Nocturne I drive through a village at night, houses step forwardinto the headlight glare – they are awake, they want a drink.Houses, barns, signboards, abandoned vehicles – nowthey come to Life. – People are sleeping: some can sleep peacefully, others have strained facesas if in hard training for eternity.They don’t dare to let go, even in deep sleep.They rest like lowered barriers when mystery passes by. From the village the road continues a long time through forest trees.And trees trees are silent in unison with each other.
La PorteLa porte de l’hôtel sourit terriblementQu’est-ce que cela peut me fair ô ma mamanD’être cet employé pour qui seul rien n’existePi-mus couples allant dans la profonde eau tristeAnges frais débarqués à Marseille hier matinJ’entends mourir re remourir un chant lointainHumble comme je suis qui ne suis rien qui vaille Enfant je t’ai donné ce que j’avais travaille Guillaume Apollinaire, 1912 Though rewarding, Apollinaire’s poems are always a challenge, especially for those without native French. As well, he never uses punctuation. This enables him, among other things, to make his verse more difficult –a technique that is usually associated with Russian formalism. And this poem, La Porte, really challenged me with its last line: For a long time I thought the last word (travaille) should be “travaillé” to tie in with “j’avais.” But no. The one space after “j’avais” is actually a sentence break—a period is understood, according to Apollinaire’s method.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony, written more than 50 years ago, has been attracting a lot of attention in recent years. Two leading younger maestros have tackled this difficult string symphony: Teodor Currentzis (2009) and Klaus Mäkelä (2020). In the later years of his life, Shostakovich could look back to many occasions when he felt his music had been misunderstood. Now nearing 70 and having to visit hospitality frequently, he wanted more than ever to communicate his political and personal feelings. To this end he was using words more often to complement his music: Symphony #13 (1962); Execution of Stepan Razin (1964); Seven Songs on poems by Alexander Blok (1967). And for his 14th Symphony he decided to use words again—the words of three modern poets from France, Spain and Germany. The importance to Shostakovich of the words in his Symphony #14 is evident in a letter he wrote just after the premiere: “The printed program included the text of the poems that I had used, so the audience was able to understand the words since the diction was occasionally not very good.” (to Isaak Glickman, 7 October, 1969)
The Torments of Conscience Yevtushenko dedicated this poem to Shostakovich. He was initially approached by Shostakovich in 1961, when the Russian composer was writing a symphony based on Yevtushenko’s poem “Babi Yar.” The two men spent time together discussing both the project and literature in general. “Shostakovich completely changed me as a poet,” Yevtushenko wrote later. “He amazed me with his profound rendering of the poem.” (quoted in Ethel Wilson, Shostakovich, 385-4)_
A Yevtushenko Autumn Poem Russian poets have always been attracted to autumn poems. Yevtushenko’s 1965 poem has an original autumnal theme: it uses the seasonal shedding of leaves to explore his own personality, which he wants to see in its “autumnal nakedness.” Autumn To A. Simonov Within me is the autumn season.Within me transparently and coolly,And I’m sad, but not without cheer,And full of humility and good intentions.
This mystical poem of Alexander Blok, written when he was almost 27, is not usually anthologized. It describes his relationship with Christ during his own crucifixion as he looks out over his homeland. Autumn Love When rowan clusters start turning redAmong the damp and rusty leaves, --When the executioner’s bony handHammers the last nail into my palm, -- When above the leaden ripple of riversOn grey, damp heights,Facing my harsh homelandI begin to writhe on the cross, -- Then—far and wide
Frank O’Hara: The Day Lady Died It’s 12:20 in New York a Fridaythree days after Bastille Day, yesit is 1959, and I go to a shoeshinebecause I will get off the 4:19 in Easthamptonat 7:15 and then go straight to dinnerand I don’t know the people who will feed me I walk up the muggy street beginning to sunand have a hamburger and a malted and buyan ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poetsin Ghana are doing these days I go on to the bank
Basically, this Tyutchev’s poem is a warning to grumpy old men. It is written in five quatrains with abab, cdcd, etc. rhyming. The poem is notable for its repetition of “from” five times in the last four stanzas—all of them starting lines. None of the translations I could find is faithful to this repetition, except for Eugene Kayden’s very loose translation in his Poems of Night and Day. And in this translation Kayden replaces “from” with “by”: “I pray we’ll keep ourselves untainted by…” instead of my “Save us then, good genius, from.”
EARLY MINOANThe hand spells out to the drowsiness of the rocksthe names and rhythms for an incantation. And this voice drawn from the opaque is so clear,the throat so simple that it opens what matters,that the hand trembles on the grooved slopes.Leaning against the night, it pauses again,so many subtle noises of water in the fingers,it follows a line still unknown in the world,from point to point where its touch breathes,where the wave of stone unbuttons its body, 10
This 1857 poem by Nikolay Nekrasov illustrates how Russia since Peter the Great has always taken a close interest in European affairs--or to put it another way, how Russia became part of Europe through Peter the Great widespread reforms. With this translation, I have tried to keep as close as possible to Nekrasov’s Russian and to his lineation. I have not attempted to replicate his rhyme scheme (ababcdccd) or his tetrameters. Nor have I followed the original punctuation. As is often the custom in Russian poetry, Nekrasov offers no title. I have chosen “In the Capitals.” Another common aspect of Russian poetry is the ellipsis; I have kept it here.