collage #1
the earth’s teeth—green pyramid spikes
richly lit by the red western sun
from the east sooty shadows flow in and spill out—
you stand at the grassroots neither east nor west
there is a dragon cloud in the sky above you
long slimy iridescent cumulus white
on its back are the air defense barracks
and tall needle grass
the red hood—toss it off
like money wired on a card
the coordinates of critical infrastructure facilities—
to its curator
the shadows are sharp and sober
dreams without waking
dreaming of the past of the future
happily
you caress the furry surface of the ether
a voice comes through the mass of the snow
woolly felt—the thaw arrives
the thaw licks the foliage.
it happened a long time ago, a thing of beauty.
March 25, 2024
from Collages
Katrina Haddad
translated from the Ukrainian by Roman Turovsky
Read the original in Ukrainian
Listen to "collage #1" read in the original Ukrainian by the author:
Pulchritudo in tempore belli (beauty in a time of war)
The musical and apotropaic qualities of Katrina Haddad’s poems are completely concordant with my own poetic sensibilities. Like Katrina, I am originally from that land in which wars and their atrocities have influenced the arts for many centuries. Hence these translations.
The musical and apotropaic qualities of Katrina Haddad’s poems are completely concordant with my own poetic sensibilities. Like Katrina, I am originally from that land in which wars and their atrocities have influenced the arts for many centuries. Hence these translations.
Katrina Haddad is a Ukrainian poet and translator. She was born in Soledar, Donetsk region, and spent her formative years in Kharkiv and Damascus, Syria. Haddad’s collection of poetry, Ніч чужинців (The Night of Strangers; Elektroknyha, 2018), was shortlisted for PEN Ukraine's best book of the year as well as the LitAktsent Prize for Poetry. Her poetry has been translated into English, Polish, Lithuanian, and Hebrew. Haddad won the Smoloskyp literary award in both 2006 and 2007. She has graduate degrees in linguistics and clinical psychology.
Roman Turovsky is an American artist, composer, filmmaker, poet and translator who was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. Turovsky’s translations have appeared in literary magazines including Cardinal Points, Circumference, and The Germ. His translations of the early futurist works of Mykola Bazhan were included in the 2020 edition of Bazhan’s Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul (Academic Studies Press, 2020).