FROM THE DARK В УГЛУ
by Rick K. Reut
…что происходит при
встрече двух языков
в рамках одной страницы
at the start of a free-
flowing speech or thought of
something important. It’s a
shame that some shadows fall
asleep while looking at
what looks back from the dark
в углу, где голый пол
с трудом отражает свет
в окне с видом на парк
в центре города. Там
горит электрический глаз
наступающей ночи.
It emphasizes the hum
of the empty wineglass
put to your ear, watching…
…что происходит при встрече двух языков в рамках одной страницы at the start of a free-flowing speech or thought of something important. It’s a shame that some shadows fall asleep while looking at what looks back from the dark в углу, где голый пол с трудом отражает свет в окне с видом на парк в центре города. Там горит электрический глаз наступающей ночи. It emphasizes the hum of the empty wineglass put to your ear, watching…
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Literary Translation of the Prose Part
…what happens when two tongues meet on one page at the start of a free-flowing speech or thought of something important. It’s a shame that some shadows fall asleep while looking at what looks back from the dark corner where the bare floor barely reflects the light in the window with a view of the central park. An electric eye of the nearing night twinkles there. It emphasizes the hum of the empty wineglass put to your ear, watching…
THAT УЛИЦА ВЕДЕТ В ПАРК
by Rick K. Reut
…нигде. Прямая речь
затекает на край
одного из языков.
There is a tiny scratch
on the skin of the sky –
a shooting star slips off
the night’s surface. It’s dark,
but one can still see some
light in the distance. That
улица ведет в парк,
а затем – к чудесам,
которых, кажется, нет…
…нигде. Прямая речь затекает на край одного из языков. There is a tiny scratch on the skin of the sky – a shooting star slips off the night’s surface. It’s dark, but one can still see some light in the distance. That улица ведет в парк, а затем – к чудесам, которых, кажется, нет…
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Literary Translation of the Prose Part
…anywhere. Direct speech is streaming across the rim of one of two tongues. There is a tiny scratch on the skin of the sky – a shooting star slips off the night’s surface. It’s dark, but one can still see some light in the distance. That street leads to the park, and then – towards wonders that don’t seem to exist…
These are examples of what the author calls bilingual cyclic verse,
which presupposes a poem having no beginning or end
and working in both rhyme and prose
in two languages at once.
The poems are dedicated to Natalia Antonevich (Антоневич Наталье Георгиевне).
Rick K. Reut was born in 1984, in the USSR. He studied philosophy at EHU in Minsk, Belarus, and literature at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. For most of his life after graduation, he has worked as a translator and a tutor of English as a foreign language.