i see red




a few nights a go i stop at the newsbeat on the way home from work to see what journals and mags there are to be seen. i pick up the newest circumference and thumbing thru the pages i read a poem by the late russian poet boris ryzhii. i've barely read any ryzhii but i remember this entry on the poet which must've been some years ago and remembered the name. plus the one fragment posted at poetry international isn't much but something about it struck me. of course i searched the web for ryzhii's work but at that time there wasn't much of it translated into english.

there still isn't much of it translated into english. but what i have read either falls flat or rises a bit into an interesting text. i suppose it's the art of translation because a writer i adore, osip mandelstam, also has been abused by bad translations. but when mandalstam is served well the results can be deeply satisfying.

well, this wasn't the first time i bought a journal just on the strength of a single poem. i recall another time buying another journal because the poem i read, by nick moudry, just fucking blew me away and i had to have it. anyway, the translator of ryzhii's poems james stotts posted a brief bio and some more translations on his blog here. stotts is completely new to me both as a poet-blogger and translator. reading his entries i discover that his love of russian poetry runs deep. his own poems sway to a minimalist music and a young poet who also has a jones for the late joseph brodsky - as i have, every gnarled, crabbed bit of brodsky - writing elegies to the russian poet [see stotts' entry here] and you got my attention.

but back to ryzhii. he committed suicide at the age of 26 in 2001 and spent his entire young life in the urals. check out his wiki article. other than that i know very little of the young russian poet. i do hope stotts translates more ryzhii and that someone will publish a collection of his work. oh, according to poetry international ryzhii's last name means 'red'.