russia

“In the streets of Viy-possessed Kyiv…”

A poem by Osip Mandelstam from The Voronezh Notebooks, translated by John High and Matvei Yankelevich

mouths identical to mine

A poem by Polina Barskova, translated from Russian by Valzhyna Mort

nothing matters except having clean hands

A poem by Aleksey Porvin, translated from Russian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler

diabolical laughter off-stage

Four poems by Roman Osminkin, translated from Russian by Helena Kernan

a forest-city overruns the parquet floor

the tumbling avalanche of patterns, turn around

to be late for one’s flight

every word may end up being your last word

in New York they have New York, but nothing so beautiful

Every resident of Earth must be represented in close-up

…they move like snowstorms or squalls

…but any clever man is half a crook

A wager, a wager, and an eclipse

And from the sea the Policeman can be seen

Just like the old clown Who crawls across the movie screen