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Two Ukranian poems by Yuri Andrukhovych

April 18, 2011

translated by Sarah Luczaj

 

Life is a Long Song

“Дивіться! А цей таки визнав,
що боїться смерті”, –
показав на мене пальцем
один розумаха з нетиповим блиском в очах.
Зрештою, то могли бути скельця.

Останнім часом мене люблять публічно запитувати
про найінтимніше.
Наприклад, який мій найтяжчий гріх.
Що мені снилося із середи на п’ятницю.
Чи подобається мені найвище керівництво країни.
Чи хотів би я бути сумлінням нації.
І чого я боюся.

Відповідаю переважно так,
як можу.
Коли розмова при чарці або з похмілля,
то значно відвертіше. Коли
на тверезу голову – то вигадливіше
й химерніше переважно.

Того разу я сказав,
що боюся смерті
близьких людей.
Головним чином від нещасного випадку.
Хоч насправді наше життя довге,
ніби пісня про Довбуша,
і смерть мусить сприйматися,
ніби розв’язка,
давно очікувана через те, що стомлюєшся співати.

Але в цитуванні найважливіше — це
своєчасно поставити крапку,
про що розумаха
знає ще від батьків-наставників.

І поставивши крапку де хоче, самостверджується як може:
“Він визнав! Дивіться всі на його
страх!”

Так, я справді не боюся сказати, чого я боюся.
Так, я справді боюся нічних телефонних дзвінків
та і-мейлів із записом sad news у суб’єкті.
Дивіться всі на мій страх:
от як я боюся.

В усьому ж іншому це просто пісня,
довга прекрасна пісня про шлях до прірви
чи, скажімо, не менш прекрасна –
про кулю в потилиці.

*

Life is a Long Song

“Look! One guy admitted
that he’s scared of death!” –
he pointed at me
a certain wise-guy with an unusual glint in his eye.
I suppose it could have been glasses.

These days they like to ask me in public
about the most intimate things.
For example, my greatest sin.
What I dreamt of from Wednesday to Friday.
If I’m happy with the leaders of the country.
If I would like to be the conscience of the nation.
And what I’m scared of.

I usually answer
as best I can.
When the conversation is accompanied by a drink, or after one,
much more openly. When
sober – in a mercurial
and capricious way. Usually.

This time I said
I was scared of the death
of those close to me.
Mainly through accidents.
Although really, our life is long
as a song about Dovbush and death should be seen
as a resolution
long awaited, because you became tired of singing.

But most important when quoting –
is putting the full stop in the right place,
which the wise-guy
still remembers from his masters.
And, putting the full stop where he pleases, he justifies himself as best he can:
“He admitted it! Look everybody, look at his
terror!”

No, I am really not scared to say what I’m scared of.
Yes, I am really scared of the phone ringing in the night
and emails with sad news in the subject line.
Look, everybody, look at my terror:
this is how afraid I am.

But apart from that, it is just a song,
a gorgeous, long song about the way to the abyss
or, and no less beautiful, let’s say,
about a bullet in the head.

* * *

Familiya Hruzina

Кікабідзе, твердо сказала вона,
єво фамілія Кікабідзе.

Що за дурна ідея – частувати пивом повію
о другій ночі,
видаючи себе за бізнесмена з Прибалтики
у київському відрядженні!

І все ж – яка нагода
почути, що собі знає тутешній народ
про країну, в якій живе,
про тих, кому вже ніколи в ній не жити,
про тих, кому не жити зовсім.

Єво убілі, розповідає вона,
он слішком много копал,
он бил самий лучший журналіст
нашей страни.

Я не можу виправляти її помилок,
я не можу знати, як усе було насправді,
яка насправді в нього фамілія.

Просто хочеться вірити власній брехні:
я – бізнесмен з Прибалтики
(так, бізнесмен з Прибалтики!),
і мені вже з раннього ранку
у цій країні
підписувати угоди, обмивати їх,
жлуктити каву, коньяк, ковтати атенобене,
слати факси і есемеси
і звалювати пошвидше до своєї Риги,

а вона
все повторює і повторює:

Кікабідзе,
Кікабідзе єво фамілія.

*

Heorgian Family

Kikabidze, she said, firmly,
His name was Kikabidze.

What a ridiculous idea – to buy a prostitute a beer
at 2 a.m.,
pretending to be a businessman from the Baltic States
on delegation in Kiev!

On the other hand – what a chance
to listen to what these people know
about the country they live in,
about those who will never live in it,
about those who won’t be able to live at all.

They killed him, she tells me,
he stuck his nose into lots of things,
he was the best journalist
in our country.

I can’t correct her mistake,
I can’t know how it really was,
what his name really was.

I just want to believe in my own lie:
I am a businessman from the Baltic States
(yes, a businessman from the Baltic States!),
and all day long
in this country
I’ve got to sign contracts, drink to them,
down coffee, Cognac, sip Atenol,
send faxes and text messages
to get out of here all the sooner
and back to my Riga.

And she
repeats and repeats:

Kikabidze,
Kikabidze was his name.

Translator’s Note: The original title is “Familya Hruzina”: “Georgian Family” with an “H” instead of a “G” to reflect a rural Ukrainian dialect. Georgij Gongadze is the name of the young Ukrainian journalist killed, presumably by security forces, in 2001. Kikabidze is the name of an elderly, popular Georgian singer, famous in Russia.


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Yuri Andrukhovych was born in 1960 in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. In 1985, together with Viktor Neborak and Oleksandr Irvanets, he founded the popular literary performance group “Bu-Ba-Bu” (Burlesque-Bluster-Buffoonery). He has published four poetry books: Sky and Squares, Downtown, Exotic Birds and Plants and The Songs for A Dead Rooster. Andrukhovych’s prose works, the novels Recreations, Moscoviada, Perverzion, 12 Rings and Mystery, have had a great impact on readers in Ukraine. Andrukhovych also writes literary essays, and together with Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk, published My Europe. Translations of his books have been published in Poland, Germany, Canada, USA, Hungary, Finland, Russia, Serbia, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Croatia.

Sarah Luczaj is an English poet and translator who has been living in rural south-east Poland since 1997 with her husband and daughters. Her first chapbook, An Urgent Request, was published by Fortunate Daughter Press in 2009, and her poems and translations have been widely published in journals in the States and the UK, including The American Poetry Review, The New Statesman and Modern Poetry in Translation, and online in The Other Voices International Project, Pedestal magazine, and The Drunken Boat, among others. Sarah leads occasional creative writing workshop sessions, and has been known to carve her poems in walls (Zero Meridian installation exhibition, Krakow, 1992). She works as a psychotherapist.

  1. April 19, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    Wow. Haunting. Thank you for translating and sharing these.

  1. April 22, 2011 at 1:45 pm
  2. October 25, 2012 at 5:53 pm
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