This Translation Tuesday, we are honored to present a poem by the Kazakh poet Ksenia Rogozhnikova, deftly translated by the Ukrainian poet Nina Murray. With wry humor and plainspoken kindness, the poem’s unnamed speaker bears witness to the antics of a “little match girl” far more defiant and vivacious than her namesake, and to the theft of a roll of toilet paper by an old woman in a shopping center. Together, these images form a subtly generous portrait of urban life, a flicker of warmth against winter’s chill.
Home Country
the little match girl
sets things on fire
with the tiny bombs
she throws
under people’s feet
I dive into a mall
to get warm
let an elderly woman
ahead
into the bathroom
I hear her
pull at the toilet paper
inside the stall
the roll wobbles
knocks on the wall
she pulls and pulls
gets it all
what an incomprehensible
mercy it is
these big-city glass
malls
with their free bathrooms
the little match girl
has long gone somewhere warm
the thieving babushka
carries her loot
down the freezing streets
home
a small white tail
flutters in shame
behind her tote
Translated from the Kazakhstani Russian by Nina Murray
Ksenia Zemskova Rogozhnikova is a poet and children’s writer. A graduate of the Gorky Literary Institute, she has been published in Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian literary magazines and is the author of two collections of poetry and a book for teenage girls. She is a participant of the young writers forums in Russia and leads a seminar of prose and children’s literature at the Open Literary School of Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Nina Murray was born and raised in the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv. She holds advanced degrees in linguistics and creative writing. She is the author of the poetry collection, Alcestis in the Underworld (Circling Rivers Press, 2019), as well as chapbooks Minimize Considered (Finishing Line Press, 2018), Minor Heresies (Heartland Review Press, 2020), and Damascus Electric (Pen & Anvil Press, 2020). Her translations from Russian and Ukrainian include Peter Aleshkovsky’s Stargorod, Oksana Zabuzhko’s Museum of Abandoned Secrets, and Oksana Lutsyshyna’s Ivan and Phoebe (Deep Vellum).
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