Lyudmyla Khersonsky
Translated from the Russian by Olga Livshin & Andrew Janco
Did you know that if you hide under a blanket and pull it over your head,
then, for sure, World War II won't happen? Instead,
lie there don't breathe, don't let your feet stick out,
or, if you do, stick one out bit by bit.
Or try this helpful trick to stop a war:
first, carefully stick out one foot, then the other, now touch the floor,
lay back down, turn to one side, facing the wall,
turn your back to the war:
now that it's behind your back, it can thrash and shred,
you just close your eyes, pull the blanket over your head, stock up on bread,
and when you just can't deal with caring for peace anymore,
tear off some chunks, and when the night comes, eat what you've stored.



***

На самом же деле, если укрыться одеялом вот так, с головой,
тогда сто процентов не будет второй мировой,
главное, лежать не дышать, не высовывать из-под одеяла ногу,
или высовывать, но понемногу.
Иногда можно вот так остановить войну -
осторожно высунуть ногу, потом еще одну,
потом повернуться на бок, лицом к стене,
спиной развернуться к войне -
пусть за спиной делает что попало,
нужно только зажмурить глаза, на голову натянуть одеяло,
запастись хлебом, и когда мир сторожить станет совсем невмочь,
отламывать его по кусочку и есть всю ночь.
from the book THE COUNTRY WHERE EVERYONE'S NAME IS FEAR / Lost Horse Press
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 elicited international outrage, but the war has been going on since 2014. Lyudmyla Khersonsky has written and spoken publicly about the suffering of Ukrainians from the start. In the last few months, Lyudmyla began to write about the war on a daily basis and with immense urgency. Arrowsmith Press will publish her 2022 poems in English translation by Maya Chhabra, Lev Fridman, Andrew Janco, and Olga Livshin in 2023.

Olga Livshin on "Hide Under the Blanket and Pull It Over Your Head"
Color headshot of a smiling James Longenbach leaning on a desk
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“'In his brilliance and generosity of mind, his breadth of understanding, and in the vital beauty of his writing, he intensified the conversations between poets, critics, and ordinary readers of poetry in America in a way that was hard to match,' says Kenneth Gross, the Alan F. Hilfiker Distinguished Professor of English at Rochester."

via ROCHESTER NEWSCENTER
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