The Daily Glance
Dmitry Golynko's As It Turned Out is an excellent translation to introduce Golynko to an English-speaking audience.** It starts with a fabulous introduction by Eugene Ostrashevsky, and then we get Golynko's poems which transform through the course of the book. We start with language-oriented poems with a sharp sense of satire.
that's why Professor Fruend diagnosed me with an Electra complex,
wrote out the prescription: a tourist brochure idyll.
We settled in a suburban chalet on the pleated seaside.
The poems then turn more focused, sharper in their focus on culture. They also grow more narrative and increase their sex focus, but they retain their sense of critique, though it transforms to a critique mostly just shown to us, not as much explained.
who is the ciao addressed to? to the female worker
at the weaving mill, picked up downtown in nocturnal Shanghai
for tourist rates, or to a half-wit German intern
for some reason rejected, it seems her legs
not quite the right shape.
The translators, Ostrashevsky, Rebecca Bella, and Simona Schneider, do a good job of making these poems accessible in English.
***While I am happy with e-books, online journals, and virtual life, this book makes me realize that I still love printed books. It's so beautifully put together that I just want to hold it and look at it. Nice job Ugly Duckling.
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