ХХХ

Fate has measured out our separation,
Like a tailor who has measured out a shroud to order,
The years, like swathes of sorrow and torment,
Will wrap the interrupted story of our life.
Now only strangers’ faces are around us
They will greedily rummage in
the space between us:
Look through our letters, look through our kisses
With their eyes, with their nicotine hands.
You and I will learn another language
Of rare meetings and silent nocturnal words,
Of anticipation, loneliness and burning
Secret tears and superstitious dreams.
Again you and I must get used to life
Without one another; and our son,
Love’s little offshoot of the sun,
Will grow up, slowly and quietly.
And a prayer’s tormented whisper
Will be where our souls will take refuge,
Will be a place where you can’t hear the convoys,
A place where the spark of hope flickers.

(written 04.01.2003, translated from russian by catherine fitzpatrick and james womack)

source: http://provetheyarealive.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Batyr-Berdyev_Parting_song.pdf

batyr berdyev (b. 1960) is an important turkmen poet and dissident > in 2002, berdyev was arrested and has disappeared since then > the poem above was written in prison > in 2018, a selection of his poems which were smuggled out of jail has been published in english