Once we possessed a red balloon
We filled it up with smoke
Forgetting, what we'd learn too soon:
A red balloon's no joke!
...
Poems fly up in the sky like airplanes
They easily go up into the clouds
They are not touched by lightening
They are not frightened by thunder
...
O little island, do please stay,
You have one life, no more, no more,
By breaking in the waves, the waves,
You still will reach the ocean floor.
...
One thing that we learned in our time full of shame.
We all know to cringe when we hear evil's name:
Oh please do not blame us
For justly infamous: Tsar Hippo-po-tamus!
...
Disappearance. In due course it becomes obvious
How sorry you are even for a cloud floating away. Flowers' disappearance
Embarrasses a sensitive soul, though
The garden itself remains as cool as a cucumber. Disappearance of snow
...
During my long life
the night's darkness
remains unchanget
but it does seem as if
...
Every night
the dead one
lifts the lid of the coffin
and checks with the touch of his fingers:
...
Einst wird unsre Zeit uns danken.
Daß wir dem gemeinen blanken
Bösen auf die Schliche kamen:
Hippopotamos mit Namen.
...
ചിറകുകൾ
കണ്ടുപിടിക്കും
മുമ്പ്
മനുഷ്യൻ കൂട്
...
If rabbits were armed
to kill wolves
would the rabbits
having killed the wolves
...
Dire our age, each day - a mess;
Don't despair, though, I implore.
...
Vyacheslav Kupriyanov is one of the most skilful and stimulating of contemporary Russian poets. Kupriyanov's verses are fairy tales for adults - tiny myths that represent a starting amalgamation of knowledge and fancy, irony and melancholy, as well as elegance and simlicity of spirit. Viacheslav Kupriyanov graduated in 1967 from the Moscow Foreign Languages Institute. A member of the Russian & Serbian Writers Unions. He has published several collections of his own poetry and prose. European Literature Prize,1988, Yugoslavia. Bunin-Prize,2010, Russia; " Poet of the Year 2012" , Russia. Prize " European Atlas of Poetry" 2017, Respublika Serbska.; Naji Naaman prizes,2018 (Japan) .) . " Golden Key of Smederevo" , Serbia,2021. Last Russian book - " ? Controversies" , Moscow, BSG-press,2019. Books In English: " In Anyone's Tongue" , Forest books, London,1992; " Duet of Iron" . Junpa Books, Kyoto, English - Japanese,2018. Spanish: 'Las Piramidas de Egipto', Fundacion El Libro Total. E-Book https: //www.ellibrototal.com/ltotal/ficha.jsp? idLibro=17403 In Germany: «Das Wirbeln der grossen Welt», Ein Lesebuch von Wjatscheslaw Kuprijanow, BEKKERpublishing,2021, ISBN: 9783753162584 'Fuer den unbekannten Feigling', Gedichte und Prosa-Gedichte, Russisch/Deutsch, Pop-Verlag Ludwigsburg) ,2021. Last Books - Vjatjeslav Kuprijanov, HUR MAN BLIR EN GIRAFF (How to become to giraffe) poetry, FAETHON, Stockholm, Swiss,2022. " Vairudhyalu' [in Telugu]. pothi.com, https: //store.pothi.com/book/r-d-akella-vairudhyalu/,2022; India 'Pratidhvani', Akella's Telugu translation of Kupriyanov's Russian poems; Print Book Genre: Poetry Language: Telugu,2023'. Kupriyanov's poetry as a fascinating syntesys of lyricism and philosophy. He suggested not only free verse but, in actuality, a new way of thinking.)
Tale Of A Red Balloon
Once we possessed a red balloon
We filled it up with smoke
Forgetting, what we'd learn too soon:
A red balloon's no joke!
It slipped our grasp and struggled free
Then headed for the sky
But got snagged in a maple tree
The tallest one nearby
We shook the tree to knock it down
And soon our hands were raw
Until some genius went to town
And brought us back a saw.
We sawed that tree for half the day
Expecting it to fall
But red balloons do not obey:
It shot up tree and all
Up through the clouds we watched it go
Defying Newton's law
While we, abandoned, stood below
Still clutching that fool saw.
Translated from the Russian by Lydia Razran Stone