Distance

My personal fear of you coming out in a moment
stepping up while I am wordless, unplugging my coldness,
throwing my coldness away as an empty can,
and a space wrinkle, and a sorry wrinkle
and a teacher wrinkle, and a violin wrinkle,
and a chat wrinkle, and a coldness wrinkle,
and a distance wrinkle, and a hryvnia wrinkle,
and a dictionary wrinkle, and a dying wrinkle,
and a good day wrinkle, and a brow wrinkle,
and a shooting wrinkle, and a passion wrinkle,
and a morning’s wrinkled shirt wrinkle,
and a cold november rain wrinkle,
and a friends wrinkle, and a door-to-own-self wrinkle,
and a five poems wrinkle,
and a lipstick smelling microphone wrinkle,
and a earnings wrinkle, and a dissolver wrinkle,
and an apple wrinkle, and a parenthood wrinkle,
and an expression of the will wrinkle, and a faith wrinkle,
and Faith wrinkle, and Holly wrinkle,
and Yurko wrinkle, and Yuliya wrinkle,
and Maria wrinkle, and Andriy wrinkle,
and Olya wrinkle, and Vasyl wrinkle,
and Yaryna wrinkle, and the air wrinkle,
and a stiff bodies of homeless people wrinkle,
and a sunset-that-had-to-be-swallowed-alone wrinkle
and a morning Kyiv wrinkle, and an alcohol wrinkle,
and a somebody unborn wrinkle, and a wrinkle
that greets with a moving brow, and a wrinkle
that eradicates itself, and a wrinkle
that is eager to finish the conversation,
and again a cold morning, and a cold rain,
and a light from the alternating current wrinkle,
and an all-of-this-compensatory-love wrinkle,
and the one-that-turns-true wrinkle,
although I’ll stand there as if facing the bulletproof glass,
and a look wrinkle.

-Yury Zavadsky

translated from Ukrainian by Yuliya Musakovska

 

ВІДДАЛЬ

Персональний страх, що за мить вийдеш до мене,
безслівного, холод мій відкоркуєш,
і холод мій викинеш, як порожню бляшанку.
І зморшка-простір, і зморшка-пробач,
і зморшка-вчитель, і зморшка-скрипка,
і зморшка-чат, і зморшка-холод,
і зморшка-віддаль, і зморшка- гривня,
і зморшка-словник, і зморшка-вмирання,
і зморшка-добридень, і зморшка-брова,
і зморшка-стрілянина, і зморшка-закоханість,
і зморшка-зім’ята сорочка вранці,
і зморшка-холодний листопадовий дощ,
і зморшка-друзі, і зморшка-двері до себе,
і зморшка-п’ять віршів,
і зморшка-мікрофон, що пахне помадою,
і зморшка-заробіток, і зморшка-розчинник,
і зморшка-яблуко, і зморшка-батьківство,
і зморшка-волевиявлення, і зморшка-віра,
і зморшка-Віра, і зморшка-Галина,
і зморшка-Юрко, і зморшка-Юля,
і зморшка-Марія, і зморшка-Андрій,
і зморшка-Оля, і зморшка-Роман,
і зморшка-Наталя, і зморшка-Василь,
і зморшка-Ярина, і зморшка-повітря,
і зморшка-здерев’янілі тіла безпритульних,
і зморшка-схід сонця, котрий довелося проковтнути наодинці,
і зморшка-Київ уранці, і зморшка-алкоголь,
і зморшка-ненароджений хтось, і зморшка,
що рухомою бровою вітається, і зморшка,
що викорінює сам себе, і зморшка,
що хоче нарешті закінчити розмову,
і знову холодний ранок, і холодний дощ,
і зморшка-світло від змінного струму,
і зморшка-любові, компенсаторні,
і зморшка-одна, що справжньою стане,
хоч залишатимусь, як перед шклом непробивним,
і зморшка-погляд.

– Юрій Завадський (Yury Zavadsky)

 

The audio version of ‘ВІДДАЛЬ’ was recorded at шпиталь рекордс in Ternopil.

 

‘ВІДДАЛЬ’ by Yury Zavadsky was first published in ТАКСИСТ (Taxi Driver) by Krok Books in 2015. The English translation of the poem by Yuliya Musakovska, ‘Distance’, was published in the anthology Letters from Ukraine (Krok, 2016). They have been republished, along with the sound recording by Yury Zavadsky, in Rochford Street Review with the full permission of the author.

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Yury Zavadsky (ЮРІЙ ЗАВАДСЬКИЙ) is a Ukrainian poet, translator and publisher with a strong body of work comprising of both free verse and sound poetry. He is the author of ‘ЦИГАРКИ’ which was initially released on CD in 2006 and is one of the first hypertextual poems published in the Ukraine. Yury has published ten books of poetry, including, ТАКСИСТ (Taxi Driver), a collection of free verse and sound poetry which was shortlisted for the Ukrainian Book of the Year in 2015. His most recent collection of poems, ТІЛОМ (The Body), is forthcoming. In collaboration with Barcelonan poet, Andriy Antonovsky, Yury created and published Rotvrot/ Bocaaboca (Krok 2010), a bilingual book of concrete and zaum poetry. In 2010, he recorded the album zsuf yuryzavadsky with the band, ZSUF. It was the first recorded Ukrainian project of music and sound poetry. He is a member of the noise band, Suprodukt. Yury was one of the editors of AU/ UA: Contemporary Poetry of Australia and Ukraine, a collection of poetry from Ukrainian and Australian poets with translations in both languages published by Krok Books in association with Meuse Press in 2012. He is the director of the Publishing House, Krok (http://krokbooks.com) and holds a PhD from the Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University. website: http://yuryzavadsky.com/

 

To purchase ТАКСИСТ (Taxi Driver) in Ukrainian directly from Krok Books phone +38 068 744 24 39 (Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm Ternopil, Ukraine) or e-mail info@krokbooks.com