Five Wartime Haikus
*
Planes roar over the city,
the residents pour into the schoolyard.
Are we in hell, or do we get a pass this time?
над городом ревут самолёты
жители высыпали на школьный двор:
мы в аду или в этот раз обойдётся?
*
A long story, unfortunately
the story of a disease
of one strange man.
долгая история, к сожалению
история болезни
одного странного человека
*
They ask – which god to pray to?
Probably the Nato god.
He doesn’t hear us, yet he has plenty of worries.
спрашивают: какому богу молиться?
наверное, богу Нато
он пока не слышит нас, весь в заботах
*
I sleep so little at night
because of the frequent air raid sirens
that during the day I fell asleep under the dentist’s burr
так мало сплю ночью
из-за частых воздушных тревог
что днём уснул под бором у зубного врача
*
Missile wreckage
fallen into a plowed field –
lies like a dead beast
ракета лежит
на распаханном поле
как издохший зверь
.
(Translated from the original Russian, first published in online journal “Inkroci”)
.
Stanislav Belsky (Станислав Бельский) is a Russian language Ukrainian poet born in 1976 in Dnipropetrovsk (renamed to Dnipro by Ukraine). He is also a translator of contemporary Ukrainian poetry to Russian and works as a programmer. He has been published in many magazines, such as “Vozdukh,” “Arion,” “Novy Journal,” “Interpoezia,” and “Homo Legens.” He has published nine books of poetry in Russian: «Scattered Light» (2008), «Birds Exist» (2014), «Underground Station Zavodskaya» (2015), «Travel Begins» (2016), «Cinematograph» (2017), «And Other Adventures» (2018), «Museum Of Names» (2019), «Mistaken Theorems» (2020), «Book Of Returns» (2021). His individual poems were translated into Polish and published in magazines like “Wizje” and “Helikopter”; “Tvar” in Czech; “Nekudataim” in Hebrew, and the literature blog “Poesia di Luigia Sorrentino” and magazine “Inkroci” in Italian. Belsky is a curator of the book poetry series «Тонкие линии» [“Thin lines”] and co-organizer of a Dnipro and Kyiv poetry festival «Чернил и плакать» [“Get ink and weep”].
Valentina Meloni was born in Rome in 1976. She has written poetry, essays, aphorisms, and short stories for several years. She is the author of five books of poetry, one book of short stories, and two books of illustrated fairy tales. Valentina has also published several chapbooks. Her texts have been translated into English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Bulgarian, and Spanish. Her work has appeared in international blogs, journals, and dailies. She is a Voice Ambassador for Poetry Sound Library. Valentina writes for literary and cultural magazines, eco-poetry, and deep ecology blogs. Website: www.valentinameloni.com.
