Temporal Poem

Aman Rakhmetov

translated from russian by Anton Relin


I bought a Claude Monet calendar
in January there were water lilies
in February, the bridge at Bougival
exceptionally good
exceptional
two thousand twenty three
monet’s paintings
january
february

let’s agree
now even you want to know
what march has in store?

купил календарь с картинами Клода Моне
в январе были водяные лилии
в феврале мост в Буживале
хорошо очень
хорошо
две тысячи двадцать третий
картины Моне
январь
февраль

согласитесь
теперь и вам хочется узнать
что будет в марте

 

Aman Rakhmetov is a Kazakh poet. He has previously been published in “New Coast”, “Friendship of Peoples”, “Neva”, “Rise”, “Prostor”, and others. He is the author of the book “Almost”. He currently resides in Shymkent.

Anton Relin is Russian-Jewish-American language engineer, translator, and editor of Pocket Samovar. He has previously translated Church Slavonic manuscripts and for Homintern. He holds BAs in Slavic and Eastern European Studies and Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania.