>
> Ella Odeyash
>
> By the Sea
>
> Like liquid glass, waters of sea,
> Made of the tinted-bottle color,
> Was pouring softly, heavily -
> The appelation of this: summer.
>
> And ships, appearing like white dots,
> Forming the distance with their presence.
> They went somewhere to end of earth -
> The appelation of this: heaven.
>
> *****
>
> Like in childhood, I am walking barefot
> With my feet feeling the trail.
> For long time I did not walk like this.
> For long time I was not this way.
>
> Balmy breeze in my face is blowing.
> I forgot how old I've become
> And perhaps it's the joy of living
> Wafting at me from the ground.
>
> It's the day, it's the path, it's the summer...
> Every blade of grass, dear to me...
> And my bare-footed childhood
> Smiling, is looking at me.
>
> *****
>
> From the bluish distance blown,
> Wind, arrives on a spring day.
> Arms and elbows smell of orange,
> Air is full of jasmin smell.
>
> Not agreeing with my years
> My soul sings and sings and sings:
> And the leaves' rustle makes clear
> Something tender's whisperings.
>
> *****
>
> I live in condition
> Of mood schizophrenia:
> As if there's no distance
> Between Russia and Israel.
>
> I live in two mentalities
> In two different spaces and times.
> In two "hard" realities,
> In noise of different tribes.
>
> In news political
> (From darkness where I can't see)
> About both Russia and Israel
> I say the word "We."
>
> And I watch TV programs
> Like fog that is full of blood:
> All is woeful and horrible
> Both here and there it's bad
>
> Like in a monster fairy tale,
> Like in a tale of horror -
> The Arabian terrorism
> And the Chechnya war
>
> And I live in condition
> Of split apart soul -
> As if there is no distance
> Between the two countries I know.
>
> *****
>
> Again - a lightning bug, or maybe a cicada
> Again - the moon and palms above my head...
> And in my dream, blockade of Leningrad, and
> The icy chill is blowing from the street.
>
> Though life has not been smooth in any manner,
> And flow of time has changed so much, I know,
> WIthin my soul - I'm still a Leningrader,
> And lightning bug looks like the Metronome.
>
>
> ========================================
>
> Alexandra Geller
> Untitled
>
> As far as all us know, love and sin
> Walked side by side in world from the beginning:
> Serpent's temptation in the garden of Eden
> Turned Eve and Adam into human beings.
>
> Thank you, the cunning serpent, for your gifts:
> Apple and passion, untold good and evil,
> And has remained for many centuries
> The might of sinful pain and gorgeous feelings
>
> And we possess no shame, when love arrives,
> Of pangs of love or of our own conception,
> And may be justified it, for all times -
> The earthly passion of enamoration.
>
> ===============================
>
> Greg Kleper
> My Wife is a Martial Artist
>
> My wife is not an actor,
> Not a pharmacist, not a doctor,
> Not a linguist and not a harpist:
> My wife is a martial artist
>
> She gives me no vodka or Riesling:
> For dinner - three grains of rice meal
> Three raisins and then three olives
> And on the holiday - orange.
>
> My wife and I live in harmony
> And go everywhere - she is right by me
> If you do not like me - too bad
> Come and greet my wife instead.
>
> On weekends other have parties,
> But me and my wife have a practice,
> And I am woking a bag:
> The one to punch, not to drag.
>
> The kids have no worries at all:
> With Mom they are climbing the wall
> They practice with swords and with knives,
> I have almost sleepless nights.
>
> Me and my wife never quarrel
> Right at hand she has a barbell
> If you do not like me - too bad,
> Come and greet my wife instead.
>
> And in the bed she has tortured me:
> She's short, but keeps jumping all over me,
> Putting me in such positions
> That I need to see a physician
>
> And now she again succeeds:
> She got me to do the splits.
> I felt like I was torn in half,
> But it's fine, I'm still alive.
>
> My wife behaves quite meekly -
> She almost does not beat me.
> If you do not like me - too bad,
> Come and greet my wife instead.
>
> I will learn a bit more of all that
> And I will get a black belt
> And such forms to her I will show
> That even she does not know
>
> And then I will have no fear
> Of my wife darling dear
> And to every foe I may possess
> I'll be able to say all this:
>
> "Me and my wife live in harmony,
> And go everywhere, she is right by me.
> If you don't like my wife - too bad,
> Come and greet me instead."
>
> Translated by Ilya Shambat
> http://www.myspace.com/ibshambat