Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov

From Language Hat comes this sad news:

I discovered (via Anatoly) that the artist and poet Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov, born in 1940, (Russian Wikipedia) died early today following a massive heart attack. It's hard to describe his wonderful little poems; I'm afraid a couple of slapdash translations won't honor his memory very effectively, but I'll do the best I can:

Женщина в метро меня лягнула
Ну, пихаться - там куда ни шло
Здесь же она явно перегнула
Палку, и все дело перешло
В ранг ненужно личных отношений
Я, естественно, в ответ лягнул
Но и тут же попросил прощенья -
Просто я как личность выше был

So a woman kicked me in the subway
Well, a little jostling's not so bad
This woman, though, did it six ways from Sunday
She went too far, and so the whole thing had
To sink to the level of the unnecessarily
Personal - of course I kicked her back
But right away I told her I was sorry -
You see, I as a person am above all that

В пустыне

Большие пустые чужие каменья безводной пустыни
Пустые чужие каменья безводной пустыни
Чужие каменья безводной пустыни
Каменья безводной пустыни
Безводной пустыни
Пустыни

In the desert

Immense and deserted and alien stones of the waterless desert
Deserted and alien stones of the waterless desert
Alien stones of the waterless desert
Stones of the waterless desert
The waterless desert
The desert

Head on over to Hat's for more Prigov...