Peter France 

Translator

oh
sky blue
and
field — in a silver thread — field
(and masses
of gold
masses)
along it — the tension!
and
with firmness of brightness
skyward

1981

                                                         to A. Nazarenko

                       “The festival had dispersed. I saw only a small line of
                        people going off towards the forest.”

                                                                           (Noted in 1956)

with the sway of the forest’s hem
the line departed — smiles among them — vanished
taking with them the singing also
step by step departed with the sway of work with hands
leaving me for just a short time
with the flutter of the forest’s edge:

— no nothing will explode I shall be stifled in calm:

oh god how calm is my God
to fall silent so openly! —

simply with such simple
covers of light of clay concealing blood:

to flash into the forest — finish sparkling as in heat haze
in that it only remains to me
to dimly appear in faces:

that give birth to earth! — to heaven:

(here I must forget and of poor things be silent more poorly:
   this power like things unneeded is too weak even to die: it is
   the wind rustling long since in destructions — even blood is
   not needed: to be spilt as a sign — and such a waste place —
   an indifferent eye! — and it will be earth more and  more — for day):

and so it is time to awake
for more than the God of stillness:

for the phantom of light it is time to awake
for the light of absence of brows — unveiling us
with peals of fire:

what then? we shall sing to the end: expecting nothing
so again to awake as to water
“oh line” to the walking-line:

— God take at least this as living

oh it must wake (and the forest closes):
in quiet weakness the weeping-line! —

you — who have not finished singing

1983

it has set
(kupolya kupoleli)

the sweet sun — lelyumay:

alelyum kaleda! —

(quietly: here comes into
the singing — Demyadis:

the Tree of God) —

kupolya kupoleli! —

she sleeps — in her cot
my daughter — lelyumay! —

alelyum kaleda


14 July 1984
Suwalkie, Southern Lithuania

like snow the Lord that is
and is what is the snows
when the soul is  what is

the snows the soul the light
and all is only this
that those like death that is
that like them too it is

confess that it is so
among light darkness is
when once again the snows
Oh-God-Again-The-Snows
how can it be it is

and is not to be checked
as corpses are and not

oh Deathmask-Land that is
no question that it is
then when the People verb
which signifies is not

and that such being is
what is this doing here
the Face is such a Mask
it seems there only is
the land Darkness-and-Face

the Epoch-such-a-corpse

and one there is that is
when straightway they are not
— oh God again the snows! —
they are not one thing is
only the Deathness-Land

it is as is and not
and only by this is
but is what only is

miracle sudden swirl
there is no Deadness-Land
oh God again the snows
the soul the snows the light

Oh God again the snows

but be there there are none
the snows my friend the snows
the soul the light the snow

oh God again the snows

and snow that is there is

                                                                          to my mother’s memory

suddenly
I understand I remember your soul
observing in mist far away
slopes now or islands or steps of the silver summits
of a willow grove
peaceful
(and in some way
“from beyond”)
and “something” what is it
(“magnificence”? “fragrance”
of intimate soul of “purity unspoken”?)
I must be remembering (and even far off in place of the face
I seem to retain in my thoughts
the quietest of hollows — now swirling only with tenderness)
and besides
this is only the flicker of “something” from memory
when the crossings
of beauties “not of this place”
cluster in that youthfulness
where the “eternal” is like orphanhood
(the unseen — awaiting our coming)


1980

but
at last I draw near there is no-one there never was
only silver
of ancient feeling — in free warmth over forehead and shoulders

oh
this weightless
field — in its shining to heaven

this
is soul of solitude like a glimmer of shyness
existing all round
and free it shines white by my side
but purity is brought forth — simply — through purity itself
the field
manifestly
(still just like
a field for heaven)
glows with it — to itself

what
of other things? for the shining pierced through
in order — to love
as it were some angel — all around — my unimpededness
creating thus
the place of chastity:
— whatever winds there may be dark departures or lives
this is quieter than the god of quiet!
there
in the silence
blue

1984

                                                   to S. Gubaydulina

mozart godlike mozart straw compasses godlike blade wind paper infarct madonna wind jasmine operation wind godlike mozart cassation twig jasmine operation angel godlike rose straw heart cassation mozart

1977

1

so that I
in myself should pray,
You
are not filled for me — with prayer,
and in evident powerful
absence
I am ringed, encircled.


2

But in her
the child — I cannot
pray. She is in herself
a prayer. You, in this quiet circle
Yourself
are utterly
in Yourself.


3

What am I
in the Silence — as in steady Light?
Or in fire. But the sick trees’ frozen equality is living. And You,
                                                                                              next to this —
are clarity, — oh, impenetrable clarity. Compared to it
death is a promise... — is something other!.. And in a dead circle
unendurably
falls from a tree — a leaf.


1984

                                               to the memory of Krysztof Baczynski

1

this tranquillity
wind over the ravine by-People-called-shamelessly-Ravine
and at last the Super-dignity-Abyss – and simply such a calm
collapse-Dignity: there is nothing it signifies Unity (to this degree
                                                                                              to the moment
by talking to the end
wind
over the ravine)

2

wind
like breathing already with Nothing-and-No-one we say
spiritlikeness (likeness of a likeness)
of the Friend-depths-of-first-created-Auschwitz – of the all-human-
                                                                                  Thinker-with-trenches
wind
dream not dreamed to the end
sensing (and the soul like blood from a baby with banners tearing-
                                                                                  and-crying in wide-opening)
sensing-eating in endless dog-breathing
the crater of the ravine
the ravine
and only out of liquid-substance-“once-upon-a-time”
this inverse long-before-Someone (when already like a corpse over
                                                                                  everything the name
had stopped shining! – the absence
of traces shines – beyond that end-of-shining)
oh this
inverse
no less
Rain

3

oh quietness
I was not more shameless
with you quietness
but now even so with me
you quietness are like breathing
of light-immortally-high
of the spirit-of-Ash (in such true
beauty
now
you are
quietness)

4

wind
we have finished but from the ravine
shamefully but still like a flower
the wind like the babble of baby-Baczynski (here for you is a
            flower-such-a-hieroglyph-of-super-perfection-trembling –
            and now it has arrived like the wound of the child in its
            subtlety shameless)
wind
over the ravine
they have finished
even brandings of perfection of shining to grasses and birds teeth-of-
                        perfections-of-Humanity-of-god-long-ago-Selfeaters
and even some
sign
to the wind
through Emptiness itself
cannot be drilled home or sparked off
end-of-shining
has covered: and there is no name
of-what-or-of-whom-That-now-to-give-a-name-to-is-empty-and-late! –
                                               of that: in closed setting aside!)
only bones are shining not light of eyes over the face!) and a kind
                                                                                              of endlessness
without-dots-and-dividing
of shamelessness in ultimate subtlety
tearing-Something-tearing – and more and more subtly! – they have
                                                                       finished – wind over the ravine
they have finished
wind
over the ravine

1984

Yellow water
in the stockyard —
far away and cold, a priori,

and there, like drumsticks,
alphabets without end
of untamed children:

oh! Broken Glass, Splinter and Straw,
oh! Linear Scythian Winds,
and like carnival scuffles in cellars,
Paper and Paper and Paper,

oh! ship’s boys of straw,
oh! damp of letters on fingers!

HERE AND NOW! IT SEEMS TO CUT,
BUT ONLY ME, NOT YOU!
CUTTING — THROUGH PICTURES AND DRESSES
AND CLAWS OF BIRDS!

Cows’ hooves are bright, unbelievable,
like sailing into a bay,
or like a dance,

and then, like the pounding of rails,
bright and wide and unsparing
the embrace of those who were with us —
hands, sisters, necks, mothers!

let us breathe again, let us breathe,
let us sleep again and pass
not yesterday, today or tomorrow, o-o-o-o-! —

THROUGH CHILDREN’S SHOUTS,
THROUGH DAMP OF LETTERS,
THROUGH PICTURES AND DRESSES
AND CLAWS OF BIRDS!


1960