Nika Turbina, Child Poet An early bird Memory Doll The day is that far Fourteen Teardrops I like the night for loneliness Nightingale I want the good I fooled you Return to Russian Poet's Index Page

 

An early bird Mercy me, let me go. Do not tie my wounded wings, I do not fly anymore. My voice has broken with the pain. My voice has turned into a wound. I do not cry anymore. Help me, wait! Autumn. Birds are flying to the South. Only my heart was wrung with fear, Loneliness- a friend of death. 1983 By Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

Memory I want to be with you alone To sit at the old house That house stands by the river Whose name is memory. The print of your bare foot Smells of last Summer's sun. Where we wandered together On the grass, not mown yet, The skies were so blue, Disappearing behind the gates. And the voices were ringing, That is all I can remember. And the days' accounting Has come to an end Like a flock of birds All the days Have gathered at my feet. What do I treat them to? No more lines are left... 1981 Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

Doll I am like a broken doll, In my heart they've forgotten To put a heart. And left unwanted In the gloomy corner. I am like a broken doll, Once I heard in the morning A dream whispered quietly to me "Dream, my dear, for long, long. Years will pass, And when you wake up, People will want again To take you in their arms, Tuck you in and simply play, And your heart will resume beating..." It is just scaring to wait. 1983 By Nika Turbina Translation by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

The day is that far The day is that far, Like the night, In a thunderstorm when eyes cannot see the raindrops, but catch them with lips on the porch of the house. Like hands, which cannot find walls in the dark And stumble into the doors on the day That is so far... 1982 Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

Fourteen Teardrops Fourteen teardrops are on your cheek. Fourteen raindrops on the wet glass. Guess, you will not come- guess or not You will turn to the door, farewell! Farewell, my expectations, our hands cannot be parted. I do not like parting, the circle of worry. And there will be pain after the meeting, which is destined not to happen. Fourteen teardrops you should not forget. 1982 Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

I like the night for loneliness I like the night for loneliness, When with it alone I speak of what my destiny wishes and does not. I may think of the impossible, that there is no end to the night. And I may believe in happy days. And I may cry endlessly. There is no need to listen to reproachful words. The stare of troubled eyes There is no need to hide behind a hand, when it gets dark. 1982 Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

Nightingale I'll shield the heaviness of the day with my shoulder and I'll leave you a nightingale. and I'll leave you only the dark, how else can I help you? And if you wish, I'll give my heart - Let my fate be shared. Even time will die before morning. In a hurry, instead of my heart you took a watch. Day has arrived. Night, do not look for him. 1983 Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

I want the good How often I catch squinting glances, And sharp words like arrows pierce me. I am asking you - listen! You should not kill in me the minutes of a child's dreams. My day, I so much want kindness for everyone, And even to those who aim at me. 1982 Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

I fooled you I fooled you, That a moment can be eternity. That with the birds' leaving finishes the warmth And forgotten by me a long time ago magical night's spells, with joy so near - If you touch it by chance, your hand will lift the earthy globe Have I fooled you? No? I gave you a secret which is known to me alone. 1983 Nika Turbina Translated by Ljubov V. Kuchkina Back to Turbina's Index

Nika Turbina was born December 17, 1974 in Yalta, in the Crimea, now part of the Ukraine. The school she attended was the same one where many years previously in 1906 the great Russian/Ukrainian poet Anna Gorenko (Anna Akhmatova) had attended high school, the Fundukleyevskaya Gymnaziya. Nika was 'discovered' when she was only eight years old by the magazine Komsomolskaya Pravda. She became something of a national celebrity when she read her poetry to millions of Russians on central television. One of her champions was no lesser poet than Yevgeny Yevtushenko who met Nika by chance in the summer of 1983 in the house of Boris Pasternak, now a museum, at Perdelkino, some 12 miles southwest of Moscow. Here she recited some of her poems to the great Yevtushenko. In his own words, he wrote later...' Only poets can read like that. In her voice, I could sense a special, I would say a sustained, ringing.', It is sometimes difficult to believe that the poems were written by an eight-year old girl, a child poet. In them is revealed the terrible intensity of her feelings: her pain, the anxiety, the longing for something better, the deep love.....her concern for people, and her world. Nika began composing verse when she was only three to the accompaniment of the piano..... 'The poems came to me as something incredible that comes to you and then leaves....When I write, I have the feeling that a person can do anything if he only wants to......A person must understand that his life is not too long. And if he values life, then his life will be long, and if he deserves it, it will be eternal, even after death.' Back to Turbina's Index