Toronto Slavic Annual No 1, 2003

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Canadian poets translated in Russian

ВАРИАЦИИ НА ТЕМУ ЛЮБВИ

Этим словом мы затыкаем дыры:

дыры в форме туза червей,

вовсе не похожего на сердце.

Слово можно завернуть в кружева

и продать. Натереться им, как мазью,

или стряпать на нем. Оно битком

набивает книги и журналы.

Мы вдвоем. Но оно для нас

слишком коротко, чтоб заполнить

придавившую нас межзвездную

пустоту, наготу, глухоту.

Не любви боимся мы, а страха.

Это слово, которого для нас

мало, но без него нельзя:

это звук в металлическом безмолвии,

это рот, говорящий «о!»

то ли в изумлении, то ли в муке,

это пальцы, вцепившиеся в утес

над водой. Держись или выпустись.

Вот

то, к чему ты хочешь вернуться, —

твоя рука.

Currently available in the United States in SELECTED POEMS II, published in by Houghton Mifflin;

available in Canada in the collection SELECTED POEMS 19641984, published by Oxford University

Press; and available in the United Kingdom in the collection EATING FIRE, by Virago Press.»

Author. Currently available in Canada in the collection SELECTED POEMS 19641984, published

by «Oxford University Press.»

Канадские поэты в русских переводах

vowel in this metallic

silence, a mouth that says

O again and again in wonder

and pain, a breath, a finger

grip on a cliffside. You can

hold on or let go.

VARIATIONS ON THE WORD SLEEP

I would like to watch you sleeping,

which may not happen.

I would like to watch you,

sleeping. I would like to sleep

with you, to enter

your sleep as its smooth dark wave

slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent wavering forest of

bluegreen leaves

with its watery sun & three moons

towards the cave where you must descend, towards your

worst fear

I would like to give you the silver

branch, the small white flower, the one

word that will protect you

from the grief at the center

of your dream, from the grief

at the center. I would like to follow

you up the long stairway

again & become

the boat that would row you back

carefully, a flame

in two cupped hands

to where your body lies

beside me, and you enter

it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air

that inhabits you for a moment

only. I would like to be that unnoticed

& that necessary.

Canadian poets translated in Russian

ВАРИАЦИИ НА ТЕМУ СНА

Я хотела бы видеть, как ты спишь

(этому не бывать). Я хотела бы

видеть, как ты спишь. Я хотела бы

спать с тобою, войти в твой сон

и пройти с тобой через солнечный

лес, где синие листья и три луны,

где твой страх,

я хотела бы дать тебе серебряную

ветвь, цветок, петушиное слово

от той муки в сердцевине сна.

Я хотела бы идти за тобой

по той длинной лестнице вверх, на свет,

стать той лодкой, в которой ты,

лежа рядом, войдешь, как вздох,

быть тем вздохом, который лишь на миг

наполняет тебя: такой же

незаметною и необходимой.

permission of the Author. Currently available in the United States in SELECTED POEMS II, published

in by Houghton Mifflin; available in Canada in the collection SELECTED POEMS 19641984,

published by Oxford University Press; and available in the United Kingdom in the collection

EATING FIRE, by Virago Press.»

Канадские поэты в русских переводах

INTERLUNAR

Darkness waits apart from any occasion for it;

like sorrow it is always available.

This is only one kind,

the kind in which there are stars

above the leaves, brilliant as steel nails

and countless and without regard.

We are walking together

on dead wet leaves in the intermoon

among the looming nocturnal rocks

which would be pinkish grey

in daylight, gnawed and softened

by moss and ferns, which would be green,

in the musty fresh yeast smell

of trees rotting, each returning

itself to itself

and I take your hand, which is the shape a hand would be

if you existed truly. I wish to show you the darkness you

are so afraid of.

Trust me. This darkness

is a place you can enter and be

as safe in as you are anywhere;

you can put one foot in front of the other

and believe the sides of your eyes.

Memorize it. You will know it

again in your own time.

When the appearances of things have left you,

you will still have this darkness.

Something of your own you can carry with you.

We have come to the edge:

the lake gives off its hush;

in the outer night there is a barred owl

calling, like a moth

against the ear, from the far shore

which is invisible.

The lake, vast and dimensionless,

doubles everything, the stars,

the boulders, itself, even the darkness

that you can walk so long in

it becomes light.

Canadian poets translated in Russian

НОВОЛУНИЕ

Темнота не ждет повода —

словно горе, она всегда при нас:

темнота, в которой

звезды над листвой, как стальные гвозди

без числа. Мы идем вдвоем

в новолунье по палым мертвым листьям

между смутных ночных камней,

днем розоватосерых,

пористых и легких от мха,

днем зеленого.

Я беру тебя за руку — если бы

ты был здесь, она была бы рукой.

Я хочу показать тебе темноту,

чтобы ты ее не боялся.

Ты войди в нее — в ней не страшно

ни шагам, ни взгляду.

Ты запомни ее: она придет

и к тебе в свой срок —

внешность минет, темнота останется,

а что сможешь сохранить — сохрани.

Мы у берега.

Плещет озеро,

крик совы на той стороне —

как комар над ухом.

В водной шири

опрокинуто все: и звезды,

и плотина, и темнота,

сквозь которую так долго идти,

просветляется.

Currently available in the United States in SELECTED POEMS II, published in by Houghton Mifflin;

available in Canada in the collection SELECTED POEMS 19641984, published by Oxford University

Press; and available in the United Kingdom in the collection EATING FIRE, by Virago Press

Maria G. Rewakowicz

Introducing Ukrainian Emigre Poets

of the New York Group

The phenomenon of the New York Group comprises two generations of

Ukrainian

émigré poets residing, despite the group’s name, on three continents

(North America, South America and Europe). New York City, however, has al

ways constituted a seminal point of reference and its name signified an innova

tive approach to Ukrainian poetry. Yet the significance of New York is not just

symbolic. This is indeed the place where in the mid1950s the group originated,

imbuing the postwar Ukrainian literary

émigré milieu with the avantgardist spirit

and fresh designs. The poets eagerly experimented with poetic forms, privileg

ing vers libre and metaphor as well as embraced such fashionable at the time

artistic and philosophical trends as surrealism and existentialism. By the early

1960s all seven members of the New York Group (Bohdan Boychuk, Yuriy Tarnaw

sky, Zhenia Vasyl’kivs’ka, Bohdan Rubchak, Patricia Kylyna, Emma Andijewska

and Vira Vovk) published at least one poetry collection; in fact, a majority had

by then two or even three books to their credit. At that early stage the poetic

output of the group’s members formed a genuine aesthetic alternative to social

ist realism, still much prevalent in Ukraine of the 1950s under the communist

regime.

While the label ‘New York Group’ commonly refers to the seven poets named

above, the group’s membership also includes five poets who joined the original

contingent a decade or even more than a decade later. These ‘fellow travelers’

(George Kolomyiets, Oleh Koverko, Marco Carynnyk, Roman Babowal and Mar

ia Rewakowicz) betray the same inclination toward formal experimentation as

well as display continuity in the realm of thematic preferences. Added to the

universally poetic themes of love and death are the motifs of the erotic, the city,

alienation and unease. The preferable modes of expression are highly subjective,

intellectual, often playful and ironic. But what really unites the founding mem

bers with their younger counterparts is a common desire to express themselves

freely in their native tongue. Despite a few cases of bilingualism (Tarnawsky, Babow

al, Kylyna, Carynnyk), Ukrainian remains the main and preferable medium for

Introducing Ukrainian Emigre Poets of the New York Group

poetic expression among the group’s members. The New York Group has never

come up with any manifestoes and always insisted that the basis of its existence

is personal friendship and a belief in the freedom of artistic expression.

The selection proposed here consists of two parts, mirroring the creative ev

olution of the group from the mid1950s through the 1960s and 70s to the

1980s and 90s. Part I introduces the output of the founding members, and Part

II presents the group’s younger voices. My approach has been comprehensive in

the sense that I have included poems of all twelve members of the group, even

though some are no longer active in poetic craft. Among the poets of Part I,

Zhenia Vasyl’kivs’ka and Patricia Kylyna no longer write poetry, though Patricia

(Kylyna) Warren still writes fiction in her native English. Among the poets of

Part II, Marco Carynnyk and Oleh Koverko have not published any poetry since

the 1970s and 1980s, respectively (though, again, Carynnyk writes nonfiction

in English). All other poets have been actively publishing. Since the declaration

of Ukraine’s independence in 1991, their literary activity has understandably

shifted back to the homeland. Most of their books published in the 1990s and

2000s came out in Ukraine.

Each poet is represented in this selection by no more than two poems in

Ukrainian and one poem in English translation (with no original equivalent). I

have aimed at choosing most emblematic poems, those which could signal (de

spite their limited extent) the poet’s overall direction or poetic proclivity.

Emma Andijewska’s surrealistic associations are counterbalanced by her stun

ningly explicit homoerotic poems included in her collection Ryba i rozmir

(1961). Bohdan Boychuk’s preoccupation with love and Eros is reflected in the

poem “Podorozh po kokhanniakh,” but he is also one of the very few among his

colleagues in whose poetry the horror of war finds its painful contemplation.

Patricia Kylyna’s fascination with other cultures, foregrounding alterity and dif

ference, makes her poetry intertextually rich and intellectually rewarding. An

other proponent of intellectual poetry, Bohdan Rubchak, muses over histrionic

qualities of poetic craft, playfully juxtaposing the cultural emblems of the past

(e.g. Hamlet) with the more personal and emotional. Yuriy Tarnawsky’s pen

chant for experimentation and things Spanish are especially conspicuous in his

prose poems Bez Espanii, from which “Zvernennia XIV” has been taken. But his

poetry also underscores the lyrical and subjective, often propped up by striking

associative imagery. Zhenia Vasyl’kivs’ka’s only collection Korotki viddali (1959)

signaled a great beginning, but there was no followup. At the heart of her poet

ry stands personified nature, all wrapped up in unusual metaphors. Vira Vovk’s

poetic maturity came with the publication of Elehii (1956), from which the

poem “Orfei” has been taken. Her skillful utilization of the mythical, the reli

gious, and the exotic makes her poetry diverse and thematically rich.

There is a unifying thematic scheme underlying the selection in Part II. It is

the motif of the self visavis love with its attendant erotic. While Eros consti

Maria G. Rewakowicz

tutes only one aspect of the younger poets’ output, it is nevertheless an impor

tant component of their poetry. Ethereal qualities of Roman Babowal’s poems

ward off any trace of gloominess, even when things turn bad in love. The poet

celebrates the beauty of romantic involvement by choosing images that high

light joy, laughter and warmth. Two poems by Marco Carynnyk presented here

belong to his very early poetic trials and do not reflect the complexity his ma

ture poetry brings in. Yet these two short lyrics underscore his early preference

for simplicity capable of generating a haunting enigma. George Kolomyiets’s

ironic take on the causes of birth or, to put it differently, on provocative conse

quences of sexual intercourse, definitely makes one grin wholeheartedly, though

his poem “Vechir” reveals the more serious side of his lyricism. Oleh Koverko’s

somewhat abstract love musings often turn into intricate meditations with im

ages full of sexual connotations (e.g. “Ballad about a Tired Body”).

The strong undercurrent of eroticism in the poetic texts of the New York

Group was not only an expression of their aesthetic inclinations, but also very

much an active undermining and challenging of the petitebourgeois mentality

of the contemporary Ukrainian emigre reader. Rebelliousness, unwavering indi

vidualism and freedom of expression define the essence of the poets’ creative

activity.

PART I

Емма Андієвська (1931)

НІЧНИЙ ДОЩ

З оливом розтерті фарби — ніч.

Ніч боксерша, женоненависниця.

Навзнак падають дуби з поруч

І лежать з негнутими спідницями.

Відра шуму носить юний дощ

Відливають побитих і утоплених.

Стовбури, як піч, свіжонатоплені —

Жар і блиск, аж неба капа товщ.

Народження ідола, 1958

НАПИС НА МУРІ

Він, з гронами винограду в голосі,

Нехай залишить свою флейту

І підійде до мене.

Сьогодні я його любитиму,

Я, ім’я якого бояться вимовляти.

Introducing Ukrainian Emigre Poets of the New York Group

Нехай він скине одяг,

Що поганить його тіло,

І перестане червоніти, як дівчина,

Затуляючи руками

Свій божественний фаллос.

Сьогодні я його любитиму,

Я, ім’я якого соромляться вимовляти.

Риба і розмір, 1961

ON THE SUPERIORITY OF THE OTHER SEX

So I need to be envious because I’m not a man?

As it were, poor little me! Just because my organ

Doesn’t dangle on the outside, and I lack higher thinking,

And power, and I vainly embody

Vacuous sound, and my build too slight

To more deeply understand the allembracing,

For woman is not fully realized, and filled with faults,

And she’s incapable of lifting the world!

I’ve roamed little among women, I admit,

The common folk have been enough for me.

I limp, yes. They didn’t look very closely.

I just know how to bring about wonder.

The only thing I don’t have is a hand to hold up my elbow.

You can use my shoulder for the galaxies.

From Nauka pro zemliu, 1975. Translated by Michael M. Naydan

Богдан Бойчук (1927)

ПОДОРОЖ ПО КОХАННЯХ

(уривки)

в полі червоніє кров дозріння

денеде сивіє жмут

питань

ти по кладці переходиш в осінь

і збираєш залишки

кохань

всі дороги вели до тебе

а ти вела ніде

беручи мене по дорозі

не даючи себе

Maria G. Rewakowicz

всі бажання мої пірнали

в дівоче дно ріки

всі дороги були тобою

ти не була ніким

я роздавав себе рокам

і з дня на день ставав відсутнім

я роздавав себе жінкам

і висилав дітей в майбутнє

і залишилася одна

ілюзія життя у роді

як перекисла рідина

у роті

моє життя подерте на строфи

любови й зради

моє життя покрите знаками

гіркої знади

за кожну ніч проникання

в жіноче тіло

моє нутро втискалося в себе

і самотіло

а тепер я стою на вітрі

перемитий

на сивіючім зламі віку

пережитий

Вірші, вибрані й передостанні, 1983

ALMOST A LULLABY

Mommy, will the sun sleep on that pine?

Yes, my son, upon its branches.

And keep the maybugs warm?

Yes, and the beetles.

Will father come back tonight from the war?

Yes. … From under the distant earth.

As soon as the sun sets?

As soon as the dark sets in.

You said it’s easier for him to walk in the dark.

Yes, my dear, the daylight hurts his eye sockets.

He’ll really come tonight?

Go to bed. He’ll come to you.

Keep the light on for him to find his way.