Today it became known that the Writers’ Union of China intends to translate into Chinese and publish 14 poems from Alexander Korotko’s upcoming collection Blackout (“Blackout”).
In the letter that the author received in the morning, it was noted that the Chinese Writers’ Union considers the poems from Blackout under the numbers: 2, 14, 19, 25, 44, 49, 50, 55, 61, 64, 67, 69, 70, 75 – particularly interesting for their culture.
Below we publish verse 25 in the original language and in an English translation. Translated into English by British chief-editor Andrew Sheppard.
* * * 25 * * *
Слепок
твоих последних слов
Солдат,
вперемешку с кровью
и грязью,
налипшей на подошвы
твоих ботинок,
видавших виды этой
бойни.
А рядом новый артефакт,
и это –
слепок тишины,
вперемешку со взрывами
снарядов,
и эхом отборнейшего мата.
А чуть поодаль третий
слепок
твоих открытых глаз,
в которых вперемешку с небом
голубым
мгновение застыло навсегда
уликой,
доказательством,
что новый день уже пришёл,
весёлый,
без войны и без тебя.
* * * 25 * * *
A cast*
of your last words,
Soldier,
mixed with blood
and mud
sticking to the soles
of your boots,
which have seen
this carnage.
And next to it is
a new artifact:
this is a cast* of silence
mixed with
explosions of shells,
and the echo
of the most select obscenity.
A little further away is a third cast* –
of your open eyes,
in which, mixed with
the blue sky,
the moment froze forever
as evidence,
proof
that a new day has already come,
cheerful,
without war, and without you.
* Figuratively, the cast that the poet has in mind is a death mask. (Tr.)