Translated from the Russian by Alex Niemi
the city lights hugging your cheek and raindrops on your brow. autumn begins with the last swallow’s flight and maybe a sigh. a leaf falls on your shoulder but for some reason you don’t collapse.
the bends in the trunk of a mountain pine form a face, the roots — eyes. sap and resin write a chronicle of change along the grain: how the cliff crumbled and the wind turned back unsettling the world.
whirlwinds of attraction cast you to the sky or to the corner and the feeling of distant waves against sand — better to keep sailing than never set sail better to lie, not on stone, but in your very own hollow on the still unseen shore.
Anna Glazova is a poet, translator and independent scholar. She has published six books of poetry in Russian and received her PhD in German and Comparative Literature at Northwestern University (USA). She translates from German and English.
Alex Niemi is a writer and translator from French, Russian, and Spanish. Her translation from the French of The John Cage Experiences by Vincent Tholomé is available from Autumn Hill Books, and her translation from the Russian of For the Shrew by Anna Glazova is forthcoming from Zephyr Press. She is also the author of the poetry chapbook Elephant (dancing girl press, 2020).
World Poetry Review 