Contemporary Russian Poetry

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: Recent Russian Poetry Note on the Texts, Translations, and Annotations Boris Slutsky 1. OAny Beginning is the beginning of the endO 2. OBad times are good becauseO 3. The cocked-arm gesture of the philosophical lyric...O 4. Forgiveness 5. OReal people have children...O 6. Family Quarrel 7. OHusbands with their doings and nervesO 8. OPeople donOt laugh at funeralsO Boris Chichibabin 9. Confession 10. OI donOt believe that the RussiansO 11. OTake this tiredness from me, mother DeathO 12. OTo thee, my Russia, not to God...O 13. OMay God grant you from roots to crownO 14. The Battle 15. OFlowers lay on the snowO Bulat Okudzhava 16. OThe music of the soul is ever fainterO 17. ONo matter how they insulted our courtyard...O 18. OThe roman empire in its period of declineO 19. OThe poet has no rivalsO 20. OLetOs dream up a despotO 21. The Omen 22. Letter to My Mom 23. OWhen a speech begins...O 24. OMy son seems to be finding seclusion hard to takeO Vladimir Kornilov 25. Music for Oneself 26. Forty Years On 27. A Russian Paradise 28. Godlessness 29. Freedom 30. Young Poetry 31. Rhyme 32. Two Genres 33. An Argument 34. OBecause nobody caresO German Plisetsky 35. The Handicraftsmen 36. OI dreamed of a city open to the springtimeO 37. The Philharmonic 38. Quiet Hour 39. ODonOt be jealous of my wordsO 40. OWe fell asleep, embracing each otherO 41. OI was awoken by thundering noise on the roofO 42. Still Life 43. OTo stand in line from early morning for OgonekO 44. Sonnet Evgenii Rein 45. The monastery 46. My Neighbor Grigoriev 47. The Tomcat by the Quay in Leningrad Harbor 48. In the Margins of a Book by V. Khodasevich 49. Dedicated to the Metro Stations Kirovskaya (Radial Line) and Park of Culture and Rest (circle Line) 50. OThe Night WatchO 51. Beneath the Coats of Arms 52. Just before Easter Dmitrii Bobyshev 53. OMommy, this is your son writing to youO 54. The Fullness of Everything 55. OThere surely must be such placesO 56. A Wake for the Living, 1 57. Urbana Life, 3 58. The Beasts of St. Antony. A Bestiary Natalya Gorbanevskaya 59. OHere it is, la vie quotidienneO 60. OO my poor, senile, fallen into childhoodO 61. Onot to sing out--to lisp out...O 62. O...where rivers flow purer than silverO 63. It was the year of evil predictionsO 64. OI pronounce the learned-by-heart refrainO 65. OThis is sung at dawnO 66. Contribution to a Discussion of Statistics 67. OAnd, having started singing this melodyO Aleksandr Kushner 68. Memories 69. OHistory teaches us nothingO 70. OIf IOd been born about seven years earlier...O 71. OThis may be the atomic age, but...O 72. OIn verse, meaning sparkles...O 73. OLike a child thatOs started to get really naughtyO 74. OWe used to write happy poemsO 75. OLight flows. Water wanders in the darknessO 76. ONothing brings us closer to deathO Bella Akhmadulina 77. OI find enviable the age-old habitO 78. The Night of Falling Apples 79. The Butterfly 80. Pashka 81. OSunday came. I wasnOt sad at allO 82 Dressing the Child Yunna Morits 83. OEternally to be waiting for bloody newsO 84. Between Scylla and Charybdis 85. OI never drank vodka with geniusesO 86. OJuly of O80. In moscowO 87. Over the Mortal Body, Over the Immortal Ideal 88. On the Edge of Breathing Out and Breathing In 89. OPoetry is alive through freedom and loveO 90. O... and young savages will come...O 91. OStuffy avenues covered in dustO 92. OWhen all of ours slaughter all of theirsO 93. OThe floating anguish of pre-life darknessO Lev Loseff 94. OI understand--yoke, starvation...O 95. O...I used to work on the Campfire...O 96. A Journey. 4. At a WatchmakerOs in Geneva 97. Stanzas 98. OGrammar is the god of mindO 99. One Day in the Life of Lev Vladimirovich 100. OThe poet is humus, within him dead wordsO 101. Amateur Theatricals 102. The Twelve Colleges. An Elegy in Three Parts Oleg Chukhontsev 102. OThis wooden town on the riverO 104. The Double 105. About That Land 106. OHereOs a little village on the edge of a ravineO 107. OBy corroded snow crust, by melted starO Joseph Brodsky 108. Fifth Anniversary (4 June 1977) 109. York 110. OYou, guitar-shaped thing...O 111. OI have entered a cage in place of a wild beastO 112. OI was only that which/you touched...O 113. OHow long IOve been tapping around...O 114. To Urania 115. OSummer will end. September will begin...O 116. OOnly ashes know what it means to be burned outO 117. OMy dear, I left the house today...O Dmitrii Prigov 118. OIOm tired already on the first lineO 119. OWhen here on duty stands a PlicemanO 120. OIn the buffet of the House of WritersO 121. OThe people after all doesnOt only drinkO 122. OAn eagle flies over the earthO 123. OItOs well known that you can live with many women...O 124. OWhen I once happened to be in KalugaO 125. OHereOs me, an ordinary poet letOs assumeO 126. OWhen I think about poetry...O 127. OGodOs wisdom before the face of GodO 128. A Banal Disquisiton... 129. OA woman in the subway kicked meO 130. OWeOve known since ancient timesO 131. OA raven-bird hangs in the skyO 132. Study 133. OThe usurious rakes of the maplesO 134. ODonOt rush to abdicate--weOll be consoledO 135. OThe fate of verse is world-sovereignO 136. OUnder wan, meager snowO 137. OBefore what Ivans, Birons,/and Stenkas...O Aleksei Tsvetkov 138. OOn a bench by the edge of the parkO 139. OFate plays with manO 140. Oturn on the hydrant and the waterOs hardO 141. O(making no claim to profundity of intellectO 142. Oan object of study is natureO 143. Othe chimes at the zenith were forging the agesO 144. OhereOs the old fellow advocate of the musselsO 145 Odown in a gulch a whistle-stop...O Elena Shvarts 146. The Invisible Hunter 147. Memory of a Strange Refreshment 148. OI would take out my delicate ribO 149. OOnce again father interfered, exhortingO 150. Circumcision of the Heart 151. The Raven 152. OI dreamed we were sailing through rice fieldsO 153. OWhen hungry demons came chasing after meO Ivan Zhdanov 154. Portrait of My Father 155. Lines Written in the Sand, 2 156. The Storm 157. The Prophet 158. OA region of unexchangeable possessionO 159. The Conquest of the Elements, 4 Olga Sedakova 160. The Unfaithful Wife 161. Old Women 162. OSurely, Maria, itOs not just the frames creakingO 163. The Grasshopper and the Cricket 164. OIn the desert of life...What am I sayingO 165. On the Death of Leonid Gubanov 166. Seven Poems, 2 167. Coda Bakhyt Kenzheev 168. OItOs over, gone dark, burned outO 169. OConfucius argued that music should beO 170. Oin russia thereOs melancholy weatherO 171. OIn Peredelkino the forest has lost its leavesO 172. OEverything in the world goes out of fashion...O 173. OEmpty streets, deep spaces under doorsO 174. OExcitement, moustaches, half-masks...O Aleksandr Eremenko 175. Peredelkino 176. Monument 177. Lines on Prohibition, Dedicated to the Sverdlovsk Rock Club 178. An Addendum to Sopromat 179. OLong live the old maidO Aleksei Parshchikov 180. OSnail or silkwormO 181. Peter 182. Autostop in the Mountains 183. OI released you like a blinding wolfO 184. Lions 185. When 186. OO garden of my friends, where I hang out...O Notes on the Poets and the Poems Sources of the Texts Suggestions for Further Reading Index of Russian Titles and First Lines Index of English Titles and First Lines