Tag Archives: Friends

TATI’S TRANSLATIONS // Young Ukrainian Poets: Darii Lazhnevskyi

Literary classics aren’t always created by the greying elder statesmen and women of the writing world. You know the ones. They’re all wise and wrinkly and impassive, and woe betide the scholar who dares mount an honest critique of their bodies of work.

You see, literary classics are also written by upstart youngsters. These youngsters are full of vitality and creativity. They live fully awake and fully aware during these very difficult times. Nothing escapes their notice and they’re unafraid to share what they really think. They walk among us right now, breathing, smiling and crying, loving and hating, experiencing the full range of their humanity without apology.

This series presents names that you won’t find in textbooks or on Wikipedia, but these are the very youngsters who are creating modern Ukrainian literature right now. Trust us, you will want to check them out because it’s only a matter of time before they become household names. When we go back to these writers in two hundred years, we have no doubt that they’ll be mentioned in the same breath as luminaries such as Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka.

the last letter to K

dear friend,
i miss
your dreams come no more
to me in reality.

if you knew
how many fates were twisted,
smoked away, half-eaten by dogs
how many letters gather dust in mailboxes
concolourous with dried blood
and how many vows left behind only poetries
somewhere in the bowels of my telegram.

i am much the same as usual
outside the window are the crooked teeth of apartments
with leftovers of the staled unsaid
just got more quiet
it nestles on my knees, purrs,
eats away all my hunger
and i feel the thirst for life no more.

dear friend,
god turns off the light
sleep, i will carry your love protest
i will carry your hate
i will carry your sexual desire
depart with ease
let your fear continue hereafter
suffocate in oblivion.

останній лист до К

милий друже,
я сумую
твої сни уже більше не проходять
до мене на яву.

знав би ти
скільки доль скручено,
скурено, виїдено собаками
скільки листів запилюжені у скринях
кольору засохлої крові
і від скількох клятв залишились лиш вірші
десь у надрах мого телеграму.

у мене ж усе так само
за вікном нерівні зуби квартир
із недоїдками закипілої недосказаності
лише от більше спокою
він моститься у мене на колінах, муркотить,
з’їдає мій весь голод
і я уже не відчуваю спрагу до життя.

любий друже,
бог вимикає світло
засинай, я берегтиму твій протест любові
я берегтиму твою ненависть
я берегтиму твоє сексуальне бажання
помирай спокійно
нехай твій страх і надалі
задихається у забутті.

Original poem by DARII LAZHNEVSKYI
Translation by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2024

GUEST POST // Interlude by Gordon Flanders

I didn’t smoke weed, and I didn’t drink, but under the fluorescent lights of Canal Street Station I feel like a thing that slithers. Somehow my fingernails got dirty. I was walking with the girl who I was formerly obsessed with, and I was telling her what I thought was a very interesting story. What I know was an interesting story, in fact, from her gasps every time we hit a pivotal point. And then, in the middle, we ran into some old friends of hers she hadn’t seen in a while. She’s from here and she’s popular, so this happens a lot. There were eight of them. Normally I would just smile and shake everyone’s hand and all that, but I just couldn’t give a fuck about these people and how they knew each other and anything like that, so I stood off to the side and waited for her to ask for her bag so she could go with them. I enjoyed the breeze and I checked my phone. Finally she called me over and her friends were like wtf why are you just standing over there! Meanwhile she had just asked minutes ago why I never do what I want. So that was the thing I wanted, to not talk to these people. I was really fine with her leaving with them, very convenient escape for me, but I did not want to meet them all for no reason. But I did anyway because what kind of asshole would I have to be to hand her her bag and say goodbye and nothing else. So I shook hands with every single one of them. There were people she didn’t even know and I shook hands with them, too. One guy said now repeat our names back to us. I said, I value you guys as people but I don’t have a memory like that. Everyone thought that was funny. You had to be there. So now I look awesome. From weirdo to awesome in sixty seconds. After five excruciating minutes where everyone tried to pretend that we could have an inclusive conversation, they ask what’s up next. I hand my friend her bag and say goodbye, shaking hands with enthusiasm and warmth and real kindness in my eyes. Eight people I will never see again, now they all have a piece of my soul. The train just won’t seem to arrive.

by GORDON FLANDERS
© All rights reserved 2017