Dolina translations by Tanya Wolfson
POEMS BY VERONIKA DOLINA
translated by Tanya Jean Wolfson
Ya vybral samyi zvonkii baraban
Veronika Dolina
Translated by Tanya Wolfson
THE DRUM (I)
I bought the loudest drum down at the fair,
And then I struck it with all my violence!
I beat it as I wailed for every year
I spent in silence! I spent in silence!
I've never made the smallest bit of din,
No timid strumming, no angry humming,
And so I bought a drum, and then some gin:
A swig for courage, and I was drumming!
As I admired my beautiful green drum,
Its color fetching, its shape becoming,
I thought that I was such a foolish bum
In love with a drum and in love with drumming!
I bought a little booth when things were slow,
And I moved in with the start of summer.
One number only offered in my show:
Our only number - a drumming drummer!
Our life, my friend, is nothing but a lie:
You are a liar, I am a liar,
So come right in, good people, don't be shy!
We'll all get on like a house on fire!
...But if one night mad lightnings slash the sky,
Rip off the roof, rend my home asunder,
So loud the hell we raise, my drum and I,
I fear I won't hear the raging thunder...
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Ditya so spichkami
Veronika Dolina
Translated by Tanya Wolfson
CHILD WITH MATCHES
You share your plans with me, but surely
I do not fit into your plans?
Our love is cumbersome and surly,
It's anything but song and dance.
Elsewhere love effortlessly hatches,
All grace and joy. But where I stand
Love is a vicious child with matches,
A child with matches in her hand.
Where else but here. A tiny castle,
Carved perfectly from pine and oak.
Come closer, and you'll have to wrestle
With suffocating, acrid smoke.
Watch her come out: dress full of patches,
Huge thoughtless eyes where one can drown,
And in her hand the dreaded matches
Are ready for another round.
Behold the safety barriers blasted:
Our little matchgirl plays for keeps.
Just how much effort have we wasted,
Rocking that ghastly child to sleep?
And how can gentle caring catch us,
How will affection change the score,
When I can hear the child with matches
Banging her fists against the door?
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Svecha
Veronika Dolina
Translated by Tanya Wolfson
A CANDLE
Do not kill me. Do not touch.
I still want to burn so much!
There's still life in me, the candle.
Do not kill me. Do not touch.
Sweetheart boy, it's not a game,
I am not capricious.
I'm the keeper of the flame -
Small, but very precious.
Without white, there is no black,
And light is dark's firstborn.
Without poets, candles lack.
Without us no verse's born.
To my beam, however faint
A sailor's safety clings.
I'm your tiny patron saint,
Moths with burning wings.
Until daybreak let me stay.
Sweetheart, do not kill!
Do not kill - I light the way
For a poet's quill...
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Igra s ognem
Veronika Dolina
Translated by Tanya Wolfson
PLAYING WITH FIRE
I was playing with fire, and I wasn't afraid.
I knew that I wouldn't be harmed while we played.
True enough, I had suffered no burns in the end.
A hot-tempered friend--not a trustworthy friend.
I was playing with fire, and the rules went like this:
Either fire would hit, or else I wouldn't miss,
I looked into the fire, more and more sparks were spun
When without any warning the fire was gone.
I was playing with fire (such a brief game it was),
Not expecting our play to have consequences.
But the fire is gone, leaving barely a trace:
The warmth in my soul, and the glow on my face.
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Zhizn' byla by inoi
Veronika Dolina
Translated by Tanya Wolfson
* * *
Life might have been not so rotten and mean
If we could stop the lies we are so busy plying.
God help you if you should start lying to me,
God help you if you dare start lying!
I have grown used to paying a very high price.
The price that's too high for you even to measure.
God help you lie to me, God help your lies
Feel so true that they all become my trusted treasure.
I must carry this burden the rest of my days.
What wouldn't I give to relax and stop trying..
God help you lie to me, God help your lies,
God help you if you dare start lying!
It's the law He decreed, why protest and deny?
Rules don't bend for a foolish outlier.
Teach me to lie, O God, teach me to lie!
O Lord my God, won't you make me a liar?
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I byla na tselom svete tishina / I plyla po nebu ryzhaya luna
Veronika Dolina
Translated by Tanya Wolfson
* * *
And the world was silent as the hours went by,
And an orange moon was floating in the sky,
And a rabbit was born to a wolf that night,
And a rabbit gave birth to a wolf that night.
The she-rabbit was a good and faithful wife,
And the she-wolf was a good and honest wife.
But today the rabbit doesn't want his wife,
And today the wolf is angry with his wife.
"Foolish wife, why did you bring this rabbit forth?
He will die of hunger, he will die of cold!"
"To a wolf-cub, bad wife, why did you give birth?
He'll devour us when he grows strong and bold!"
This one rocks her grey and toothy child to sleep,
That one rocks her weak and useless child to sleep,
This one rocks a little predator to sleep,
That one rocks a little future prey to sleep.
And there will be silence over the whole world,
And an orange moon will rise on the black sky.
And one wife is fated to bring forth a wolf,
By a rabbit's bed another one will sigh.
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Copyright © 1996 Tanya Jean Wolfson. All rights reserved
Translations by Tanya Wolfson
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