RE-READING GENNADY AYGI ~

And a cloud is floating, a round cloud,

like a cap on my head,

and my time passes, like a dream

dreamed without sleep.

________________

I was back reading Gennady Aygi

in late July — muggy wet weather

blasted by a now and then breezy lovely 

sunny day to ride the bicycle (we rode

the bicycles on the muggy wet days too),

each book beautifully presented by Peter France

Salute — to Singing; Time of Gratitude;

Winter Revels and Ever Further into the Snow

and so many of his other books on my shelves

________________________

P E T E R     F R A N C E  ~  I N T E R V I E W

About One More Wood

From this little wood,

at last,

for ever or for years

the mushrooms have gone.

This happened slowly,

over thirty years.

And now, as I think back,

this disappearance, their "going"

seems one single action,

like the dying away

of a long-lived orchestra

of a long-lived choir.

take care little mushrooms

WINTER REVELS ~

About One More Wood

From this little wood,

at last,

for ever or for years

the mushrooms have gone.

This happened slowly,

over thirty years.

And now, as I think back,

this disappearance, their "going"

seems one single action,

like the dying away

of a long-lived orchestra

of a long-lived choir.

————————

Gennady Aygi

translated by Peter France

TIME OF GRATITUDE ~

Heard enough about Russia, this year, have you?

Take a different route and read from the growing opus (thanks to translator Peter France) of the Russian poet and essayist and all-around man of the folk and outdoors Gennady Aygi.

 Born in the small Soviet republic of Chuvashia, Aygi takes us by the arm through fields of poetry and over mud roads and with this modest book of essays to poets that have meant the world to him: Khlebnikov, Kruchoeykh, Mayakovsky, Pasternak, and then to neighboring wonders: Kafka, Transformer, Celan and Rene Char.

New Directions publishers have been keeping the Aygi book cupboard full.

New Directions, 2017