by Elina Sventsytska / Еліна Свенцицька
читаю новини – і раптом
щось недобре зі мною:
виростають у мене кігті,
виростають у мене ікла,
виростає на спині панцир,
а навколо – чорна земля.
і не кров – ридаюче полум’я,
і не тіло – а дике м’ясо,
і не серце – спалене дерево,
і не мозок – лігвище змій.
і як мені тепер жити?
як себе не жахнутися?
не дай Боже, побачать діти –
як їм зі мною тоді?
як мені тепер жити?
…та хіба я раніше це знала?
I’m reading the news – and suddenly,
something’s wrong with me:
claws are growing out of me,
fangs are growing out of me,
a shell is growing on my back,
and all around me – black earth.
and what was blood is howling flame,
and what was body is feral meat,
and what was heart is a scorched tree,
and what was brain is a den of snakes.
and how am I to live now?
how can I not be horrified at myself?
God forbid, the children see –
how will they be with me then?
how am I to live now?
…but have I ever known how?
Translated from Ukrainian by Milla McCaghren, Christopher Damon, Yevheniia Dubrova, Savannah Eller, Emily Hester, Marta Hulievska, Kirill Lanski, Jasmine Li, Andres Meraz
Dartmouth College (Russian 71, Sp’22)
Elina Sventsytska is a poet, author, and literary scholar who writes poetry in Ukrainian and prose in Russian. She is the author of eight books that have been published in Donetsk, Kyiv and Lviv. Her poetry has appeared in Ukrainian and international literary magazines such as “New World” in Canada, “Dvoetochie” in Israel, and “Gostinnaya” and “Continent” here in America. Elina has won numerous national and international literary prizes, including Ukraine’s “Planet of the Poet” prize, the Voloshin award, the American Ukrainian Library prize, and finished third in the international short prose competition “Without Borders” held in Barcelona, Spain.
This poem by Elina Sventsytska was translated from Ukrainian by Christopher Damon, Zhenia Dubrova, Savannah Eller, Emily Hester, Marta Hulievska, Kirill Lanski, Jasmine Li, Milla McCaghren, and Andres Meraz, all of whom are students at or recent graduates of Dartmouth College. The translation was completed as part of a seminar for advanced speakers of Russian taught by Victoria Somoff in the spring of 2022. The course was a workshop dedicated to the translation of personal testimonies from the current Russian-Ukrainian war as well as contemporary Ukrainian poetry. The students first conducted individual translations, which underwent multiple rounds of critical revision before reaching the most refined versions of their collaborative translations. The students then met, via Zoom, with the poems’ authors to discuss their translations. Elina Sventsytska – poet, prose writer, and literary scholar – joined the class from Italy where she now lives having fled Kyiv at the onset of the war.