Lyuba Yakimchuk / Knife

Knife

By Lyuba Yakimchuk

with relatives, we share table and graves
with enemies — only graves
one such candidate comes
to share a grave with me
says to me:
I’m bigger than you
I’m harder than you
I’m tougher than you
sticks knife after knife into my stomach and below
knife after knife
his pressure springlike
but

he is smaller than us
he is softer than us
because he’s only got one knife
and there are plenty of us
at the table
and each has their own “but”
and each has their own cut

says to me I’m a sharper blade cut you
I’m a thicker blade cut you
chip, chop, chip, chop,
the last one is dead.
hold on they say hold on
and we hold onto our table
from the gun muzzle
we all drink our bullets
we pour our enemy one, too.


Translated from the Ukrainian by Svetlana Lavochkina

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Ніж

із родичами ділимо стіл та могили
із ворогами – тільки могили
приходить один такий претендент
поділити зі мною могилу
мовить до мене:
я більший ніж ти
я твердіший ніж ти
я міцніший ніж ти
ніж за ножем всаджує у живіт і нижче ніж за ножем
його жим пружинний
але

він менший ніж ми
він м’якіший ніж ми
бо ніж у нього один
а нас за столом багато
і в кожного своє ніж
і в кожного свій ніж

мовить до мене:
я твердіший автомат ви
я більший автомат ви
мат за матом
автомат за автоматом
тримайтесь кажуть тримайтесь
і ми тримаємось за наш стіл
та випиваємо з дула автомату
по своїй кулі
і гостю наливаєм одну


січень 2015

LYUBA YAKIMCHUK

Lyuba Yakimchuk was born in Pervomaisk, Luhansk oblast, in 1985. She is a Ukrainian poet, screenwriter, and journalist. She is the author of several full-length poetry collections, including Like FASHION and Apricots of Donbas, and the film script for The Building of the Word. Yakimchuk’s awards include the International Slavic Poetic Award and the international “Coronation of the Word” literary contest. Her writing has appeared in magazines in Ukraine, Sweden, Germany, Poland, and Israel. She performs in a musical and poetic duet with the Ukrainian double-bass player Mark Tokar; their projects include Apricots of Donbas and Women, Smoke, and Dangerous Things. Her poetry has been performed by Mariana Sadovska (Cologne) and improvised by vocalist Olesya Zdorovetska (Dublin). Yakimchuk also works as a cultural manager. In 2012, she organized the “Semenko Year” project dedicated to the Ukrainian futurists, and she curated the 2015 literary program Cultural Forum “Donkult” (2015). She was a scholar in the “Gaude Polonia” program of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland). In 2015, Kyiv’s New Time magazine listed Yakimchuk among the one hundred most influential cultural figures in Ukraine.

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