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published October 2009

Aleksey Porvin is a contemporary Russian poet. His first collection of poems was published in Moscow by Argo-Risk Press earlier this year.
 
Peter Golub is a Moscow born poet and translator. His translations and/or original work can be found in Absinthe: New European Poetry, Asheville Poetry Review, Aufgabe, Caketrain, Cimarron Review, Circumference, Diagram, Interim, Jacket Magazine, Rhino, St. Peterburg Review, Taiga, Text Only, Vozdukh, Words Without Borders, Zoland, and Zone for None. He is the editor of Jacket Magazine's New Russian Poetry Anthology (issue 36). A bilingual edition of his poems, My Imagined Funeral (2007), was published in Russia by Argo-Risk Press.

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by

Und alles schwieg…
R. M. Rilke

Rainer, the aural tree
is stran­gled with the long body
of their creak­ing soles;
you won’t find honey in the flowers.

Do you hear the hiss­ing in the for­est,
scat­tered with thin
tongues? Do you see the ring
in the tiny scales of language?

They breath you alone.
Disappear, let them catch
the right stiffle with their mouths;
let them breath it themselves.

The bite will weaken,
and sap will appear in the tree;
in your leaves the faith­ful ani­mals
will resuscitate.

trans­lated by Peter Golub

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