The Final Blow

Vladislav ellis

translated from russian by boris Dralyuk

War. Shelling. And I was a widow.
Sadness kept changing its shape.
His last words were a prayer for our daughter.
He was captured. No hope of escape. 

I wouldn’t let fate push and shove me —
I swore, an obedient wife,
to carry the girl high above me
on the way to a bright happy life.

Many lands. Much wearying motion.
I put my own hopes to the side
and even sailed over an ocean
to do what was best for the child. 

But now my last home’s standing hollow.
I’m here all alone, high and dry.
She left with some no-account fellow,
saying, in English, “Goodbye.”

Война, бомбёжки, я вдова.
Опять печалям перемена.
Его последние слова —
Мольба о дочери, из плена. 

Не примирилась я с судьбой,
И поклялась на этой тризне,
Нести, поднявши над собой,
Её к хорошей светлой жизни. 

В суровой, частой смене стран,
Мои желания в сторонку.
Я переплыла океан,
Чтоб дать найлучшее ребёнку. 

Но опустел последний дом.
Ну, кто ж теперь мне самый близкий?
Ушла, с каким-то босяком,
Прощай, сказала по-английски.

Ellis was born in 1913 near Kherson and died in 1975 in Glendale, California. He was an engineer and a poet. Ellis's father and brother were shot during Stalin's reign of terror in the 1930s. In 1956, Ellis emigrated to the United States with his wife. He is the author of the poetry collection Favorites and translations of his poems have recently been published in Boris Drayluk’s My Hollywood and Other Poems.

Boris Dralyuk is an award-winning literary translator. He holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UCLA, where he taught Russian literature for a number of years. He is a co-editor of the Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, and has translated Isaac Babel’s Red Cavalry and Odessa Stories, both of which are published by Pushkin Press. In 2022 he received the inaugural Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize from the National Book Critics Circle for his translation of Andrey Kurkov’s Grey Bees. for On Twitter @Boris Dralyuk.