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An international online magazine that publishes Surrealist poetry in English.


Issue Three

  

SERGEY BIRYUKOV




In Magritte's House

For Philip Meersman


The snail sank into Olympia's womb
eternity and impossibility
transpersonality
but
the curl of Georgette's pain
René Magritte writes in the kitchen
the coffee boils
the pipe whizzes
the faceless man
impersonates a wardrobe
The world of things
its effortless reincarnation
A few more seconds –
and the street
will dash
after it





Universum


and so
     away you go
on the steamer of time
            to comprehend Universum
lightly dressed
            in case
you suffer a shipwreck
              and swim across the ocean
of doubts
               on a helpful
cloud
               not understanding yet
that you already are
                inside
Universum
                 which engulfs you
on all sides

you thump
              against the corners of time
against its figured
             numbers
(sometimes prickly
sometimes imperceptibly smooth)
and you still think that Universum
                  is somewhere there
some distance away
                 and the compass needle

is pointing in its direction
                or an arrow on the map
of Treasure Island

                the language of an unknown tribe
          is revealed to you
     you begin to understand
the "fleeting" talk:
universum-universum-universum

                 on all sides




A Dream Continued


It's impossible to remember but still
—at least in scraps—
you can memorise the continuation
of a dream
some unknown place
looking like a classroom
bags and backpacks dumped
all over the floor
a few familiar faces
though inaccurately outlined
is he really or does he only resemble
is she or isn't she
as if you've returned from Goodness knows
where or she's come back from nothingness
a conversation
full of omissions and ambiguities
glowing cigarettes the clicks of lighters
the reverse sequence of events
you answer a predicted question
scratch your nose
having learned the news
actually words are missing too
only half-words are left
fragments of speech
devastation
a continuation of a dream
a semblance of infini...



Translated from the Russian by Anatoly Kudryavitsky




Sergey Biryukov is a Russian poet living in Halle, Germany. He has published many collections of his poems, the most recent two being The Run of Books and Calling (both 2015). He also authored the monographs entitled Zevgma: Russian Poetry, Mannerism to Postmodernism (1994) and The Amplitude of Avant-Garde (2014), as well as a few other books on Russian literary avant-garde. The founder and President of the Academy of Zaum, which includes Russian Futurist poets, he was the recipient of the Alexey Kruchenykh Poetry Award. English translations of his poems by Erina Megowan and Anatoly Kudryavitsky have been published in his chapbook entitled Transformations (SurVision Books, 2018.)







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