In an Unknown Country
Rent from DeepDyve- In an Unknown Country
In an unknown country I’m now Frau R. With eyes blue as the sky.
Anglo-Saxons drop me postcards with mountain views.
I’d like to lie down on a hospital bed, lay there immobile for many years.
Until the bowstring stops vibrating in my throat. And my whites smell of soap.
And at a set time a humble nun would come and rub my icy shoulder blades.
She’d have a black braid in her hair, and her wrinkles would smooth out when she bends over me.
She’d answer silence with silence not asking for love or God. [End Page 52]
Anzhelina Polonskaya was born in Malakhovka, a small town near Moscow. She has long been a member of the Moscow Union of Writers and a member of the Russian pen-centre. Currently she lives in Germany. An English version of her book, entitled A Voice, appeared in the acclaimed “Writings from an Unbound Europe” series at Northwestern University Press and was shortlisted for the Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry in Translation. A bilingual edition of her poetry, Paul Klee’s Boat, was published by Zephyr Press and short-listed for the 2014 pen Award for Poetry in Translation. Polonskaya has been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship and many residencies all over the world. Most recently her first volume of prose, Greenland, appeared in a German edition.
Andrew Wachtel is president of the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Previously he was dean of the Graduate School at Northwestern University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an active translator from multiple Slavic languages.
