Andrei Voznesensky
Darkmotherscream
Darkmotherscream is a Siberian dance,
cry from prison or a yell for help,
or, perhaps, God has another word for it–
ominous little grin–darkmotherscream.
Darkmotherscream is the ecstasy of the sexual gut;
We let the past sink into darkmotherscream also.
You, we–oooh with her eyes closed
woman moans in ecstasy–darkmother, darkmotherscream.
Darkmotherscream is the original mother of languages.
It is silly to trust mind, silly to argue against it.
Prognosticating by computers
We leave out darkmotherscream.
"How's it going?" Darkmotherscream.
"Motherscream! Motherscream!"
"OK, we'll do it, we'll do it."
The teachers can't handle darkmotherscream.
That is why Lermontov is untranslatable.
When the storm sang in Yelabuga,
What did it say to her? Darkmotherscream.
Meanwhile go on dancing, drunker and drunker.
"Shagadam magadam–darkmotherscream."
Don't forget–Rome fell
not having grasped the phrase: darkmotherscream.
Russian; trans. Robert Bly & Vera Dunham
Andrei Voznesensky, Russian, trans. Robert Bly & Vera Dunham,
News of the Universe: Poems of Twofold Consciousness, Sierra
Club Books, 1980.