Elina Sventsytska
(Kiev – Anzio)
***
знову дерево
знову дерево вириває коріння з землі
і лишає шматки
листя і плоті
стеблини і віти поламані
чи то кістки розтрощені.
ми дерева
ми зростаємо
не в глибінь і не в височінь
в невідомість і темряву.
там
може просто спалах пожежі
може світло, яке не обійме пітьма.
***
another tree
another tree is pulling its roots from the ground
and dropping shreds
of leaves and flesh
broken branches and stems
or shattered bones.
we are trees
we are growing
neither downwards nor upwards
into the unknown and the dark.
there
maybe it’s just the fire glowing
maybe it’s a light that the darkness will not overcome.
Translated by Milla di McCaghen, Christopher Damon, Yevgenia Dubrova, Dartmouth College students.
***
читаю новини – і раптом
щось недобре зі мною:
виростають у мене кігті,
виростають у мене ікла,
виростає на спині панцир,
а навколо – чорна земля.
і не кров – ридаюче полум’я,
і не тіло – а дике м’ясо,
і не серце – спалене дерево,
і не мозок – лігвище змій.
і як мені тепер жити?
як себе не жахнутися?
не дай Боже, побачать діти –
як їм зі мною тоді?
як мені тепер жити?
…та хіба я раніше це знала?
***
I’m reading the news – and suddenly,
Something inside me feels awful:
I am growing claws,
I am growing fangs,
a shell is growing on my back,
and all around me – the earth is black.
and what was blood is howling flame,
and what was body is feral meat,
and what was heart is now a scorched branch,
and what was brain is a den of snakes.
And how can I live now?
how can I help being horrified at myself?
God shield the children–
How are they supposed to deal with me?
how am I supposed to live now?
…but have I ever known how?
Translated by Savannah Eller, Emily Hester, Marta Hulievska, Dartmouth College students.
***
війна шкандибає містом
містом мого дитинства,
сновигає завулком скарлюченим
розлягається на дикій площі
і приказує пошепки
– девочка, девочка.
гроб на семи колесиках
едет по твоему городу!
їде, їде домовина
їде містом безупинно
ходить містом тітка танька,
пелехата й п’яна зранку
хитається й каже мені:
– девочка, девочка, гроб на семи колесиках
едет по твоей улице –
ты почему не прячешься?
тітку таньку знаю з дитинства
майже кожного дня з балкону
кликала на допомогу
кричала що всіх повісить
та найперше жидів з хохлами
– девочка, девочка, гроб на семи колесиках
уже возле самого дома –
ищи поскорее щелку,
и исчезай по-шустрому.
та я все це знаю з дитинства,
той крик вивертав печінку
та батько брав мене за руку
й казав: я тут не слухай
я тут з тобою не бійся.
Тож говоримо один одному:
«Ми тут. Ми разом. Не бійся!».
***
War stumbles through the city
the city of my childhood,
prowling down the winding alley
spreading across the wild square
whispering its command:
– little girl, little girl.
a coffin on seven little wheels is rolling through your city! [1]
the coffin is rolling, rolling
riding through the city without stopping
from early morning aunt Tanya walks around it,
disheveled and drunk
swaying and saying to me:
– little girl, little girl, a coffin on
seven little wheels
is rolling on your street –
why aren’t you hiding?
I’ve known aunt Tanya since I was a child
almost every day from the balcony
she would call for help
screaming that she would hang everyone
but first in line would be yids and khokhols
– little girl, little girl, a coffin on
seven little wheels
is already near your home –
hurry and look for a crack,
and there, ‘berry’ yourself.
Even as a child, I’ve known all this
Her scream made my liver turn inside out
but my father would take me by the hand
and say: I’m here don’t listen to her
I’m here with you don’t be afraid.
We’d say it to each other too:
“We’re here. We’re together. Have no fear! ”
Translated by Kirill Lanski, Jiastin Li, Andres Meraz, Dartmouth College students.
[1] Here and below, the stanzas about the “coffin on seven little wheels” are in Russian while the rest of the poem is in Ukrainian.
Elina Mykhailivna Sventsytska (born 1960 in Samara, now Russia) is a Ukrainian writer, philologist, professor of the Donetsk National University named after V. Stusa, lecturer in the Department of Slavic Philology and Journalism of the Institute of Philology and Journalism of the Tavri National University named after V. I. Vernadskyi. She writes poetry in Ukrainian and prose in Russian. She is currently a refugee in Anzio, near Rome.
She is the author of articles on the works of Oleksandr Blok, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Anna Akhmatova and others. Winner of the Turgenev Short Prose Festival (1998). Her writings have been published in the journals: “New Youth” (Moscow), “New Literature Review” (Moscow), “Khreshchatyk” (Kiev), “Collegium” (Kiev), “Donbass” (Donetsk), “Dykoe Pole” (Donetsk ) .
Winner of the first prize of the Moscow Short Prose Festival, of the prize of the Ukrainian Library of Philadelphia (USA), of the literary prize named after Leonid Vysheslavskyi “The planet of the poet”.
Cover art: by Mubeen Kishany.
