Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

7 Ukrainian Prayer

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an online quarterly journal with some of the best new literature from Europe

is a publication of

Contents

Editor’s Welcome ___________________________________ vi

Ukrainian Authors

Serhiy Zhadan - Voroshilovgrad (novel excerpt)____________ 2

Natalka Bilotserkivets - 12 poems_____________________ 22

Sofia Andrukhovych - Felix Austria (novel excerpt)________ 42

Yuri Vynnychuk - Tango of Death (novel excerpt)_ ________ 66

Taras Melnychuk - 11 poems_________________________ 92

Maria Matios - Sweet Darusya (novel excerpt)__________ 106

Tanya Malyarchuk - Two Tales_ ______________________ 132

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Other Authors from Around Europe

Oddfríður M. Rasmussen - I Am Next (six poems)________ 150

Faruk Šehić - Quiet Flows the Una (novel excerpts)_______ 160

Noèlia Díaz Vicedo - Cant del Mignia (nine poems)_ _____ 190

Charles Pépin - Joy (novel excerpts)___________________ 202

Milorad Pejić - The Eyes of Keyholes (13 poems)_________ 234

A Note on the Illustrations _________________________ 250 Acknowledgements _ ______________________________ 252

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Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer Editor’s welcome As hopes for a peaceful Ukraine continue, we offer with this issue a sampling of some of the very best writing from Ukraine today. Our guest Editor and super-translator from Ukrainian, Michael M. Naydan has helped tirelessly to assemble this focus, which he introduces in detail below. Supplementing our Ukrainian focus, you can enjoy our new animated video for Bridges – avant-garde poetry performed by Mariya Tytarenko. We’ve also got a great Yuri Andrukhovich audio interview and Natalka Bilotserkivets audio interview , and we’re inaugurating a new section on our website, Essays and Reviews , with an essay by Yuri Andrukhovich, called Carpathologia Cosmophilica – check it out. We’re very grateful to the Woskob Family Endowment for supporting this Ukrainian focus. Rounding out this issue, you’ll also find fantastic new Bosnian fiction and poetry, French fiction, and Faroese and Catalonian poetry in this issue – you can read more about all that following this Ukrainian introduction:

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A LITERARY PHOENIX STILL RISING: UKRAINIAN WRITERS TODAY

The writers offered in this issue comprise a fairly small sampling of a much larger and exciting literary resurgence. A multitude of talented Ukrainian writers have emerged from the middle of the 1980s, during the last years of the Soviet era, straight through the nearly twenty-five- year period of Ukrainian independence. In these pages and our related media you can enjoy a great range, from traditional master storytellers such as Maria Matios and Yuri Vynnychuk to cutting-edge Postmodernists such as Yuri Andrukhovych and Serhiy Zhadan . The intriguing prose of younger generation writer Tanya Malyarchuk is variegated and difficult to categorize. She and the other younger prose writer included here, Sofia Andrukhovych , appear as two of the stronger voices of their generation. Ukraine has an extraordinarily strong poetic tradition. In this issue we offer selections from the more traditionalist poet Natalka Bilotserkivets as well as the wonderfully idiosyncratic poet Taras Melnychuk . Two poets from the younger generation are also featured – Mariya Tytarenko and Oleh Kotsarev.

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Here is some more detail about each of these authors and works:

1 We’re pleased to begin our Ukrainian focus with a long excerpt from Voroshilovgrad , which has earned high praise as the winner of BBC Ukraine’s Book of the Decade award. Countercultural poet, prose writer, and essayist Serhiy Zhadan (Сергій Жадан, born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast, 1974) is the most prolific author from Eastern Ukraine today and is best-known for his novel, Depeche Mode as well as collections of short stories such as Big Mac (2003, 2011, 2015) and Mesopotamia (2015). In Voroshilovgrad, linear plot plays a secondary role, presenting a picture of dysfunctional post-Soviet space in an industrial wasteland of Eastern Ukraine, populated by criminal elements and on-the- make operators. This novel in English translation is forthcoming in April, 2016 from Deep Vellum Publishing.

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2 Poet, essayist, and now novelist Natalka Bilotserkivets (Наталка Білоцерківець, born in Kuianivka, 1954) became one of the most prominent poets of the 1980s generation that marked a transitional period from the Soviet era to the complete independence of Ukrainian literature. She is best known for her collections November (1989), Allergy (1999), and Hotel Central (2004), and has recently completed her first novel The History of My Man, which is forthcoming. Her poem “We’ll Not Die in Paris” has become a classic of Ukrainian rock music recorded by the Dead Rooster band. A number of her other poems such as “May” and “A Hundred Years of Youth” have also become classics of Ukrainian poetry. Trafika Europe recorded an audio interview with Natalka during her recent visit to the US, including a reading and discussion of her seminal poem, “We’ll Not Die in Paris.” (1-hour audio – bilingual Ukrainian-English)

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3 Prose writer and translator Sofia Andrukhovych (Софія Андрухович, born in Ivano-Frankivsk, 1983) bears the blessing and curse of being the daughter of one of Ukraine’s most prominent writers Yuri Andrukhovych (see below). In her early career she wrote in a highly candid autobiographical and confessional style, particularly in her collections Wives of their Husbands (2005) and Salmon (2007). She has shifted focus in her latest novel Felix Austria to a more measured tone with great attention to historical and period detail. It is also worth noting that she (with Viktor Morozov) accomplished a highly inventive and extremely popular translation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire into Ukrainian. 4 Yuri Vynnychuk (Юрій Винничук, born in Ivano-Frankivsk, 1952) is one of Ukraine’s most prolific writers – a superb storyteller and satirist. He emerged from the Lviv underground with his first collection of short stories/ novellas The Flashing Beacon in 1990. Since then he has been somewhat of a chameleon, taking on multiple voices

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in narratives that include powerful satire, black humor, pulp fiction, magical realism, autobiographical prose, and many other modes of writing, always imbued with a deep lyricism. He also has penned a number of books on aspects of the cultural history and legends of his adoptive home city of Lviv, which is the locus of the action of his Borgesian novel Tango of Death , excerpted here. The novel follows the fate of four close friends – a Ukrainian, a Pole, a German, and a Jew, from pre-WWII Lviv to the present day – with an intricate plot that revolves around an ancient manuscript that encodes the mystery of eternal life. It is one of the first post-independence Ukrainian novels dealing squarely with the horrors of the Shoah in Ukraine. 5 The Hutsul poet from the Carpathian Mountains Taras Melnychuk (Тарас Мельничук, 1939-1995), with a light and ironic philosophical style, often wrote in free verse (a rarity in Ukrainian poetry until the 1980s). He was forced to abandon his university studies in Soviet times for his free-spirited, nonconformist views. He worked for lengthy periods of time as a lumberjack and in the building trades

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before being conscripted into the Soviet army. After his military service he worked for various newspapers and publishers and published his first book We Carry Love to the Planet in 1967. He was arrested in 1979 and spent a four-year term in Soviet prison camps and after that in Soviet psychiatric hospitals where authorities tried to break his health and spirit with psychotropic drugs. He was released in 1986, the day after the Chernobyl disaster After a long break, his next book Prince of the Dew appeared in 1990, the year before Ukrainian independence. Here we’re presenting 11 poems from him previously unavailable in English. 6 Poet, prose writer and essayist, Maria Matios (Марія Матіос, born 1959) has authored more than twenty books. Her novel Hardly Ever Otherwise appeared with Glagoslav Publishers in 2012 in Yuri Tkach’s English translation. I would compare Maria Matios’ masterpiece Sweet Darusya – generously excerpted in this issue – to the novels of Toni Morrison or Alice Walker in American literature. Like these two prominent African-American authors, Matios embraces her own family roots, to give voice to the past and

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discover higher truths about herself and her culture, and in the process, about the human condition altogether. Her highly textured narrative tells her characters’ story on their own terms, following the tragic fate of a traumatized young village girl Darusya and her family in reverse chronological order, eventually revealing the childhood sources of the trauma at the end of the novel. The novel is currently being made into a feature film. 7 The prose writer Tanya Malyarchuk (Таня Малярчук, born in Ivano-Frankivsk, 1983) seems to distance herself from contemporary trends in finding her own literary voice. Her major collections of shorter prose works include From Above Looking Down. A Book of Fears (2006), How I Became a Saint (2006), To Speak (2007), Word Bestiary (2009), and A Divine Comedy (2009). Her novel under the title Biography of an Accidental Miracle appeared in 2012. She is a skillful storyteller with an impressive acumen for presenting the psychology of her characters. Many of her prose pieces, drawn from childhood experience, avoid copious descriptive detail and comprise vignettes that, despite their seeming simplicity, give significantly deeper

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insight into life. I would call Malyarchuk Chekhovian for her style and the subtle psychological depth that remains a constant in her writing. We’ve got two tales from her in this issue: her story “The Demon of Hunger” explores the author’s childhood in themysteriousCarpathianMountains, and the prose piece “I Wish I had a Tail” is indicative of Malyarchuk’s penchant for narrative experimentation. 8 Yuri Andrukhovych (Юрій Андрухович, born in Ivano- Frankivsk, 1960), co-founder of the Bu-Ba-Bu literary performance group in 1985, is Ukraine’s leading postmodernist writer and is best known for his novels Recreations (1992), TheMoscoviad (1993), Perverzion (1996), and Twelve Circles (2003). Andrukhovych is also well known throughout Europe for his thoughtful and provocative literary, cultural, and autobiographical essays examining his own and his country’s place in historical and present- day Europe. His essay “ Carpathologia Comosphilica ” comprises one of his more fanciful explorations of the geography of his native Carpathian Mountain region on a mythic level. We’re pleased to feature this as our first essay in the new Trafika Europe: Essays and Reviews section on

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our website. In our Yuri Andrukhovych audio interview (45 minutes) you can enjoy an introduction to this whimsical essay (38:13-42:02).

9 Ukrainian poet and prose writer Mariya Tytarenko (Марія Титаренко, born in Sakhalin, 1981) may be better known professionally in her homeland as an art critic, journalist, and educator at the Catholic University of Lviv where she teaches media communications. She was awarded the Bohdan Ihor Antonych Prize in 2010 for the best manuscript of poetry by a poet under 28 years of age. Her prose piece “A Half Hour of Sky” earned first prize in the category of the Ukrainian novella at the Book Arsenal Literary Festival in 2013. Her poem “Bridges” comprises a striking poetic meditation on Paul Celan with inventive use of language that collapses and expands on itself. We’re thrilled to offer you this poem as an animated video , performed by the poet herself in English translation.

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10 Finally, a new installment of Trafika Europe Corner on the sister site Ohio Edit features four poems by Ukrainian poet, prose writer and journalist Oleh Kotsarev.

To explore contemporary Ukrainian literature further, you can find a plethora of resources online and among recent publications, for example at the website http:// ukrainianliterature.org/ , curated by Maxim Tarnawsky. Thefollowinganthologiesarealsoorwill beavailablesoon: Herstories: An Anthology of Ukrainian Women’s Prose (Glagoslav Publishers, 2014) and Mark Andryczyk’s The Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series: An Anthology, the first of three anticipated volumes forthcoming with Academic Studies Press. Glagoslav Publishers of London and Amsterdam has been particularly active in publishing contemporary Ukrainian authors in English translation. For a more extensive sampling of poets of the last twenty-five years, check out the Fall 2010 special issue of International Poetry Review dedicated to Ukrainian poetry (volume XXXVII number 2). To read

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Ukrainian poetry in a more historical context, see A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry (Litopys Publishers, 2000) as well as Virlana Tkacz’s and Wanda Phipps’ volume of translations made for performances of the Yara Arts Group, In a Different Light: A Bilingual Anthology of Ukrainian Literature (Sribne Slovo Publishers, 2008).

Michael M. Naydan Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies The Pennsylvania State University _____

Also featured in this issue are five more authors from across Europe:

Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen (born 1969) is a Faroese poet and educator from the village of Sandur on Sandoy. He is a graduate of the Danish Writers Academy in Copenhagen, a two-time recipient of the M.A. Jacobsen Literature Award, and author of thirteen collections of poetry. Rasmussen currently resides in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe

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Islands, where he serves as co-editor of Vencil , a Faroese literary magazine. The six poems in this issue are excerpted from Eg eri næstur (I Am Next, 2013).

Faruk Šehić (born in Bihać, former Yugoslavia, 1970) studied veterinary medicine in Zagreb until the outbreak of war in 1992. However, the then 22-year-old voluntarily joined the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he led a unit of 130 men. After the war he studied literature and has gone on to be a writer. Literary critics have hailed Šehić as the leader of the ‘mangled generation’ of writers born in 1970s Yugoslavia, and his books have achieved cult status with readers across the region. His collection of short stories Under Pressure (Pod pritiskom, 2004) was awarded the Zoro Verlag Prize. His debut novel Quiet Flows the Una (Knjiga o Uni, 2011) – excerpted here – received the Meša Selimović prize for the best novel published in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia in 2011 and the EU Prize for Literature in 2013. His most recent book is a collection of poetry entitled My Rivers (Moje rijeke, Buybook, 2014). Šehić lives in Sarajevo and works as a columnist and journalist. Quiet Flows the Una is just out from Istros Books.

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Noèlia Díaz Vicedo is a Catalonian poet, academic and translator. She completed her thesis at Queen Mary University of London – where she presently teaches – on the poetry of Maria-Mercè Marçal (MHRA, 2014), and she is also a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster, London. She has co-edited, with Sandra D. Roig, Donzelles de l’any 2000, antologia de dones poetes dels Països Catalans (Editorial Mediterrània, 2014). She has performed around the UK, and in Spain. She has also translated from Catalan The Body’s Reason by Maria- Mercè Marçal (Francis Boutle Publishers, 2014) and various poets for the magazine Alba Londres . Culture in Translation where she served as co-editor (2011-2014). She is a Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of London. We’ve got nine poems in this issue from her Cant del Mignia (Afternoon Song). Charles Pépin (born in Saint-Cloud, France, 1971) is a philosopher, novelist and journalist. He passed the “agrégation” examination for philosophy, and is a graduate of the Political Studies Institute of Paris and of HEC. He teaches at the lycée d’Etat de la Légion d’Honneur. He has authoredmany best-selling novels and essays, including The

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Planet of the Wise  (150,000 copies sold),  Plato the Gaffe  (100,000 copies sold), and When Beauty Saves Us. His books are translated in 13 countries. Elle Magazine calls his new novel Joy (excerpted here), “A dizzying novel, that turns our way of seeing the world upside down.” Milorad Pejić (born in Tuzla, former Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina), 1960) has lived in Sweden since 1992. He has published several books of poems. His collection, Hyperborea (2011, 2013), was awarded by the Writers’ Association of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the City of Sarajevo, the PEN Center in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Mak Dizdar Foundationwith the newly established prize “SlovoMakovo - Mak Dizdar” in November 2012 for the best poetic work published the previous year in the Bosnian, Montenegrin, Croatian, and Serbian language.

Enjoy! _____

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It’s our pleasure to announce the publication of our first book:  Trafika Europe Essential New European Literature, Vol. 1. Now out from Penn State University Press! These fourteen selections—from seven women and seven men, seven poets and seven fiction writers—represent languages across the Continent, from Shetland Scots and Occitan, Latvian and Polish, Armenian, Italian, Hungarian, German, and Slovenian to Faroese and Icelandic. With some of the most accomplished writing in new translation from Europe today, this volume opens a window onto some emerging contours of European identity. Former ASCAP director of photography Mark Chester complements the writing with sumptuous black-and-white photos. “Kudos to Trafika Europe for their energetic exploratory work. These stimulating pieces will spark thought and talk about the startling variety and less visible unities of European writing.” — John Taylor, author of Into the Heart of European Poetry and A Little Tour through European Poetry . For a limited time we’re offering free worldwide shipping on this volume, only at the Trafika Europe website, right here: http://trafikaeurope.org/product/essential-new-european-literature-vol-i/ BE SURE TO ASK FOR IT AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY AND BOOKSTORE!  ALSO SUITABLE FOR TEACHING.

Voroshi Serhiy

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ovgrad hadan

Serhiy Zhadan VOROShILOVGRAD (Novel Excerpt) “How’d they wind up here in our neck of the woods?” “They do business with our guys,” Kocha said. “Our guys hook them up with Chinese-made bathroom fixtures, they take them across the border, repackage them in Rostov, and then ship them out to China, passing them off as Italian-made. Remember, Herman, business and faith go hand in hand.” “Sure.”

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VOROSHILOVGRAD Translated from Ukrainian by Reilly Costigan-Humes & Isaac Wheeler T he priest from the funeral—the “presbyter,” as he was

troubling October sun. The man was unshaven and had long hair. He cast a shrewd yet unfocused glance at us. Another man, short and pot- bellied, wearing white work overalls stained with yellow paint, followed behind him. He had short, gray hair and was wearing Chinesemade Nike sneakers. The teenager looked the worst of all. He was wearing knockoff Dolce & Gabbana jeans and a shiny black jacket with scattered cigarette burns, square- tipped dress shoes, and had some Koss headphones on his head—which also looked like knock-offs. All three of them headed toward us without a word. I looked at the presbyter out of the corner of my eye. He was just about holding it together: was doing his best to conceal his distress. I started rooting

officially called—was looking up at the morning sun as the three figures emerged from the yellow cornstalks that swayed in the wind like hangers in an empty closet. For a while there it was hard to tell who precisely were pushing their way out of the thick crops—the only clues were a black jacket flashing by, the creaking of the corn, their cool breath rising. Stomping some sand-colored leaves and mowing down the morning dew, they finally popped out onto the road: two adults and one teenager. The man in front was wearing a winter AC Milan track jacket that went down to his knees. Army boots too. The club’s black and red colors seemed faded against the

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holding the weapon with one hand, and came over. The rising sun flashed behind his shoulder. The October air was dry, like gunpowder. He stopped, dropped his hands, and shouted amiably at the presbyter: “Father?” The presbyter was doing his best to exude an air of self-importance. “It’s me, Tolik,” the guy in the AC Milan jacket said to the presbyter, dashing over to embrace him. The presbyter tolerated his affection with surprisingly good grace, and then the soccer star headed over to embrace me. “Tolik,” he forced out his name, nearly hugging me to death. “Herman,” I answered, freeing myself from his grip.

around in my pockets, but then I remembered I was wearing someone else’s clothes. Digging around in my jacket pocket, I was surprised to find Kocha’s screwdriver. The tips of my fingers felt its sharp edge. “God’s watching out for me,” I thought, smiling at the presbyter. But he wasn’t looking at me—he was watching the strangers, quite concerned. Admittedly therewas cause for concern— the tallest guy was holding a hunting shotgun, come to think of it, while the pot- bellied one was expertly flourishing a machete. The teenager was the only one not holding anything, but he had his hands in his pockets, so one could only imagine what he was hiding in there. The distance between our two groups closed. The tall guy unexpectedly swung the gun off his shoulder, cocked it, and fired a blast into the sky. Then he spread out his arms,

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to turn here, otherwise we could bump into the farmers farther down. We’re at war with them.” “What are you fighting for?” I asked. “Isn’t it obvious?” Tolik asked, surprised. “To expand our sphere of influence. Sure, in all honesty, sometimes we do cross over into their territory now and again. But, you know, we have to hide our shit somewhere,” he explained. “We leave everything out in their fields. That’s capitalism for you. Anyway… they’re waiting for us out there,” Tolik said, looking off into the distance. Only now did I notice that his right eye was glass. Maybe that’s why he’d looked so mysterious to me. Now he was laughing heartily again— he was an easygoing guy, it seemed, despite everything; living in a warzone wasn’t

“Herman?” the soccer star asked. “Yura’s brother?” “Yep.” Tolik broke out into amiable laughter. Then he remembered his fellow travelers and started introducing me to them. “That’s Gosha,” he said, pointing at the pot-bellied man. “He showed us the shortcut. We were like plantation owners,” Tolik said, pointing at the machete, “cutting our way toward you. Yeah, and that’s Siryozha, Gosha’s son. He’s studying at the local community college. He’s going to be an engineer— well, maybe.” Siryozha, continuing to listen to his music, waved at us. Gosha gave the presbyter a long and heartfelt handshake. “We went straight through the fields on purpose,” Tolik explained to the presbyter, “to cut you off. It’d be best

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of struggling with the ancient apparatus, he called back, dejectedly, “I don’t have any bars. We’ll have to drive up to the top of the hill.” “We’re down in a gully here,” Tolik explained. “We’ll have to drive up to the top of the hill,” he repeated. “We’ll take a little detour. We’ll be there in no time.” Gosha collected his toys and dropped them into his cavernous pockets, wiping the grenade off on his sleeve before tossing it back in. He also took back the machete. The three of them just started milling around, seemingly expecting something to happen. “What’s the deal?” Mr. One Eye blurted out at last. “Are we going or what?” “What are you going to drive up there in?” the presbyter asked, clearly confused. “What do you mean?” Tolik

getting him down, at least. “Well then,” he said, his real eye directed at the pot- bellied man, “let’s give them a call and get going.” The pot-bellied man handed me his beloved knife and started digging around in his overall pockets. They seemed bottomless. He kept taking things out and handing them to Tolik and me to hold: I got two red autumn apples, and Tolik got a handful of spark plugs. Then, much to my surprise, I got a hand grenade covered with nail polish; next came a few old, battered cassettes for Tolik, whose glass eye twinkled joyfully. Finally, the pot-bellied man reached all the way down past his knee and came back up with an old Sony Ericsson phone, one with a short antenna. He walked a few steps away fromus, pulledout the antenna, and turned the thing on. After a few minutes

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last one in, and Siryozha had to sit on my lap. He was so close I could hear the music playing in his headphones—I thought it was shit, so I just did my best to ignore. Seva put his sunglasses back on and looked at the presbyter inquisitively. Tolik’s hand emerged fromunder hisMilan jacket, waving the driver on. The Volga shuddered and started along the dirt road. At times, the corn came right up to the edge of the road, rubbing up against the sides of the car. Tolik directed the driver, flapping his arms. The car was crawling up the hill, up to where we would have more bars and where the farmers would presumably be waiting for us. Then, Tolik was motioning off somewhere to the left. Seva braked and looked askance at his one-eyed passenger, but Tolik persisted in his waving. Our driver obligingly spun the wheel, and we dove

asked, chuckling. “We’re going with you. We can all fit.” Seva, our driver, who had been sitting in the car this whole time watching through his sunglasses, took them off to admire the spectacle of us all jamming into his old, white Volga, which seemed to be rusting more and more the farther we traveled. The presbyter took a seat up front, next to Seva; Mr. One Eye squeezed himself in right behind the presbyter, insistently nudging him toward the driver and miraculously getting the door shut behind him. Tolik’s puffy Milan jacket engulfed both himself and the presbyter like an airbag. Pot-bellied Gosha and his son hopped in the back; seeing a woman already sitting there, they started apologizing profusely, albeit without surrendering even an inch of space. I was the

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higher. The drive seemed to be going on forever. Maybe Mr. One Eye wanted to make sure our trail would be hard to follow, who knows. Soon the fields ended abruptly and we found ourselves in front of a wide gully stretching out to the east. The road dropped sharply, and about a dozen identical two-story structures, which looked like they’d been built back in the ’80s, stood at the bottom of the hill. At the edge of this settlement I saw rows of warehouses; gardens followed the warehouses, and then there were yellow meadows sprawling out to the horizon. Far to the east I could just about make out what might have been a dam or a huge earthen wall stretching out along the horizon. It had a well-defined shape, though I couldn’t quite decide what I was looking at. “What’s that?” I asked the

into a dry, rustling expanse of corn, shining in the afternoon sun and cutting off our view in every direction. It seemed there was a path hidden there, nearly invisible to the untrained eye, though obvious enough once we were on it; it ran through the heart of this corn jungle, protecting us from the evil eye. We drove slowly, pushing through the cornstalks and tuning in to the random sounds scattered out in the sun-drenched fields. It felt as though the Volga was barely moving—the thick dust on the dashboard jumped every time we hit a ditch. Eventually we emerged out into stubble fields. Then we crossed over a strip of fallow ground between two fields and rolled onto a brick-paved road. It was completely empty out there, just the dew sliding down blades of grass, and the sun rising higher and

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women had a less uniform appearance—some of them were in dresses, some of them in white blouses and black skirts; others, mostly the younger ones, were wearing jeans studded with masses of rhinestones. Some women had winter coats around their shoulders, some were wearing leather jackets, and a few others had raincoats on, although the autumn air had had already been thoroughly dried out and warmed up by the sun. It was actually rather cozy down here in the valley, like on the southern Crimean coast. The locals greeted us with a joyful roar. We all crawled out of the car, smoothing our wrinkled clothes. Tolik, wearing his Milan jacket, and the presbyter, wearing a black jacket and holding a folder, took the lead, followed by Seva, who was also wearing a suit, albeit a red and rather dubious looking one, as well

pot-bellied man. “The Russian border,” he answered succinctly. Then he retreated into his own thoughts. Seva shut off the engine, and we coasted down the hill. The bricks under our tires were all broken up. The road was crushed, like the spine of a dog run over by a truck. Having descended into the valley, we stopped in the middle of a small lot. There was a relatively spacious building there with a slate roof and fake columns on one side. About forty locals were standing on the front steps. They seemed to have been waiting for us. I could instantly sense the atmosphere of a grand, festive gathering. The men were mostly wearing dark, inexpensive suits, bizarrely colored ties, and thoroughly polished shoes. The

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they were old friends; they had some catching up to do, but, instead, the boss invited us in, saying that we didn’t have much time, and needed to get everything done nice and snappy. “ Then we can catch up,” he added, and headed up the steps The presbyter fell in behind him. The locals parted respectfully, making way for him and the rest of us. Our driver moved quickly down this living corridor, then Tamara, sending a concerned glance my way. I turned to Gosha and Siryozha. “Are you going in?” I asked. “I’m going to stop home real quick,” Gosha said, standing still and keeping his machete hidden behind his back. “I’m going to get changed. It’s a holiday after all.” “What about you?” I asked Siryozha, raising my voice to

as his sunglasses, of course. Then the rest of us spilled out—Siryozha, wearing his knockoff jeans with the letters D and G on the back pockets, and me in my reflective blue suit that made me look like a ’70s Soviet pop star. Then came Gosha, decked out in his white, paint- stained overalls, and finally Tamara, surveying her new surroundings anxiously. She was wearing a cherry-colored sweater and a long skirt. On her feet she had thin high heels that immediately sank into the sand outside. Our whole crew headed over to meet the assembled locals. They were glad to see us. A short dude, wearing a suit and colorful handkerchief instead of a tie, and clearly the one in charge, came down the steps and kissed the presbyter five times in a row, a custom that was unfamiliar to me. It seemed as though

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had probably been hanging there for a while, and then it was taken down, but the fabric had faded and molded around the outline of his face. Now a crucifix had taken his place; at a distance it looked as though somebody had crossed out the tenets of Marxism-Leninism once and for all. Most of our crew was already on the stage—the leader, whose handkerchief was now draped around his neck, was bobbing around them and explaining something. The locals took their seats all around us. Tolik came up to me. “What do you think? You like it?” he asked. “Is this your club or something?” I asked. He slid out of his heavy jacket, exposing a striped woolen navy shirt. He carefully leaned his gun up against one of the benches.

beheardoverhisheadphones. He just waved his hand amiably. Then again, maybe he didn’t even hear my question. Meanwhile, the locals were cramming themselves through the front door. I went up the steps too. I found myself in a dark hallway with a cool scent to it; the building appeared to be their town hall, or something along those lines. Various doorways could be seen at the end of the hallway— the locals who’d preceded us inside were bunched up around them. There was a rather large auditorium, given the size of their community, on the other side. The interior was modest—the room was lined with neatly arranged rows of wooden pews, and the stage was decorated with red velvet. Up above the proscenium I could see the clear outline of Lenin’s profile. His picture

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Serhiy Zhadan

“Well then, Herman. You ready?” the priest asked. “Yep. Are we going to get started?” “Of course,” he said confidently. “This is exactly what we came here for. This is exactly what we came here for.” Three months of plentiful sunshine. We had sand in our clothes and teeth, and silence that stopped our blood and thickened our dreams so they ran one into another; it made waking up a long and uneasy process. Black bread and green tea that marked time and framed space. We had sugar in our pockets and on our bed sheets, the smell of grass and diesel, hoarse conversations in • • •

“It’s our church,” he said. “Seriously?” “Uh-huh, it’s our church. Well, and our club too. We’ve combined the two, you see?” “Gotcha.” “Our religion says it’s okay,” Mr. Glass Eye assured me. “Good to know.” “The presbyter knows what’s good.” Now the presbyter was calling me over. He seemed completely focused now, and was handing out clear instructions. I pushed through the crowd as Seva took out a leather bag containing all the necessary supplies. Tamara was fixing her hair, standing silently at the back. “Uh-huh.” “For real.” “Okay, chill.”

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that it was impossible to push through to the other side. Every evening after work, we’d lock up the booth, flop down on our couches, and listen to the radio— one of the truckers had hooked Kocha up. I’d fall asleep to the music request show; and wake up to long, sad conversations between radio evangelists would. The latter were particularly earnest in the early mornings, when things were light and easy and I couldn’t even think of falling asleep again. Around that time they’d generally be holding forth about the importance of fasting and reading excerpts from the prophets’ holy books. Occasionally, they’d break for weather reports, which made their sermons all the more exhaustive and optimistic. Three months of good sleep, a healthy appetite, and sentimental feelings. I’d always thought that it would

the mornings the smooth operation of rain falling slowly like factory workers trudging home after a tough shift, passing empty tin cans. We listened to border radio stations, giving us news from both countries, alternately informing us about clear days and calling for precipitation. Women’svoicescamethrough the speaker, telling us about the heat waves battering distant, unreachable places, complaining about the stifling heat and the unending racket in the city anddreamingabout travel and cool weather. It all seemed so artificial and intoxicating from where we were—we listened greedily to their smooth breathing, their short yet frequent bursts of laughter. We wanted to look them straight in the eye as they reported the day’s exchange rates. The summer was so dense

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Serhiy Zhadan

teachers and enemies. My old acquaintances were genuinely happy I had come back, but it didn’t go any further than that. My old loves introduced me to their kids, reminding me of the diffuse passage of time, which makes us wiser, though this newfound wisdom is inevitably accompanied by cellulite. My teachers looked to me for guidance, while my enemies asked me to lend them a little cash so they could continue leading their worthless lives. Life is a cruel, but fair. Well, sometimes it’s just cruel. On the weekends, Injured and I would play some soccer. A bunch of community college guys would stop by the station—guyswhoconsidered playing on the same team as our chubby living legend a great honor. We had a lot of work, but I’d gotten used to it. Olga and I still weren’t on

probably serve a person well to change their social circle, daily routine, name, and hair color every once in a while, and now I’d had the chance to test that theory. My hair had gotten lighter and grown out—in July I started combing it back, and then in August Kocha cut it with his prized German scissors. My old clothes had gotten all greasy and stunk of wine and gasoline now, so I bought myself some black army T-shirts and a few pairs of pants with countless pockets to store all the bolts, keys, and lightbulbs I came across at work. I had become more sensible and self-assured— maybe changing my daily routine did the trick, ormaybe it was the fact that I was working with some serious people. Fresh air really can cool your head and light a fire inside you. I reconnectedwith all of my old acquaintances, all my old loves, all my

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VOROShILOVGRAD

maybe not.” In the early fall, everything was set into motion again, everything was reactivated— caravans of trucks pushed out to the north, delivering the fruits of the harvest to local markets. This golden September was warm. The sun would seem to halt right above the gas pumps, and then it’d get it into its head to roll away as quickly as it could, heading along the highway to the west, lighting up the road for the truckers. Sometimes Ernst would stop by and hold forth to Injured about differences in the tactics of tank combat in daytime and nighttime conditions. Injured would soon lose his temper and disappear into his workshop to dismember some more fresh automobile carcasses. Occasionally, when it wasn’t too hot, the clergyman with whom I’d struck up a friendship during

speaking terms. My former Kharkiv friends never came back. I forgave their debt. Kocha’s Gypsy relatives gave me enough money to keep going. I stopped trying to contact my brother. At night I’d dream about airplanes. Surprisingly enough, my gas station worries had just evaporated somehow. At first, I sat around anxiously awaiting their next move— waiting for arson, corpses, and so forth. I even tried to rally my old acquaintances in town. Nothing ever wound up happening, though, and I was told not to make a big deal about it, and just take things as they came. I gradually calmed down, despite Injured’s constant warnings that our problems wouldn’t blow over so easily, and that one day somebody was going to get his neck snapped. “Maybe,” I told myself. “And then again,

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Serhiy Zhadan

relatives already saw me as one of their own. They too would stop by from time to time, tryingto draw me further into their community. Kocha and I evenwent to their religious services a few times, but we could never manage to sit through an entire Mass. Each time, Kocha would drag me over to the kitchen, where he’d start pillaging the wine reserves. Tamara also came by the station sometimes. She’d always greet me with a certain reserve, as if she wanted to tell me something but couldn’t quite find the right words. Frankly, I had no real interest in trying to pry any information out of her. Certain things are best observed at a distance, including other people’s intimate relations. After those three months of sun and shade, of sandstorms and plentiful if withering greenery, came October. The mornings were sunny

the funeral would stop by on his bike. We’d have long conversations. Sometimes he’d stay late, and we’d listen to the evangelists sitting in faraway radio stations— much like us, they clearly had no idea how to pass the time on those black, ignited by indolence. Other times, the presbyter would bring me some books to read. Once, noticing my Charlie Parker discs, he asked me if I was really interested in jazz. On the very next day he showed up with a greasy scholarly work on the emergence of the New Orleans jazz scene. And then there was a long period during which he tried talking to me about Shtundism, but I couldn’t help but demonstrate a total lack of respect for religious symbols whenever the topic came up, so he finally decided to let me be. By this time, Kocha’s Gypsy

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yet cool; every day it felt as though a cyclone was just about to touch down. I would get out of bed with great reluctance and wander outside, shivering, to wash up at the sink. Our toothpaste would freeze overnight like vanilla ice cream. Patches of fog would gradually clump together by the gas pumps, with only individual trees still visible, poking through. Fall was already gathering momentum; we needed to start gearing up for months of darkness and snow. That’s when it happened. The presbyter had to make a trip all the way out to the border to perform a wedding ceremony for some members of his congregation. He had to go God knows where, so he decided it’d be best to travel with a big group. The church provided him with a driver and an old, rotting white Volga, and asked Tamara to go along, since having a woman along would the whole affair

look a bit more legitimate. Kocha was supposed to join the group, help out at the ceremony, and generally serve as backup. One of his pals from the can paid us a visit a fewdays before the trip, however: The two of them loaded up on wine and sang prison songs deep into the night, paying no mind to the first breaths of frost that blew through those deceptively warm, early autumn nights. By the next morning, Kocha had nearly lost his voice, while his former cellmate, who had agreed to bike into the valley for some medicine at some point during the previous night’s festivities, had failed to reappear as promised, meaning there was little chance of getting the bike back, leaving the old timer distraught. All he could do was lie around on the couch, drinking hot tea and pouring generous doses of grain alcohol into his mug. So I had to go to the ceremony

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Serhiy Zhadan

instead of him. I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes in a big family. “Can’t they get by without me?” I asked. “I don’t know a thing about their church stuff.” Kocha, who was still quite sick, replied hoarsely, “Look, you don’t have to do a thing. They’ll handle it, so just chill, dude. All you gotta do is hang around them, that’s it.” His voice fizzled out then like a dying car battery. He couldn’t manage more than a feeble mumble when he went on: “I just can’t— you see I’m hurting.” “What I don’t get is why they needed you in the first place.” “It’d be bad news if we only sent Gypsies over. They need a regular person there, you know, just in case the shit hits the fan.” “What’s their beef with the Gypsies?” “Herman, they’re uncivilized

people. They already don’t trust each other, and then you throw Gypsies into the mix? Listen, if this weren’t so important to the family I wouldn’t have asked you. The thing is, you’re like a brother to us now. Just make sure you wear my suit. You look like some sort of POW in that getup. Come on, Herman— you gotta take life by the horns.” “Who are we doing all this for, anyway?” I asked. “Smugglers,” Kocha explained. “They live by smuggling. The border’s right there, see. They just get by however they can.” “They ever get caught?” “Yeah, of course. Some of them get locked up and others are let go.” “How’d they wind up here in our neck of the woods?” “They do business with our

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guys,” Kocha said. “Our guys hook them up with Chinese- made bathroom fixtures, they take them across the border, repackage them in Rostov, and then ship them out to China, passing them off as Italian-made. Remember, Herman, business and faith go hand in hand.” “Sure.” “They come to our services sometimes, take some of our pamphlets, donate some money to our church. But it’s not just about that the “Of course. We have to spread God’s word. Who else should we be spreading it to? Why not them?” “What sort of creeddoes their presbyter preach, anyway?” “None that I know of, he just does things his own way. All that matters is that you’re at peace with yourself … money.” “Really?”

and that you keep your feet warm,” Kocha said, tucking his ailing body underneath the blanket. They came by to pick me up early Saturday morning. I put on Kocha’s dark blue suit, laced up a pair of worn boots, and hopped in the car. If I had known from the get-go how the trip was going to play out, I probably would have been a bit more cautious. But who could have guessed how it was all going to go down, and what kind of trouble we were going to get ourselves into? When you’re taking life by the horns you don’t really think about the consequences of your actions. _____

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12 P Natalka Bi

22

ems otserkivets

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Natalka Bilotserkivets

12 Poems Translated from Ukrainian by Michael M. Naydan

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NIGHT PLANES

Night planes fly past invisibly, Snow falls on the city street, At one AM they turn off the dim street lamps, And the last tramcars disappear... Only drowsy buildings remain, Trees are dark, but the heart is hot Like a warm clod of living earth. These days like years pass slowly

These days of ill-defined fog, of snows, Breakfasts, lunches, monotonous events... But listen— every so often at night Tragic keys turn in the gates, And specters of unknown recollections Rise through the rattle of night planes. The shattered window of a forgotten school Will shine in the heart of the city—or maybe it’s a cathedral.

Or the squares of shattered streets, Or the clearings of winter forests...

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Natalka Bilotserkivets

And from the sky Choirs of frail tender voices sing old lullabies from above As well as the first words of lifeless children’s primers. ...Night planes fly past far off in the distance, Leaving strange silver specters, As though beyond them in soldiers’ overcoats, In concentration camp jackets, in women’s rags— Oh no! in bright holiday attire! Columns of children, child after child... Destination, contents? Simply a vision of life At midnight, in the time of violet planes...

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12 poems

A PARTING ELEGY

...only shadows remain In moonlight. Look back:

The broad scent of autumn lies all around— More tender than before, darker than before.

Bushes intertwined in late silence, And on the water a doleful luster— And from the heavens Fall falls. 1

Wherever there are embraces and pink lips, Wherever there are fragile, youthful silhouettes, Lost in the moon’s glow— Tiny pink fish—illuminating years, Are they fated to grassy June memories, To leaf-falling November tears, to thoughts— To heavy ice in the ice-bound sky?... What is the heart satisfied with then If not with happiness, with love, or youth? Why is the last star that sets out

1 Bilotserkivets is playing here with the Ukrainian word for November--”lystopad,” which literally means “leaf-falling.”

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Natalka Bilotserkivets

Into the heavenly vault more cherished than before? Tenderness swirls—the music of parting, And, stifling shame-faced sobbing, Rushes to become one with the universe. And passions, darker than before, And more towering than before—overflowing; The pulsing of thoughts—a powerful silence, The battle and despair are blessed— All that shines and breathes is darkness, And you, bright star, forever—the brightest, Fare thee well, and if for ever, still forever, fare thee well! 2

2 A quotation from Lord Byron’s famous poem “Fare Thee Well,” which was addressed to Lady Byron and published in 1816.

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12 poems

A Wintry Garden

A frost-filled snowy winter When evening descends so early, Let’s play together, my little child, In the warm house... Or let’s go together

Into the wintry evening garden. Long ago I stood here with my mother. When she was younger... The stars opened up A fine slit of a snowfall, and the window glimmered. “My sweetie...,” Why this Trembling voice? Is it your heart whispering to you, Or is the white wall protecting you?... The wintry garden grows dense and darkens... Little girl of mine—you’re now a mother and wife— Listen... And someday you’ll understand This elemental fear floating from the window.

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Natalka Bilotserkivets

A yellow maple, a rusty stone, And the sweat of rust and dried green blood— This is all an insatiable now, Like the elastic clenching of our soul. Love this stone—it’s a million years old. Love this maple two steps away. Love this rain—it’s everywhere like calm. Love this poem—it’s written by Guillame. Do you sense the unity of life? The only things in it are the word and nature, And rain... And the deathly cold of tears. All are just a heartbeat’s imprints.

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12 poems

Water shivers in a glass From the cold. Its feminine trembling From the cold. Now the nights are cold, In another moment—the first leaf will fall. A year of our love already has passed, And all, it seems, is the scent of that leaf And that water in a glass. And it won’t be long To this year that’s already passed.

And a shoe tossed aside, Clothes on a chair, and till morning A tunnel wind makes the water froth in the glass— In another moment, and a stream will break out from it.

In a way that a century maybe is just a step. When the black silk tunnel burns, And August like an unexpected shout, And all of life is a stream or a gulp...

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