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(A terrible kaleidoscope) by Lina Kostenko, translated by Uilleam Blacker

(A terrible kaleidoscope)

by Lina Kostenko, translated by Uilleam Blacker

(published in published in Words Without Borders, April 2016)


A terrible kaleidoscope:

In this moment somewhere someone dies.

In this moment. This very moment.

Each and every minute

A ship is wrecked.

The Galapagos burn.

And above the Dnipro

Sets the bitter wormwood star.

Explosion. Volcano.

Ruin. Destruction.

One aims. Another falls.

“Don’t shoot!” a third implores.

Scheherazade’s tales run dry.

Lorelei sings by the Rhine no more.

A child plays. A comet flies.

Faces bloom, not erased by dread.

Blessed is each moment we’re alive

On these worldwide fields of death. 


I had to look up Dnipro--it is a city in Ukraine.


This poem was written in response to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. However, it can be read about so many grim disasters, from gun violence to the death of a loved one, from natural disasters to the ones we humans create.


Many things stand out to me in this poem. The first is the simple diction, the short sentences, and the back and forth nature of the items the poet lists. A shipwreck. A volcano. A bitter star. These 3 give us water, earth, and sky. No place is safe.


Then, after the tiny narrative about a shooting, the poet brings up two fictional women: Scheherazade, who cleverly keeps herself alive by telling stories in One Thousand and One Nights, and Lorelei, a German siren who lures sailors to their deaths with her songs. In the poem, the destruction previously mentioned is so great that their stories and songs end.


Then, however, there is such a brilliant turn! A child. A comet. faces that are . . . maybe not happy, but are not filled with dread. And the poet reminds us that although death is in the future for all of us, on land, on sea, and in the air, we are all alive now, and we are blessed to be so.


It's a fantastic poem that starts with so much anguish, and ends with a reminder of our mortality, yes, but also a reminder to live to the fullest while we are here.

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