Вам, друзья мои, вам, дорогие (To You, My Friends…) by Inna Lisnyanskaya

To you, my friends, to you, my dear ones,
I smile after you though tears:
Don’t be afraid, my friends, of nostalgia –
There is exodus, there is no emigration.

Drawing near to the last right
Under the earth to yearn for the earth
I will never dare call
any country foreign.

Can I await an invitation to a beheading
And not struggle toward the escape door?
There is no impulse in me more outrageous
Than saying goodbye to mourn you.

by Инна Львовна Лиснянская
(Inna Lvovna Lisnyanskaya)
(1978)
translated by Albert C. Todd

Вам, друзья мои, вам, дорогие

Вам, друзья мои, вам, дорогие,
Улыбаюсь сквозь слёзы вослед:
Вы не бойтесь, друзья, ностальгии —
Есть Исход, эмиграции нет!

Приближаясь к последнему праву
Под землёй о земле тосковать,
Больше я никакую державу
Не посмею чужбиной назвать.

Можно ль ждать приглашения к казни
И не рваться в спасительный лаз?!
Нет порыва во мне безобразней,
Чем, прощаясь, оплакивать вас.

Lisnyanskaya published her first poems in 1949. With her first three volumes she established herself a reputation as a competent writer of so-called women’s lyrics; however, her fourth collection, Iz pervykh ruk (At First Hand) (1966), reached a new level of tragic, confessional courage that was strongly chastised by the organs of censorship. This direct clash with the system and the persecution of dissidents (many of whom were her friends) then taking place made her muse ever more tragic and politicized her personal behaviour. Her next book, Vinogradnyi svet (Grape Light), came out ten years later.

Conflict with the system summoned in Lisnyanskaya additional artistic reserves. After helping to produce the semi-dissident almanac Metropol’ in 1979, both Lisnyanskaya and her husband, Semyon Lipkin, withdrew from the Writers Union as a sign of protest against the expulsion of their colleagues. Soon they were published only abroad. Her uncensored philosophical poetry reveals a religious mindset that subtly perceives the suffering of people conditioned by political circumstances.

Biographical information about Lisnyanskaya, p.897, ‘Twentieth Century Russian Poetry’ (1993), compiled by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (ed. Albert C. Todd and Max Hayward) , published by Fourth Estate Limited by arrangement with Doubleday of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc. (transcribed as found in the original text).

Кошка (Cat) by Inna Lisnianskaya

Where is your cat, walking
On its own,
Lapping the milky mist
Amid September?

Where its leopard tread,
Its phosphorescence,
Where is your cat and your truth
Where on this earth?

Where is the cat, still not found,
Where the roof and the leak in it?
Where is the hoarse speech
Broken by the speed of sound?

Where is your clairvoyant autumn
and corn-bins of dreams?
Where is your phosphorescent cat
and you yourself?

by Инна Львовна Лиснянская (Inna Lvovna Lisnyanskaya)
(1983)
from В пригороде Содома (In the Suburb of Sodom) / Вдали от Содома (Far from Sodom)
translated by Daniel Weissbort

.

Кошка

Где кошка твоя, гуляющая
Сама по себе,
Молочный туман лакающая
В густом сентябре?

Где поступь её леопардовая
И фосфор во мгле,
Где кошка твоя и где правда твоя
На этой земле?

Где кошка, ещё не отловленная,
Где крыша и течь?
Где скоростью звука надломленная
Охриплая речь?

Где осень твоя ясновидческая
И снов закрома?
Где кошка твоя фосфорическая
И где ты сама?

.

Additional information: Inna Lisnianskaya was the wife of Semyon Lipkin. There isn’t much about her in English so if you want to know more you may have to research her husband initially and work from there for biographical details. However one collection of her poetic works titled ‘Far from Sodom‘ is available in English should you wish to read more of her writing.

She was born in Baku and published her first collection in 1957 then moved to Moscow three years later. In 1979 she and her husband resigned from the Union of Soviet Writers in protest to the expulsion of Viktor Yerofeyev and Yevgeny Popov from it. The following seven years her works were only published abroad though from 1986 she was able to publish regularly and was awarded several important prizes.

Мы, русские, на мифы падки… (Myth has us Russians in thrall…) by Inna Lisnianskaya

Myth has us Russians in thrall,
Whether down on our luck or high.
We are all hostages to our soul,
That wondrous entity.

We stroke the snake of history,
But however you bend our words,
We love ourselves to the point of loathing
And loathe ourselves to the point of love.

Raising our cups in a general toast,
We curse our everlasting fate for now –
What has been allotted hurts,
Like a fresh brand mark on the brow.

.

by Инна Львовна Лиснянская (Inna Lvovna Lisnyanskaya)
(2000-2001)
translated by Daniel Weissbort

.

Мы, русские, на мифы падки…

Мы, русские, на мифы падки.
Хоть землю ешь, хоть спирт глуши,
Мы все — заложники загадки
Своей же собственной души.

Змею истории голубим,
Но как словами ни криви,
Себя до ненависти любим
И ненавидим до любви.

Заздравные вздымая чаши,
Клянем извечную судьбу, —
Болит избранничество наше,
Как свежее клеймо во лбу.

.

Additional information: Inna Lisnianskaya was the wife of Semyon Lipkin. The above poem was written shortly after his death. There isn’t much about her in English so if you want to know more you may have to research her husband initially and work from there for biographical details. However one collection of her poetic works titled ‘Far from Sodom‘ is available in English should you wish to read more of her writing.
She was born in Baku and published her first collection in 1957 then moved to Moscow three years later. In 1979 she and her husband resigned from the Union of Soviet Writers in protest to the expulsion of Viktor Yerofeyev and Yevgeny Popov from it. The following seven years her works were only published abroad though from 1986 she was able to publish regularly and was awarded several important prizes.

Naked Thoughts Live Unembellished by Inna Lisnianskaya

Naked thoughts live unembellished.

That saying’s a lie, you can’t

twice and so forth, whatever it is.

A thousandth time I enter the same river.

 

And I see the same grey stones on the bottom,

the same carp with its gristly fins,

the same sun in the blue patch of sky

washes the yellow spot for ages.

 

In the same river the willow weeps,

the same waters ripple tunefully,

no day passes but into the same river

I enter, the very same life.

 

by Инна Львовна Лиснянская (Inna Lvovna Lisnyanskaya)

(2003)

translated by Daniel Weissbort

---

 

She was the wife of Semyon Lipkin. The above poem was written shortly after his death.

There isn’t much about her in English so if you want to know more you may have to research her husband intially and work from there for biographical details. However one collection of her poetic works titled ‘Far from Sodom‘ is available in English should you wish to read more of her writing.

She was born in Baku and published her first collection in 1957 then moved to Moscow three years later. In 1979 she and her husband resigned from the Union of Soviet Writers in protest to the expulsion of Viktor Yerofeyev and Yevgeny Popov from it. The following seven years her works were only published abroad though from 1986 she was able to publish regularly and was awarded several important prizes.

Our Meeting by Inna Lisnianskaya

The woodpecker chips at the bark – easy route to the worm?

I take my time waking you, though I rose at dawn.

Your war is over – to each his own frost.

You skated on the Volga, iced Ladoga kissed,

but my frost was the morgue: from orphan to orderly,

so as not to starve, I pulled funeral trolleys.

There’s a sacred meaning in this meeting of fate and fate –

it was to unfreeze life that you and I met.

 

by Инна Львовна Лиснянская (Inna Lvovna Lisnyanskaya)

(2001)

translated by Daniel Weissbort

---

 

She was the wife of Semyon Lipkin. The above poem was written shortly before his death.

There isn’t much about her in English so if you want to know more you may have to research her husband intially and work from there for biographical details. However one collection of her poetic works titled ‘Far from Sodom‘ is available in English should you wish to read more of her writing.

She was born in Baku and published her first collection in 1957 then moved to Moscow three years later. In 1979 she and her husband resigned from the Union of Soviet Writers in protest to the expulsion of Viktor Yerofeyev and Yevgeny Popov from it. The following seven years her works were only published abroad though from 1986 she was able to publish regularly and was awarded several important prizes.