Tag Archives: Russia
Neighboring World, Yakov Druskin
And there is no end and cannot stop / and everything comes out so that there is no break / and flows like water and finding an obstruction in ice / and the sky is grey / and from here the trams on the bridge go slower / and the bridge itself has lengthened and […]
Writers: Eugene Ostashevsky, Yakov Druskin
Flight into Egypt (2), by Joseph Brodsky, translated by Seamus Heaney
In the cave—it sheltered them, at least, safer than four square-set right angles— in the cave the threesome felt secure in the reek of straw and old clobber. Straw for bedding. Outside the door, blizzard, sandstorm, howling air, Mule rubbed ox; they stirred and groaned like sand and snowflake scourged in wind. Mary prays; the […]
Writers: Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney
Maria Stepanova in Little Star
This week we welcome Maria Stepanova to these shores by featuring her poem “Fish” from our forthcoming Little Star #5 (2014). Stepanova is not only a great poet but she’s also the courageous founder of Colta.ru, Russia’s most respected independent magazine of ideas. Colta is using crowd-funding to maintain its autonomy and elude Putinian restrictions […]
Writers: Maria Stepanova, Sasha Dugdale
Sergei Dovlatov
There’s a classic storyline that goes like this: a poor boy peeks through a chink in a wall on a nobleman’s estate. He sees the nobleman’s little boy riding a pony. From that moment on, his life is given over to one end—to get rich. He can no longer return to his former life. His […]
Writers: Sergei Dovlatov
Conversations at the End of the Avant Garde
In 1928, a group of artists, poets, and provocateurs in Leningrad founds “Oberiu,” a nonsensical-sounding acronym for “The Association of Real Art.” Says patron Kazimir Malevich: “You are young troublemakers and I am an old one. Let’s see what we can do.” They shock and mesmerize the city with their outlandish performances and stunts. By […]
Writers: Alexander Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms, Eugene Ostashevsky, Leonid Lipavsky, Nikolai Zabolotsky