Poetry in one stanza by Alexander Korotko was published in the Chinese magazine “World Literature” (Beijing-Taiwan-Hong Kong), in the May 2021 issue. The translator – Wang Yijin(王艺锦). Six poems from the manuscript “Studio” (translated from Russian into English by Michael Pursglove) were selected for translation and publication:
480
Lives take shelter
in the honeycombs of days,
time
walled-up
in the hourglass
seeps through
in mannequins of moments,
as if
the prospectors
of heaven
are panning
for gold.
570
At the fair
of deserted nights
the moneychanger of love
lures
owners
of golden-haired stars
with lunar
small
change.
571
He lay
immobile
in the aquarium of night
and watched
the shadows
of petrified
fish
swim past
above him.
575
A seagull
like a yacht,
bobbed on the waves
like an illusion
of snow white
happiness.
593
The art
exhibition of life:
still lifes,
landscape lyrics,
and only
one picture
about love, and that’s
someone else’s love.
601
Let us
drag the clouds
from the rivers with nets,
we are
poachers
of trusting love
and incorruptible
faith.
The link for those who read Chinese: https://korotko-poetry.com/en/world-literature
This is not the first presentation of selected works from the extensive poetry of Alexander Korotko to Chinese readers. In 2020, two poems were translated – “The City of Red Brides” and “Frightened, heartfelt …”
https://korotko-poetry.com/na-kitajskij
The poet’s prose did not go unnoticed either. In the same 2020, the novels “Nyusya”, “Haifa”, “Bera and Cucumber”, as well as the creative biography of Alexander Korotko, were translated into Chinese.