from I Live I See

Vsevolod Nekrasov



Ostensibly

There's a lake nearby
Biserovo

Be silver,
Silver

Hour by hour

No hours
At all

Zero hours

Night of timber

*



I.

yes


where
I know where

but how
how do I know where


no


how
I am the one who knows how

but where
where do I know how from


II.

there
there


there where
from there
from where


where I'm from


where would I know
from

*



Let's say
Let's say like

Let's say
Sic
Sic
Sic
Sic
Sic-xual
Say

Let's say it
Spi-
ritual
Al
Al
Al
Al

Alright
When we say it

Oh when we say it
We'll say it

*



one thing
     then another

     over
and over
this is
our
everything all
our own
Russian
slipshod
but unshakable

well
well how much can we take

what's here
is what's here

stop

don't say it

don't say
it's a shithole


a shithole

but on the flip side
a nose

*



a subtle matter
a house is burning

it looks like
there might be a house burning over there

like over there
there's a house burning

and so
and what
does this tell us

what it tells us

a good house
burns well

*



I see as the sun purpureal
sets off to the sea turturbulent
natural
and cultured
literatured
the sea
the sea
a searemonial


translated from the Russian by Bela Shayevich and Ainsley Morse