Transitions №3

Author: Ivan Akhmetiev

Translated by Ian Probstein

 
* * *

An active poet
may be partial

but it’s better not to advertise that

 
* * *

people bearers
people god-bearers

 
* * *

and let the salt of the earth
go on thinking
that it is a statistical error

 
* * *

it is very difficult to write
meaning
          not to write

 
* * *

The conversation was abstract
but the deal failed

 
* * *

Suffixes, prefixes.
All that is in the past.

 
* * *

a fair lady
but she did not want children

 
* * *

They ’ll come soon
what they can do

continue
their activities

 
* * *

nevertheless
one got to think with one’s brain
not just patriotism

 
* * *

the agents of humankind
among compatriots

 
* * *

They think:
if it’s the end of the world
everything is allowed

 
* * *

rain
a general slavic
origin is not clear

 
* * *

20 years of senseless wandering
and returning to the egyptian bondage

into the state shame

 
* * *

the village has been ruined
now they ruin cities

 
* * *

good people die

and do the right thing

 
* * *

of course
we were not told
the reason

 
* * *

a caterpillar looked
          like a twin

 
* * *

I am fulfilling
my main task

reading Nekrasov