July 2022
Bio Note: I was born in the Soviet Union and came to the US as a refugee at the age of 16.I am a “techie” by education and current profession: I have a bachelor’s degree in Electrical engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University and a Ph. D. in Statistics from Cornell University. Most of my literary publications (poems, translations and essays) are in Russian, but lately I expanded my writing to English and bilingual. Currently, I am working on translating into English anti-war poetry that is being written at this time by poets living in Ukraine, Russia and Russian-speaking diaspora.
Unbinding
What I used to hold
as myself,
turned out to be a chrysalis.
Now it has split open.
An old woman is emerging,
unbinding herself
with unhurrying care.
She will unfurl her crumpled rags,
harden them into wings.
Voyagers
…The list / Of soaring ships I’ve read up to the middle.
Osip Mandelstam (translated by Alex Sitnitsky)
Wake up! Wake up!
There is a porthole, a port, a portal,
a momentary gap
right here,
where the past
meets with the future.
A dawn breeze is rising.
You can glimpse the swaying masts,
the broad sails being hoisted.
You can hear the seagulls laughing,
the lines groaning, singing,
taut with force,
ready to propel the ship.
Let us arise and cross the threshold.
Let us run
to where the land and the water
come together.
It is for us to name the vessel,
to unfurl the flag,
to set course
across an uncharted sea.
©2022 Yana Kane
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