Mind The Gap Poem by Galina Italyanskaya
Mind The Gap
Day by day I see you there,
Where you let me, when you let,
Buy your songs, plug up my ears
With your voice I can't forget,
Learn your language, read your letters,
Hear you saying "it's alright".
Where you are, it doesn't matter:
Every day and every night
I can touch you, I can feel you,
I can tell you all I want.
No more tears, no more fear…
You are happy, are you not?
Do you guess that I am crazy?
Do you think that I am weak?
- Have some faith!
Don't be so lazy!
Stop to play your childish tricks!
Wait a little, you are clever!
This is it!
Just one last step!
Only stars laugh there in heaven:
- Babe, babe, mind the gap!
______________________
(St. Petersburg,2009)
For the topic of this poem you wrote STARS. I'm assuming these are the celestial bodies above us but only visible at night. This is a very intimate poem about them. They seem almost humanized by your treatment of them. It's a conversation. But how does a tiny human being limited to a planetary surface converse with those immense fusions engines in deep space? I hope there is an answer to my question because a relationship with the stars is so wonderful!
Thank you, Daniel!) Such an inspiring comment (as always) ! And here is my answer: The conversation is not with the stars. The stars appear in the end as the spectators and critics of my* behaviour) * Here me is the narrator. It's pretty allegoric. And I thought of double-meaning: the stars as the celestial bodies and the image of fate and the stars on the earth, those people which we call stars (they could laugh at me as well, and maybe they did) . Though in a sense my opponent is a star too. When someone becomes popular he often catches star fever))) I wished to provide a thought that it's so sad: before your lover gets success and becomes famous, he values your personality, but fame changes the relation and you feel that you're not worth being respected anymore, because you stay in this world and he stepped into another. Successful people are in the centre of attention, and those who stay in their shadow are nothing. It's that gap which I meant. Stars are laughing) Of course it's just a phrase I heard in the Tube in London.
The Russian influence on your English writing is very noticeable, but this is very well done and understandable. I like it.
Thank you for reading, Kim! Yes, you're right about the influence of Russian language and mentality on my poetry. I have to say, this poem is one of my earliest written in English. Actually it's the first! Before it I wrote only a translation of one song from Russian into English in 2008.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/12/2024 11:28:34 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Verily, a fine symbolic ending...10