Allen Ginsberg and Andrei Voznesensky, London, June 1965 – Photographer Unknown -photo courtesy the Estate of Allen Ginsberg
Angelic Black Holes – By Andrei Voznesensky
Soul to crotch the streets commit hara-kiri,
Burnt-out stores chessboard moonlit households,
The City of Angels stares into black holes—
See down through Earth to scorched Nagorno-Karabakh.
How long is the tunnel of pain?
Does God need Welfare?
Even so, remembering the sheen on Peredelkino’s black gooseberries,
Rodney King’s name sounds Russian, rodnik for ground-spring.
As for me who crapped up my own homeland
How lay the blame on anybody else?
Rain & ashes seal my lips.
The two superpowers left the Little Man supersufferings.
Us—blown to hell. You—immolate yourselves in flame?
Any light at the end of the tunnel of pain?
May 17, 1992, Los Angeles
translated by Allen Ginsberg and Nina Bouis