Tested by Tragedy
trans. John Hennessy and Ostap Kin
street street street
swish shoosh
swoosh of
shoe-bottoms
from Halytska square
westward
to the Sun
like anthracite
to Babyn
Yar
street
swish shoosh
swoosh swoosh swoosh
Kyiv was shh
shh
silent
But did it listen
listen
listen?
[2001]
swish shoosh
swoosh of
shoe-bottoms
from Halytska square
westward
to the Sun
like anthracite
to Babyn
Yar
street
swish shoosh
swoosh swoosh swoosh
Kyiv was shh
shh
silent
But did it listen
listen
listen?
[2001]
John Hennessy
is the author of two poetry collections, Bridge and Tunnel and Coney
Island Pilgrims. He is the co-translator, with Ostap Kin, of A New
Orthography, selected poems by Serhiy Zhadan, finalist for the PEN Award
for Poetry in Translation, 2021, and co-winner of the Derek Walcott Prize,
2021. The poems published here are included in the forthcoming anthology Babyn
Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute), edited
and co-translated by Ostap Kin.
Ostap Kin is an editor (and translator with John Hennessy) of Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond (forthcoming from Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute) and New York Elegies: Ukrainian Poets Respond, and is the co-translator, with John Hennessy, of A New Orthography, selected poems by Serhiy Zhadan, co-winner of the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. With Vitaly Chernetsky, he translated Yuri Andrukhovych's Songs for a Dead Rooster.
Read Ostap Kin’s introduction to these translations.
Ostap Kin is an editor (and translator with John Hennessy) of Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond (forthcoming from Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute) and New York Elegies: Ukrainian Poets Respond, and is the co-translator, with John Hennessy, of A New Orthography, selected poems by Serhiy Zhadan, co-winner of the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. With Vitaly Chernetsky, he translated Yuri Andrukhovych's Songs for a Dead Rooster.
Read Ostap Kin’s introduction to these translations.
Випробування трагедією
Borys Dabo-Nikolayev
шлях шлях шлях
шелех шелест
шерех
підошв
з Галицької площі
на Захід
до Сонця
антрацит наче
у Яр
Бабин
шлях
шелех шелест
шерех шерех шерех
Київ мов-чав
-чав
-чав
А чи чув
чув
чув?
[2001]
шелех шелест
шерех
підошв
з Галицької площі
на Захід
до Сонця
антрацит наче
у Яр
Бабин
шлях
шелех шелест
шерех шерех шерех
Київ мов-чав
-чав
-чав
А чи чув
чув
чув?
[2001]
Borys
Dabo-Nikolayev is a poet, essayist and literary critic. He graduated from Taras
Shevchenko University of Kyiv. During the Soviet era, he was repressed for his
connections with the so-called “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists” and was
banned from defending his dissertation and teaching at universities. He is
currently teaching Ukrainian Literature at Kyiv National Linguistic University.
Forthcoming in Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond, ed. Ostap Kin, trans. John Hennessy, Ostap Kin (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2021). Reprinted with permission. © 2021 by the President and Fellows of the Harvard College.
Forthcoming in Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond, ed. Ostap Kin, trans. John Hennessy, Ostap Kin (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2021). Reprinted with permission. © 2021 by the President and Fellows of the Harvard College.
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