| "Cardinal Points" litetrary journal: www.stosvet.net |
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Grigory Kruzhkov TO A MUNICH ANT AND OTHER POEMS Two Poems from Pushkin Hills 1.The Bath-house in Mikhailovskoye Pushkin sits in a tub soaping his head: emblem of Bliss. The professor propels himself out of a cannon up to the Moon: emblem of Spiritual Quest. At first all these anxieties: is the cannon precisely aimed, and shall we be able to break away, or just flop again into the same bliss? But now the point of no return is passed. the projectile starts falling. And what we call the Moon approaches so quickly that the professor steps back from the window illuminated by the ominous blue of this Moon... So fast? But the point of return is passed. 2. The Onegin Bench in Trigorskoye On the hill called Raven Hill a ruin of a citadel and a single cow grazing. She raises her head and looks left - on the other hill over the ravine a bench. And a tiny Eugene Onegin saying something to Tatiana - or could it be Olga? - for the cow, it's too far to determine. Tufted clouds are drifting over the lake and the meadows - the straw stacked in cartloads. Further off a haze of midges tilting on the horizon, yet these are not midges but swans turning to go. It is August, the Assumption the last flowers are blooming. The sky is too big. Onegin too small. The cow is weeping. Translated from Russian by the author * * * Snow serves as mountains for the city dwellers - replaces kisses for abandoned lovers and churches for the faithless. In December, abandoned by the sunlight, we subsist on frozen larvae of the summer's radiance. The snow is Jacob's ladder, and along it descend our angels, those we love most dearly, and, having stayed with us awhile, ascend again into the dark above the streetlamps. Go build yourself another human creature and, handing it a twig, leave it to stand beside the doorway - so that all night long it longs, and languishes, and burns for you, as for a being of a different nature. Translated from Russian by Boris Dralyuk Tî a Munich Ant I kneeled there just to tie my shoe. And a strange little world entered my view, all scudding off somewhere with awful haste; like refugees, rushing to take their place aboard the last destroyer, busy ants ran off, with heavy bales in hand, in a direction I could not surmise... I froze, staring in indolent surprise at little folk, rushing with all their strength toward a faraway mirage, then took a breath and asked the nearest one: - Tell me the truth: Where are you running? - Catching up with youth, the little ant replied and flitted by. I straightened up. From the all-seeing sky lofty Apollo, bent above the forest, looked down on me - with the same kind of interest. Translated from Russian by Boris Dralyuk |
The
Pushkin Hills is a government-protected reserve, situated three hundred
miles away from St. Petersburg, around Mikhaylovskoe village of the
Pskov region, where Pushkin spent three years in exile. The Russian
culture has nurtured the Mikhaylovskoe myth, which includes a “humble
house”, an “old nanny”, who recites vernacular fairy tales to him, a
large pond, which the poet lauded in his verse, and many more. In
August 1994, on the eve of my departure from Russia to the US, I
decided to visit Mikhaylovskoe – engaging in a sentimental pilgrimage
of a kind. The pre-autumnal weather was splendid, sunny, and tranquil.
I was walking around in the vicinity of Mikhaylovskoe and was saying
farewell to those environs, unaware of the twists and turns my own life
was about to take. Raven Hill (Voronich) is a hill that borders the
Trigorskoye estate, a residence of Pushkin’s friends and widely
believed to be the inspiration for the Larin estate in “Eugene Onegin.”
One can find there an “Onegin bench”, often shown to tourists, where
supposedly the confession scene between Evgene and Tatyana took place. |