Boris Chersonskij (Борис Херсонский)

[Генерал возвращается]

Language: russian

Translations: german ([Der General kehrt zurück.])

[Генерал возвращается]

Генерал возвращается.

Бричка катит по грунтовой дороге.
Кучер поет - Господи, как тоскливо!

Вдоль дороги - дома,
на довольно значительном расстоянии
друг от друга.

Никакого единства стиля - городские здания,
деревенские хаты, две или три
дворцовые постройки: русский ампир.

У входа в каждый дом -
женщина, которую он любил когда-то.

По мере продвижения генерал становится старше,
а женщины моложе. Это понятно.

Чаще бричка проезжает мимо,
иногда - останавливается,
минуты на две. Нужно сказать два слова.

Вот и кухарка родителей стоит и держит за руку
трехлетнюю девочку, с которой
генерал играл, когда был ребенком.

Что-то было в этих играх такое.

Кухарка говорит: "Барин,
куда же вы едете на ночь глядя?"

Генерал оглядывается:
и впрямь, как быстро темнеет вокруг!

Boris Chersonskij

Борис Херсонский

* 18.11.1950, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
lives in: Odessa, Ukraine

Boris Khersonsky (Борис Херсонский) was born on 18 November 1950 in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. He studied at the Medical Institute of the University of Odessa and first worked as a neurologist, but then turned to psychology and psychiatry at the Odessa State Hospital. In 1996 Khersonsky took on an appointment at the department of psychology at Odessa National University, before becoming chair of the department of clinical psychology in 1999.

Khersonsky's first poems were already published in the late sixties. However, many of his poems first appeared in France, Germany and the USA; in his own country Khersonsky could only start publishing officially after the end of the USSR. During the 1970s and 1980s, Khersonsky was one of Odessa's most important figures in the samizdat movement, which disseminated alternative, non-conformist literature through unofficial channels.

His first official book of poetry, Vos'ma častka (The Eighth Part), appeared in 1993. Since then he has published over 20 books of poetry and essays. In 2006, one of his most important lyrical works Semeiny arhiv (Family Archive) was published, in which he tells the story of a Russian-Jewish family within the context of the tragedies of the 20th century in poetic form. Khersonsky writes about the shtetls of his Jewish ancestors, his estrangement from his heritage, the stagnant presence of Soviet memorials in Ukraine, and Orthodox Christianity, to which he converted.

His literary works have made him one of the most important Russian-language authors in Ukraine. With the Maidan revolution in 2013/14, he began writing poetry in Ukrainian out of solidarity. In the poetry collection Missa in tempore belli/Messa vo vremena vojny (Mass in Times of War), published in 2014, Khersonsky processes his impressions of the Maidan revolution. This was followed a year later by Otkrytyj dnevnyk, a "public diary" about the Ukraine crisis, focusing particularly on Odessa.
Khersonsky is an outspoken critic of the Russian military and cultural presence in Ukraine.

Boris Khersonsky has won several awards, is a laureate of the “Kievskie lavry”-Poetry Festival (2008) and a two times winner of the international Voloshin-Poetry Contest (2006 and 2007). His book Semeiny arhiv was shortlisted for the “Andrey Bely”-literature prize of 2007.

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