from the Kopilka project database of Russophone poetry curated by Julia Nemirovskaya
Translated from the Russian by Yana Kane
These words in a column…
To I. Chudnova
These words in a column
Used to hold up my world
A frail portico
Of word caryatids
Eternal themes
The world rolled up like a scroll
Hurtling
Hurtling
Hurtling
And we along with all
I asked you
—But will we be able to write after Auschwitz?
—During
What if there’s nowhere…
But what if there’s nowhere
To run
Nowhere to come back to?
All has burned down
You dream of phantoms
Your pink house
#13
You’re no more
You’re dead
You’re
Home
To write a text that is real…
To write a text that is real
You must be shaken to the core
Something must happen
An earthquake
A war
A tsunami
An apocalypse
Not to others
Not elsewhere
Today
To us
At the gatе stands
Absolute
Evil
But you weren’t taught such truths
By university profs
Now everyone reaps
According to their faith
And you load your sling
With your last
Live palimpsest
And launch
Into the sky
Your last
Text
Whatever isn’t healed by love…
Whatever isn’t healed by love
Will not be healed at all
Don’t even try
Don’t try
To drink steeped herbs
To eat a crocodile
Only by love
Stay here
Awhile
KINTSUGI
Applying gold
To scars
Is a great art
Rebuilding yourself
Out of shards
Pieces
Fragments
A network of gold
Scars
On the skin
You aren’t
Shattered
You are
A legend
I feel…
At dawn
I feel
Your breath
Against my neck
I thank creation
For my night
Ask for
Another day
A day
A day
A day
To wake up
Breathe
The same air
Eat from the same plate
From the same love
HOTEL
It’s a pity
when you have to
Leave
The hotel
And you've come
To know everything
The pancakes are good
Best skip the cheese
Concierge A is cheery
B sometimes gets uptight
The nearby bistro is cozy
A streetcar runs beneath the window
But you’re almost used to it
Almost got to love it
But it’s time
to pack
your bags
Just like that
Comes a day
All is understood
All is beloved
But it’s time
To be on your way
Time
Your way
Time
Alena Maksakowa is a writer, poet, and editor. She is originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Currently, she lives in Germany. She holds a degree in Russian literature from the University of Kharkiv. Her work has appeared in various publications, including EWLF, Articulation, ROAR, Harpy Hybrid Review, Interpoezia, Слово/Word, Signaturen, and Golden Fleece. Her poems have been translated into Ukrainian, English, German, and Greek. She is the author of a poetry collection, A Small Diary (Malen’ky Dnevnik). Alena is one of the organizers of the Hannover Spring Festival.
Yana Kane is a member of “Kopilka,” an international poetry translation collective. Her translations have appeared in Deep Vellum’s 2025 Best Literary Translations anthology and have been longlisted for its 2026 anthology. She won the 2024 RHINO Poetry Translation Prize and was a finalist for the 2025 Gabo Prize. “My Fish Will Stay Alive,” a collection of her translations of the Ukrainian poet Dmitry Blizniuk, is forthcoming from Serving House Books.
She came to the US as a refugee from the Soviet Union. She holds a BSE from Princeton University, a PhD in Statistics from Cornell University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is grateful to Bruce Esrig for editing her English-language texts.