Irina Ratushinskaya

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Thu 8 May 2003 12:39 pm

Some of you might know about the Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya. She was put into soviet camps in the 1980's for her poetry, which was critical of the soviet regime. She wrote poems on bars of soap while in prison, committed the poems to memory, then wiped the bar clean. She's also an Orthodox Christian. Currently she's living in England. I'm taking a "reading, writing and translating poetry" class so I have the opportunity to work on translating some of her poems. There are English translations already available and she is DEFINATELY worth checking out. Here's a short one I recently did. Any criticisms of the translation(don't be too rough!) are welcomed.

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Sun 11 May 2003 2:59 pm

Orthodox America

The Cry of the New Martyrs

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Wed 21 May 2003 7:13 pm

Give me a nickname, prison,
this first April
evening of sadness
shared with you.
This hour for your songs
of evil and goodness,
confessions of love,
salty jokes.
They've taken my friends,
ripped the cross from its chain,
torn clothes,
and then with boots
struck at my breastbone
torturing the remains
of hope.
My name is filed
in profile, full-face -
a numbered dossier.
In custody -
nothing is mine!
Just as you have
no one, nothing!
On the window's grating
here's all of me - christen me,
give me a name, prison,
send off to the transport
not a boy, but a zek,
so I'll be welcomed
with endearments by Kolyma,
place of outcasts, executions
in this twentieth century.

5 October 1983

尼古拉前执事 · Post by **尼古拉前执事** » Wed 21 May 2003 7:27 pm

Beautiful poetry! Please keep sharing!

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Wed 21 May 2003 8:44 pm

Very glad you like it!

(This is not my translation)

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Wed 21 May 2003 8:49 pm

From Grey is the Color of Hope

How many of them are there, International Red Cross? No answer. They don't know, and how could they? How many of them are there, Amnesty International? Silence. They do not know, either. How many of them are there, official Soviet Patriarch of All Russia, Pimen? He, too, is silent. Maybe he really does know: the 'True Orthodox' are outside his jurisdiction, so why worry about them? How many of them are there, the KGB of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics? Silence. They do know, but won't tell.

"About eight 'True Orthodox' passed through our Zone, the last being Granny Manya and Granny Shura. From our Zone, they went on to serve out their terms of internal exile. Granny Manya, according to the stories I heard, was meek and gentle. She found joy in the smallest things, such as the sight of a tiny beetle on a leaf: Look, she would say, how wondrous are the works of the Lord! How beautiful are all God's creatures!

"Granny Shura was made of sterner stuff, and given to uttering 'denunciations' from time to time. She would march out and upbraid the inhabitants of the Zone for succumbing regularly to temptation: watching television, smoking, forgetting to pray - iniquity! Her denunciations, however, were never motivated by spite, but by her sense of duty, and occurred not more than once every two to three months. She herself explained it thus:

"'The Lord will ask me:

"'"Did you sin?"

"'And I will reply, saying: "Not a great deal, Lord."

"'"What about the people around you? Did they sin?"

"'So I will have to say: "Yes, they did."

"'"And what did you do about it?..Why did you not point out the error of their ways?"

"'So that's what I'm doing, it's my duty. Forgive me, for His sake!'"

(Sources: Orthodox Life, vol. 29, no. 5, September-October, 1979, p. 47; Les Cahiers du Samizdat, no. 49, January, 1978; Russkaya Mysl', August 25, 1977, p. 5; Catacombes, September, 1977, p. 7; Le Figaro, August 27-28, 1977; Irina Ratushinskaya, Grey is the Colour of Hope, London: Sceptre, 1989, pp. 65-67; Keston College Archives, KC 2454, September 2, 1981)

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Tue 1 July 2003 10:23 am

Bump!

The poetess Irina Ratushinskaya, who was in camp with these women, writes: "These gentle, steadfast and humble women obviously made a powerful impression on everyone who encountered them. And understandably so. An ordinary female prisoner will shower you with a string of curses for the most trivial reason, but these women would react quite differently: 'May the Lord forgive you, my son.'

"Even upon release, they would refuse to accept the document attesting to the completion of their sentence. Off they would go, without a single scrap of paper, heading for a new and certain arrest and sentence. From their point of view, this was perfectly normal: were they not suffering for God? In their eyes, it is we who act unnaturally: we submit to Satan and his minions - the Soviet government - in order to escape persecution. And Satan, they know, will never give up of his own accord - he shall merely exploit any sign of weakness to his greater gain, penetrate ever deeper into your soul. That was and is the reasoning of the 'True Orthodox'. Some of them are still alive, living in internal exile. Yet the exile sentences of some of our babushki had expired, and they did not return to the Zone: so Satan was defeated, after all, forced into retreat. Others of them are still to be found in some of the camps with calm, serene faces, ever ready to lay down their lives for the Lord: to what great honour can one aspire?