{"id":14131,"date":"2016-02-08T11:52:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T15:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14131"},"modified":"2016-02-08T12:01:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T16:01:28","slug":"the-discussants-should-consider-the-work-of-a-young-russian-poet-galina-rymbu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/the-discussants-should-consider-the-work-of-a-young-russian-poet-galina-rymbu\/","title":{"rendered":"The discussants should consider the work of a young Russian poet, Galina Rymbu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"galina\"<\/a>Via\u00a0Eugene Ostashevsky, Music & Literature<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

There is a lot of talk now, in the United States at least, about political poetry and even revolutionary poetry, and what these are, and how to write them. The discussants should consider the work of a young Russian poet, Galina Rymbu.<\/p>\n

I first came across a poem of hers shortly after she posted it on LiveJournal, a social network popular in Russia, on February 27, 2014. It was the day that Russian troops started operating in Crimea, and several days after the victory of the Maidan Revolution in Kyiv and the tawdry close of the Sochi Olympics. Russian media fanned the flames of patriotic hysteria and the Kremlin was clearly going to exploit Maidan to crack down on domestic dissent.<\/p>\n

It felt strange that a work of this artistic sophistication and power could be composed and posted on the Web simultaneously with the events it responded to. Its viewpoint was that of the minuscule and very young Russian Left\u2014roughly the same political alignment as those of the poet-activist Kirill Medvedev and of Pussy Riot, to cite figures known to some Western readers. But the poetry was different. It was Big Poetry, very much grounded in tradition but also propelling it forward, into the terra incognita of the now. It\u2019s been a while since I read a poem that felt so real.<\/p>\n

That poem has since appeared in English translation by Jonathan Platt. It can be read here<\/a>, the middle one, starting with \u201cthe dream is over, Lesbia, now it\u2019s time for sorrow\u2026\u201d [There seems to be something wrong with that website, however, I couldn’t scroll down. P.J.]. I want to talk about the Russian original<\/a> a little, and then say a few things about the present publication of Rymbu\u2019s work in Platt\u2019s translation in\u00a0Music & Literature<\/em>. \/ [Continue reading here<\/a>].<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I want to add one of the poems from the Music & Literature website, to give of sense of the strength & energy of her poetry:<\/p>\n

\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

I want to send you an excellent gift,
\nwhen the heat pierces the dry trees,
\nit\u2019s a western\u2014the gravel, the brown dust quivers,
\nrising over this scorched place, when
\ntroop carriers pass by the abandoned industrial zones,
\nstrewn with red caviar.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019ll send you a letter, make contact, get mixed up in it once and for all.
\nHere it is, the fire\u2019s started\u2014the doors of the clouds open wide, and out
\nroll the guillotined heads of the Bonnot Gang.<\/p>\n

History, sing your wrath.
\nAre you that little girl in the sticky panties, who
\nstands in front of the mirror, putting on
\npowder and blush.<\/p>\n

Are you that little girl
\nthe one with her black and pink, icy gob wide open,
\nslurping
\nwho climbed into bed with everyone
\nplayfully singing a patriotic song,
\nrubbing anti-fungal creams on her feet,
\nyou piss and spit into a special pot
\nby the bed.<\/p>\n

Turn around. Think about my gift,
\nthink about weapons in general,
\nthink\u2014how strange,
\nonly a couple of days ago\u2014
\nthere was no mention of blood.
\n\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..
\nBut the party is still going on somewhere
\nNight, the hum of voices, meat roasting, a little beer\u2026
\n\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

History, sing your wrath!
\nLet everyone in Moscow now look at the black sky
\nwith its huge moon.
\nWhy is the rage in our hearts so watered down?
\n\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n

Where \u201cRussian, be afraid\u201d rules the ball, where no one sings of freedom anymore,
\nwhere 60% of the population is dying from the \u201csmall public deeds\u201d
\nof a few compunctious bureaucrat intellectuals,
\nwhere my little friends, little boys, who were born in 1990\u2014
\nAre dead!
\nThe provincial cemetery is swollen with wrath.
\nDead!<\/p>\n

Remember them. My gift will come in handy.
\nTomorrow, or now\u2014
\nit will serve you very well<\/p>\n

Translated by Jonathan Brooks Platt<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Galina Rymbu <\/strong>was born in 1990 in the city of Omsk (Siberia, Russia) and currently lives in St. Petersburg. She has published poems in the Russian Journals The New Literary Observer, Air, Sho, and in the Translit series. Her essays on cinema, literature, and sexuality have appeared on the internet portals\u00a0S\u00e9ance, Colta, and Milk and Honey. She is the author of the recently published collection Moving Space of the Revolution.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eugene Ostashevsky <\/strong>is a poet and translator of Russian avant-garde and contemporary poetry. His edition of Alexander Vvedensky\u2019s An Invitation for Me to Think won the 2014 National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via\u00a0Eugene Ostashevsky, Music & Literature: There is a lot of talk now, in the United States at least, about political poetry and even revolutionary poetry, and what these are, and how to write them....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,845,103],"tags":[1809],"class_list":["post-14131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-politics","category-translation","tag-galina-rymbu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14136,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14131\/revisions\/14136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}