Doctor's degree from Oxford, the guilt is unnoticed

somewhere, somehow by unconscious babble.

I am not entitled to more than God

has given me, because somewhere, somehow

the soul will stand once at the door

step looking at the body of a dead poet.

I am staying. I will not be on the make:

not to grab, take over, not to break

the soul's right to the heavenly name,

the beggar's right to the shepherd's crook.

Translated by Andrey Gritsman