Boris Kokotov is a poet and translator, the author of several poetry collections. His translations of selected poems of contemporary Russian poets to English appeared in Adelaide, Blackbird, InTranslation- BrooklynRail, Poet Lore, and Washington Square Review, among others. He lives in Baltimore.
Vadim Molodiy was born in Moscow, 1947. He studied medicine and received a degree in psychiatry. During his professional career he worked as a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst. In literary circles he is known as a poet, essayist and publisher. He is the author of seven poetry collections. Vadim Molodiy is a member of the editorial board of several Russian-language journals. From 1990 to 2017 he lived in Chicago, currently he lives in Moscow.
Das Ewig–Weibliche
In the hourglass of my memory,
from one bulb to another,
flow faces and names,
events and their forebodings,
shadows of desires,
odors, traces
of random encounters and extraneous lives
slipping past without touching me.
Dreams mixed with reality
flow like grains of sand,
sinking to the bottom
where they turn into time
and become indistinguishable.
Nothing stays the same, nothing
except You. You are forever.
Das Ewig-Weibliche
В часах песочных памяти моей
из колбы в колбу, явь со сном мешая,
перетекают лица, имена,
события, предчувствия событий,
желаний тени…
Запахи… Следы
случайных встреч и посторонних жизней,
скользнувших мимо, не задев мою.
Все это то сливается, то вдруг
дробится на ничтожные песчинки
и плавно опускается на дно,
бесследно исчезая в тьме придонной…
Все зыбко, все изменчиво, все тает,
ничто не остается неизменным,
ничто. И только Ты, Ты – навсегда…
Note:
“Das Ewig-Weibliche” (German) — The eternally feminine. Quote from J. W. Goethe, Faust: “The eternal feminine draws us on high.”
