Let’s Go to Morocco, and Trains

Abstract

Let’s Go to Morocco, and Trains Anzhelina Polonskaya (bio) —translated from the Russian by Andrew Wachtel Let’s Go to Morocco Let’s go to Morocco.Maybe things are different there:mountains and seas, other streets.Lions don’t fall into traps,and hares don’t whine like babies.And people don’t have scars from collarbone to shoulder.An old lady will come up to us: “let me tell your fortune?”“Predict your future luck.”Sorry, I don’t know those terms.Better take this coin and buy yourselfa bright scarf and some loose pants.And we will go, sail away, leave.But still, Morocco will never end.Under a deep blue sky we’ll become like an almond branch.This will extend your life, and mine as well; at least for a time. 2013 [End Page 312] Trains It’s good there are trains.With conductors in fraying jacketsand worn heels.Green and raspberry streamers.You can go away somewhere on them,my friend, somewhere.To avoid thinking about an empty glass or a plowed field.On your bunk you can turn your back on everyone.The lady selling potatoes at the rainy station,the priest peddling eternal life.Or, if you have no ticket,you can breathe in the piney smell of the ties,without leaving the bedsof hortensia and white lilies.Lying in your bed, you can hear the train whistle,and the night owl moaningof the oil-filled tank cars.And you really could go somewhere. 2013 [End Page 313] Anzhelina Polonskaya Anzhelina Polonskaya was born in a small town near Moscow, where she is currently preparing a new volume of poetry for publication. She is a member of the Moscow Union of Writers and the Russian PEN center. Her book, A Voice, appeared in Northwestern University Press’s “Writings from an Unbound Europe,” and was shortlisted for the 2005 Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry in Translation. Polonskaya’s work has appeared in many journals, including American Poetry Review, International Poetry Review, Massachusetts Review, and Prairie Schooner. She is also the recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship. Andrew Wachtel Andrew Wachtel is the president of the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Previously he was dean of the Graduate School and director of the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University; he is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Wachtel’s interests range from Russian literature and culture to East European and Balkan culture, history, and politics to contemporary Central Asia. His most recent books are The Balkans in World History (Oxford University Press, 2008) and Russian Literature (with Ilya Vinitsky, Polity Press, 2008). He has translated poetry and prose from Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Bulgarian, and Slovenian, and is currently working on a cultural nationalism project in Central Asia, particularly Kyrgyzstan. Copyright © 2014 Middlebury College Publications