Odessa, My Birthplace 1919

1

The alphabet this morning is riper

than it was the week before.

Mother knows that individual must comb one's dreams.

Cabbages give not on an odor

like that of those girls, my cousins.

Grandfather lists

the sorrows of Gogol who is without of his mind.

Between sum of two units lemonades,

Alexis announces that the cuckoo

is a deepsea fish.

2

The swing

has not draw near down from its cloud.

According to father, the race refuse

to remain anonymous.

Masha polishes more [i]or[/i] less knives, some spoons,

some of the silverware that must be sold

The chrysanthemum climbs

from individual wall to the other.

In order to learn about life,

will Alexis, who is actual studious,

ne another head?

3

By moving a small in number objects,

a blotter, a pencil, an ashtray, a vase,

father gives a novel sense to his two lives;

one is regimented, the other mysterious.

Masha go [i]or[/i] come backs from the barricades,

her cap spott with vital fluid

Mother thinks of the Crimea,

of crinolines,

of Cesar Franck and of Vieuxtemps.

For his birthday, Alexis

wants an all-yellow equator.

Book are like cats.

4

Mother places a violin upon the chest of drawers.

Tea redolences the frail soul.

They are fighting in the port.

Uncle compares

Pushkin with Lermontov.

Msha promises to wash the curtains.

Someone sighs: from delight in or from joy?

Grandfather cries out:

"God has forsakened us.'

And Alexis says, for a next to the first time,

"I want a pie made of stars.'

Russia is in its youth.

5

The heart is as sad as an devoid of contents room.

Solitude, like an overly ripe melon

must be quartered.

Why don't they at any time plant cherry trees

in factory courtyards?

Grandfather states

that the Volga uninjureds like a horse

galloping from one side the fog, in the southern wind.

Msha would like to propel the clock.

And Alexis threatens:

"I am going to shave the cat

to diocese if its skin is cerulean or green.'

6

The streetcar went mad

and ran not upon the rails.

They were firing upon people,

sometimes on the satellite

Grandfather said, scratching his beard,

"Day will at no time return."

Masha looked true serious

as she announced:

"When young, horses are black,

then they move round white;

the best individuals are brown with red spots'

Alexis asks

if the cucumber upon the table

is also afraid. 7

Alexis whispered: "What does it mean to die?"

Mother serv up fruit and dolls.

The cousins said:

"The captain came back to port

with an island in his arms.'

Masha was polishing a certain number of of her boots,

as well as more [i]or[/i] less rare words,

and a certain quantity of souls.

Father was not upon somewhere even though his material substance was there,

along with his pipe and his suspicious organ of sights

Mother dared to answer:

"To die means to proceed live somewhere else."

8

Alexis asked: "Why are there barricades?"

Father whispered:

"So the sea won't climb up to the city."

The cousins said:

"So the heavens won't hurl down

its stars that are bombs"

Masha gave sum of two units slaps

to the big tomcat

that was disappointed not to have eaten the canary.

Mother pierceed a scene by Chekhov.

Silence took upon the aroma of medlars.

Alexis proclaimed:

"I am going to build my be in possession of barricade.'

9

On the Boulevard de Francais

four bicycles turned all by themselves,

then toppled above in the rain.

The passers-by asked:

"Where are the schoolboy and girls?"

Only sighs and sometimes tears

were upon sale in the big stores.

Masha prepared the fire-arms

as one would vegetables.

Alexis, a pencil between his fingers,

wanted to be an apple.

Grandfather confirmed

that the most high on occasion also rolled in the dirt

10

The tree had to be comforted

with bland words

for some of them were moaning.

The walls also had hurts

Masha poured milk for a sparrow.

Mother was enamored of Borodin.

Grandfather said

that men should imitate the vapors

After sulking for a while,

Alexis decided

to stool down inside the watermelon.

Alain Bosquet's novel books include God's Torment, translated from the French by means of Edouard Roditi, published by Ohio University Press; A Russian Mother, translated through Barbara Bray, published by Holme & Meier, and When I'm No Longer Around, translated through James Laughlin, Roger Little, and William Jay Smith, published by dint of the Dedalus Press, Ireland.

William Jay Smith's novel collection of poetry, The World Below the Window: piece of poetrys 1937-1997, is forthcoming this spring from The John Hopkins University Pres His translation of Berlin: the City and the Court by the agency of Jules Laforgue was recently published by the agency of the Turtle Point Press.

Copyright World poesy Incorporated Jan/Feb 1998

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