RED SHIFTING (III) - [Svidrigaylov is leaving for America] Poem by ALEXANDER SKIDAN

Svidrigaylov is leaving for America.

About this "departure" of his I gave a talk at the University of Iowa in 1994.

After the talk a Chilean writer
sporting a newly fashionable goatee
asked me to write down Svidrigaylov's name in the Roman alphabet.

He had read "Crime and Punishment" but didn't remember there was such a character.

Hey, you, Svidrigaylov.

What do you think of pleasure?

It is - what each person imagines for himself.

And pain?

Pain - Pain is something other than pleasure but not so much other as to be its contrary.
In certain cases pleasure arises in the conditions of a certain rhythmic alternation of painful sensations.

Will you fly in the hot air balloon with Berg?

Possibly.

You aren't afraid of death?

When I photograph myself alone at train stations or airports I throw away or tear up the photograph into little pieces, which I allow myself to throw out the window if it's a train or leave in an ashtray or inside a magazine if it's a plane.

Pause.

The fear of death lacks its own particular content, it is analogous to the fear of castration.