This blog is mostly restricted to the poetry created and inspired during the "short XX Century" (1914-1989). So, post-Soviet poetry is deliberately avoided. I want to include, though, a few examples of Russian-language XX Century poetry, which followed the fall of the USSR.
Party Lines.
Alexander Levin.
Wrap for me, wrap for me, Naked Basil,
In the Party Card three meters long.
Basil will play con on the corner,
Clutching naked revolver--his dong.
But in years of big tribulations,
Party Cards will be falling like flies.
Comrade Lenin forgotten, his nation
"Naked Basil!" will totally cry.
СТИШИЕ ПАРТИЙНОЕ
Заверните мне голого васю
в трёхметровый партийный билет.
Вася сможет стоять на атасе,
согревая в руке пистолет.
Но в период больших потрясений
партбилет словно лист опадёт.
И забывший, как выглядит Ленин,
«голый вася!» воскликнет народ.
1988, 1996.
In 1996, fall of Communism was not yet perceived as final, as it is now.,.
*"Naked Basil"--is a slang expression with the meaning of F-Oops!
