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Pipeline | Italian

Condutture

Quando esci in balcone
sospesa sul ciglio del 15° piano
ti protendi nell’aria
come potendola toccare
e la attraversi come se fosse
una specie di cosmo
la cui mappa e tragitti sono noti

e le nozioni che lei aveva
su particelle degli esseri umani
che spariscono nell’abbraccio di un altro
o in leggi naturali assolute

pensi a questo poi no
a questo livello
l’ossigeno non serve
puoi allungarti e toccare
la coda alle comete
riportando indietro le fiamme
in risposta alle di lei domande
sulla fisica delle cose

appoggiato sul ciglio del 15° piano
senti il calore della città sotto di te
fughe di vapore e stazioni di metrò

mentre ti allunghi per afferrare l’aria
sogni che dondolano su cavi nascosti
tutte queste condutture e connessioni
ci hanno portati su un’isola.




Alan Jude Moore / Translation by Rita Castigli

Pipeline | Russian

Вытяжки

 

когда выходишь на балкон
прикреплённый к стене на 15-м этаже
попадаешь на воздух как в космос
потянись и дотронься рукой
пробегись по нему
как по карте звёздного неба
у себя на стене


всё что знала она
из чего состоит человек
исчезает в объятьях другого
пропадает в законах природы


ныне думаешь обо всём об этом
на ином уровне
кислород тебе больше не нужен
дотягиваешься и хватаешь
кометы за хвост
отвечаешь огнём на её вопросы
о законах природы


отдохни на краю на 15-м этаже
ощути по собой городское
жаркое жерло
вытяжки трубы метро


тянешься хватаешься за воздух
мечты на невидимых проводах
эти вытяжки каналы и связи
привели нас на остров








Alan Jude Moore / Перевод с английского Александра Беляева (Translation from English by Alexander Belyaev)

Pipeline | Available Space Dublin 16.03.09

bye bye boom

Poems in 3:AM Magazine

A couple of poems from Lost Republics, along with a new poem, have just been published at 3:AM Magazine. There's also a photo of the inside of a lift made out of a door from an old Aeroflot plane. It's all at the link.

A Glossary to Lost Republics

Looking through Lost Republics, it occurred to me that there might be some elements of the book, the Russian bits, that could do with a little explaining or at least a glossing over. As a book of poetry is certainly no place for explanations, these have been posted instead as a sort of glossary. More will be added shortly.

I - Passing the Telegraphs & Orekhovo.
II - Zagorsk & New Soviet Sky.
III - Fine Art & Main Street Bombs.
IV - Iodine & The Palace.
V - Mandelstam

There's also a brief note on the monument to the Conquerors of Space, a photo of which is on the cover of the book.

Glossary IV

Iodine (Page 41) - Tobolsk was one of the holding points for the Tsarist Romanov family en route to Ekaterinburg, following the revolution in Russia. Many Russians of Polish, Ukrainian and German ethnicity were sent to Siberia at the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War (WWII). Many were sent so as to remove them from Moscow and the front but also to employ their expertise in setting up industrial enterprises east of the Urals. Alexander Menn was a highly respected theologian in the (liberal) Russian Orthodox Church. He was murdered in 1990.

The Palace (Page 45) - The Palace Square, outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg is where, in January 1905, crowds of demonstrators were cut down by the Imperial Guard on what became known as "Bloody Sunday".


Next, Mandelstam

Glossary III

Fine Art (Page 20) - The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow houses one of the largest collections of art in Russia. It is, along with the Tretykov Gallery, one of the most popular art museums in Moscow. In Russia, men are still conscripted to do national service. At the moment it consists of two years service in the army (often border duty) or one year in the navy. The blackened remains of a violin refers to "The Burned-out Violin" by Fernandez Armand, on display in the Pushkin Museum.

Main Street Bombs (Page 25) - There's a story in the New York Times about suicide bombings in Moscow and Russia during 2003 that lists a number of attacks that took place that year. The following February, there was an attack on the Moscow metro which killed dozens of commuters and injured well over 100. In September 2004, there was another suicide bomb attack, this time on the Rizhskaya metro station off Prospekt Mira. Ten by-standers were killed, and many more injured, when the bomb was detonated near the station entrance. The station is located beside the busy Krystovskiy supermarket.

July 10th 2003 - The police arrest a Chechen woman after she tries to detonate a bomb outside a cafe on Tverskaya Street, one of Moscow's main shopping strips. An explosives expert dies trying to defuse the bomb. The footage of the FSB officer been thrown across the street was shown on television.

December 9th 2003 - A suicide bomber blew herself up outside the National Hotel in the centre of Moscow, killing 6 and seriously wounding 13 people. The attack took place within a few hundred metres of the Kremlin, Red Square and the Duma (Russian Parliament). The bomb exploded just before 11am on a cold, snowy morning.


Next, Iodine & The Palace

Glossary II

Zagorsk (page 18) - Zagorsk was the name given by the Soviet authorities to the town of Sergiev Posad. At the heart of the town is a monastery complex important to Orthodox believers. The town was renamed because of the strong religious connotations of its original moniker. In common with many places in post-Soviet Russia, however, it is often referred to by its Soviet name despite the original having been officially reinstated.

New Soviet Sky (page 19) - Following victory in the Second World War, as part of a bid to compete on an aesthetic level with the cities of the United States, a series of sky-scrapers were commissioned to be built in Moscow. They are generally referred to by English speaking expatriates as "the Seven Sisters". They are known to Moscovites, however, by the individual names or, collectively, as "vysotkyi" meaning tall, in this case, buildings. In 2001, construction started on a new sky-scraper, Triumph Palace in north-west Moscow. On the surface at least, it mimics to a great extent the style of the original seven "vysotkyi".


Next, Fine Art & Main Street Bombs