{"id":1131,"date":"2016-04-29T01:31:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T01:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=1131"},"modified":"2016-04-29T01:31:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T01:31:45","slug":"three-poems-in-translation-by-sophia-parnok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=1131","title":{"rendered":"Three Poems in translation by Sophia Parnok"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sophia Parnok (1885-1933), one of the great modern Russian poets, was a large personality on a stage of large personalities. She was judged for not fitting in – she was married but lived as a lesbian (she had an affair with Marina Tsvetaeva), she was born into a cultured Jewish family but converted to Orthodoxy. \u00a0She was ultimately a poet – not self-dramatizing, but one who listened carefully and quietly to her own sense of self. \u00a0That listening led to a poetry that is exquisitely sensitive to nature and creature, herself and others, desperation and harmony. \u00a0The Soviet Union had no use for her, and her poetry fell into obscurity. \u00a0She has recently been resuscitated as a lesbian poet. \u00a0For all the drama and despair in her life, her work has a unique voice of radical openness, that faith in humanity that rationalists will cross-examine while the poet keeps writing poetry.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Golstein and I translated the following three poems.<\/p>\n

To E.K. Gertsyk<\/p>\n

When the love of flesh fades,
\nSo goes the desire to create.
\nYour fingers don\u2019t long to handle clay
\nOr chisel shadows into marble.<\/p>\n

Your song halts in mid-word,
\nThe brush freezes in mid-stroke \u2014
\nSurprise\u2026how little they matter.
\nFarewell, farewell to you, sublime lust!
\nThe spirit\u2019s last lingering joy.
\n1923<\/p>\n

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To Myself<\/strong><\/p>\n

When forty rolls around
\nIt\u2019s too late to play with the muses
\nIt\u2019s too late to languish to music
\nTo drink fiery potion
\nIt\u2019s time to quiet down
\nIt\u2019s time to raise grandchildren
\nIt\u2019s time to shorten your road
\nWhen forty rolls around.<\/p>\n

When forty rolls around
\nYou shouldn\u2019t be rash
\nYou shouldn\u2019t write letters
\nYou shouldn\u2019t haunt the night
\nCursing your desires and lusts
\nOr hang onto dreams of life
\nOn seventh heaven
\nWhen forty rolls around.<\/p>\n

When forty rolls around
\nWhen forty rolls around
\nWe turn into Venus\u2019 step-children
\nBe it Moscow or New York
\nYou\u2019re kicked out to the backstreets.
\nThat\u2019s all, grandma Sofia
\nThat\u2019s what\u2019s left of your philosophy
\nWhen forty rolls around.
\nAugust 1932<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

As my days are fading,
\nI welcome night\u2019s calm.
\nThe past no longer casts a
\nShadow before me\u2014<\/p>\n

That long shadow that we,
\nIn our tongue-tied futility
\nTo distinguish it from other shadows,
\nCall our future.<\/p>\n

January 9, 1927<\/p>\n

Published in Tertia Vigilia, the Journal of Russian Symbolist and Early Silver-Age poetry and prose in translation. \u00a0April 20, 2016<\/p>\n

Vladimir Golstein, Professor of Slavic Studies at Brown University, and I work together on translating \u00a0Russian poetry. \u00a0 Several of our translations of Marina Tsvetaeva and Sophia Parnok have been published by\u00a0The Other Shore<\/em>\u00a0(Princeton, 2011) and\u00a0Inventory<\/em>\u00a0(2012).<\/p>\n

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Sophia Parnok (1885-1933), one of the great modern Russian poets, was a large personality on a stage of large personalities. She was judged for not fitting in – she was married but lived as a lesbian (she had an affair … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4D5qU-if","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1131"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}