Mirror Sand: An Anthology of Russian Short Poems in English Translation

By Glagoslav Publications B.V.

Edited, translated, and introduced by Anatoly Kudryavitsky, this bilingual anthology presents Russian short poems of the last half-century. It showcases thirty poets from Russia, and displays a variety of works by authors who all come from different backgrounds.

Some of them are well-known not only locally but also internationally due to festival appearances and translations into European languages; among them are Gennady Aigi, Gennady Alexeyev, Vladimir Aristov, Sergey Biryukov, Konstantin Kedrov, Igor Kholin, Viktor Krivulin, Vsevolod Nekrasov, Genrikh Sapgir, and Sergey Stratanovsky.

The next Russian poetic generation also features prominently in the collection. Such poets as Tatyana Grauz, Dmitri Grigoriev, Alexander Makarov-Krotkov, Yuri Milorava, Asya Shneiderman and Alina Vitukhnovskaya are the ones Russians like to read today.

This anthology shows Russia looking back at itself, and reveals the post-World-War Russian reality from the perspective of some of the best Russian creative minds. Here we find a poetry of dissent and of quiet observation, of fierce emotions, and of deep inner thoughts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Glagoslav Publications B.V.
• Release date: Jan 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781911414742

Book preview

MIRROR SAND

An Anthology of Russian Short Poems in English Translation

Translated by

Anatoly Kudryavitsky

MIRROR SAND

An Anthology of Russian Short Poems in English Translation

(English only edition)

Edited, translated, and introduced by Anatoly Kudryavitsky, this anthology presents Russian short poems of the last half-century. It showcases thirty poets from Russia, and displays a variety of works by authors who all come from different backgrounds. Some of them are well-known not only locally but also internationally due to festival appearances and translations into European languages; among them are Gennady Aigi, Gennady Alexeyev, Vladimir Aristov, Sergey Biryukov, Konstantin Kedrov, Igor Kholin, Viktor Krivulin, Vsevolod Nekrasov, Genrikh Sapgir, and Sergey Stratanovsky. The next Russian poetic generation also features prominently in the collection. Such poets as Tatyana Grauz, Dmitri Grigoriev, Alexander Makarov-Krotkov, Yuri Milorava, Asya Shneiderman and Alina Vitukhnovskaya are the ones Russians like to read today. This anthology shows Russia looking back at itself, and reveals the post-World-War Russian reality from the perspective of some of the best Russian creative minds. Here we find a poetry of dissent and of quiet observation, of fierce emotions, and of deep inner thoughts.

Introduction copyright © Anatoly Kudryavitsky, 2018

English translations © Anatoly Kudryavitsky, 2006, 2018

Original Russian-language poems © their individual authors, 2018

This collection copyright © Glagoslav Publications, 2018

Front cover image © Jassemine Darouiech, 2018

Cover and layout design by Max Mendor

www.glagoslav.com

ISBN: 978-1-91141-474-2 (Ebook)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is in copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Gennady Aigi

The Silence of Snow

Hush

The Rain

Snowstorm in My Window

Our Way

Ivan Akhmetiev

The Challenge

A Pause

Writing

Waiting

Observation

Margarita Al

Desire

Wings

The Poet

The Beast Hasn’t Been Born Yet – but It Already is a Beast

A Porcelain Morning

Maria Alekhina

Pushkin Square

The Room

Prescience

Time

Simple Life

Gennady Alexeyev

Every Morning

My Funeral

Flowers

A Poem About the Disadvantages of Being Human

What I Want

Vladimir Aristov

From Accidentally Met in Moscow

The Surface of the Chinese Mirror

The Dragon

For A.U.

Infernal Repetitions

Sergey Biryukov

Everything Changes

Who’s Good?

Beastmen

The Treble Clef

News of Petrarch and Laura

Vladimir Burich

At Night I Looked into my Room Through the Window

Half Past Seventies

What Will Remain

Germany, 1984

On the Boulevard

Vladimir Earle

Autumn

The Barrier of Sleep

Opinions

Eurydice

Under Water

Mikhail Finerman

Touching

Yearning

Name

Winter

To Find Yourself

Ruslan Galimov

Forecast

In General, She Was Right

Agreeability

What Can Man Think About?

Today

Tatyana Grauz

Morning Dream

July’s Light

Butterfly

Soft Sun

April-Dove

Dmitry Grigoriev

Night

Words

Shades of Night

Not Rubbish

Fishermen

Elena Katsuba

Candle

Butterfly and the Rain

An Apocryphal Story

There’s Nothing Replaceable in the Dump!

The Rose Garden

Konstantin Kedrov

Hieroglyph for God

Aero Era

Keel

Reed Pipe

Wings

Igor Kholin

Cramer’s Camera

Poem for Edmund Iodkovsky

From The War River

Common Grave

Truths

Viktor Krivulin

Lynx

While We Invented Paradise

Books and Men

Over the Granite Factory

The End

Anatoly Kudryavitsky

Chamber Music

Bunin: Portrait with the Person Missing

Judas

The Invisible Cinema

The Shooting Down of MH17

Alexander Makarov-Krotkov

For K.

On the Quays

The Doggy

Stockholm

A Soviet Reader’s Remark on James Joyce

Arvo Mets

The Poet

Absentee

Resemblance

Penniless Man

Names

Yuri Milorava

Untitled 1

Untitled 2

Untitled 3

Untitled 4

Untitled 5

Vsevolod Nekrasov

Freedom

Untitled 1

Untitled 2

Pride

Love

Rea Nikonova

Simple

The World of Idiots

Anti-Novella

Foretaste

Russia

Genrikh Sapgir

Grove

New in Town

Business Trip

A Proverb

Sounds of Silence

Ian Satunovsky

Changing the Bulb

If They So Desire

Almost by Mistake

Writing

A Bloody Yid

Asya Shneiderman

Poetry

The Tower

The City

Poem for Lena Zhukova

Especially in this Kind of World

Mikhail Sokovnin

Fantasy

Woodsman

Samovar

A Northern Song

Untitled

Sergey Stratanovsky

In the Nabokov Hotel

A Shark