Human injustice
Two hands
to feed
many mounths
and the many hands
tot gag
a single mounth
And a singe rib
to make
a woman
and twenty-four ribs
to cage
a heart
Thirty-two teeth
waiting to bite off
a tongue
struggling to find
a universal tongue
for a humankind
armed
to the teeth
***

Relativity

Whatever I live through
I will still be left
with what
I will not live through
Whatever I lose
I will always be left
with what
will never be found
In endless questing
in endless disquiet
what spaces still
will I not overcome
in the time
I do not have.

© Vyacheslav Kuprianov
Translation: Francis R. Jones
From: “In anyones’s tongue”

Vyacheslav Kuprianov, was born 1939 in Novosibirsk but lives now in Moscow. He is a master of the Russian language, fond of etymological games, which not all can be successfully transferred in translations. His poetry has been translated and published in German and in English. In addition of being one of the finest voices in contemporary Russian poetry, Kuprianov is also a translator ofGerman poetry.