Selected poems from Written Between 1975 and 1989

by Dmitri Prigov
     translated by Sibelan Forrester 

I got a kilo of fish salad
As I went through the kitchen
There’s nothing to offend in that—
I procured, so I procured it
Ate a little bit myself
My son from the same womb
I fed with a bit of this
And we sat there by the window
Beside the transparent glass
As if we were two male kittens
To let the life below flow past.

Here, I’ll fry up a chicken
It’s a sin to complain
But really I’m really not complaining
What am I—better than everyone?
I even feel guilty, no strength
There, off you go—here
The country ruined a whole
Chicken for me

The whisk is broken, doesn’t work
I have nothing to sweep the floor
Yet think, dammit, how I used to
Sweep the floor, in old times
There, I used to, I would sweep
Everything light around, now I—
Everything’s broken, doesn’t work
Don’t feel like living

I struggle with the household entropy
As a source of energie divine
Blind unnoticeable powers
I conquer in unelevated struggle

I’ll wash the dishes thrice a day
I’ll wash and wipe the floor ubiquitously
I’ll erect a sense and structure of the world
On a place, see, that would seem empty

To burn it all away to the last bird
And to run away into your lair—
That there’s the partisan principle
And higher—the partisan logos
Not to say that everyone here is occupied
With the likes, but we are partisans
In part
All
In part Except for those rare ones, who are entirely