Transitions №3

Author: Kirill Kovaldzhi

Translated by Nina Kossman

 
* * *

“I will give you wings, Icarus!”
Iron wings …
He took them, flew,
and bombed Hiroshima …

 
* * *

No matter how big the ocean
two submarines collided in it,
No matter how enormous the sky,
two planes collided in it,
even in space
two satellites collided,
while you and I
in Moscow – no way.

 
* * *

After Adam and Eve
were expelled,
there was not a single person
left in paradise!

 
* * *

Tearing off yet another calendar sheet,
I want to bring together
my younger brothers —
Alexander Sergeyevich,
Mikhail Yuryevich,
Vladimir Vladimirovich,
Sergey Alexandrovich.

-Please sit down.
I’ll tell you about old age, unknown to you …
It’s ugly, of course,
but by golly,
it has its own charm!
Only, Alexander Sergeevich,
Mikhail Yuryevich,
Vladimir Vladimirovich,
please take out the bullets,
And you, Sergey Alexandrovich,
remove the noose, please!

 
* * *

An invisible tornado moves
Among Muscovites —
Carrying away now this one,
Now that one

Who! Where? When?..

 
* * *

I went up
Facing the top
I slidе down
With my butt on the ground

 
* * *

Behind me —
History without me

Ahead of me —
History without me

And I am in the middle of it

 
* * *

Falling asleep,
I take off my old man’s mask …

 
* * *

Shadows of our bodies
are here on earth
while glimmers of our souls —
in the gaps between storm clouds.

 
* * *

Discoverers of elementary particles,
explain to me kindly
a burst of each new «I»

 
* * *

I rely on you,
birds,
You are my hope —
be my stairs when
I tear away from myself