From “Holy Winter” [Wind. The blue of the mountains invisible]
translated from the Russian by Sasha Dugdale
Wind. The blue of the mountains invisible
In the twilight, under winter stars
Our little house is covered in snow
I hear the dogs barking
By the village gates
Through snow and wind
Someone is coming home.
Foreign words melt in the cheek
Like sugar cubes.
Excerpts from HOLY WINTER copyright © Maria Stepanova, 2021. Translation copyright © Sasha Dugdale, 2024. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Maria Stepanova
Maria Stepanova, born in Moscow in 1972, is a poet, novelist, essayist, journalist, and the author of ten poetry collections as well as three books of essays. Sasha Dugdale’s translation of her book-length poem Holy Winter 20/21 was first published by Bloodaxe in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2024, then, in the same year, by New Directions in the United States. The book was long-listed by the National Book Critics Circle for the Barrios Book in Translation Prize.