Julia Nemirovskaya
Julia Nemirovskaya (Юлия Немировская) is a Moscow-born author.
Julia primarily writes poetry and prose. She has published three poetry books, a novel, a collection of short stories, and a monograph on Russian cultural history. Some of her works were translated into English, French, Swedish, Italian, Hungarian, and Bulgarian.
Julia also teaches at the University of Oregon, where she especially enjoys running a course called Russian through Theater. She writes and directs bilingual plays that create a "bilingual dramatic space" where something like a live synopsis is incorporated in the story (for example, Dr. Seuss is trying to save D. Kharms from arrest by Stalin’s secret police or the German Princess, Catherine the Great is taking lessons from her Russian courtier).
“Волк яблоко грызет”
Волк яблоко грызет, и это жизнь моя.
То год почти зима лежала, ощетинясь,
Теперь пришла весна. Едва дымится день,
И яблоки опять мне снятся по ночам,
А по утрам окно качает подбородком
И молча шлет привет немытым сковородкам,
И небу, и земле, и солнечным лучам.
Но каждое вокруг мне сочетанье дико,
Как будто на земле я не двадцатый год,
А утром родилась, и удивленным криком
Здесь разбудила всех: Волк яблоко грызет!
“Yosemite”
Have I the right to stretch
Myself and write these lines?
Are all these woods and banks
Really and truly mine?
Have I been given signs
By spirits of the dead?
Clouds, like faded ruins,
Are wrapped about my head.
I’m at the very top—
A feeble cry,
Slipped underneath
The rough tongue of the sky.
Translation by Boris Dralyuk