Viacheslav Kupriyanov (Вячеслав Куприянов) translated from the Russian by Alex Cigale

The Sun

1.

it behooves us to wonder
how the sun survives
distant from all other stars
in the airless expanse of space
how it breathes
in the stuffiness of its conflagration
in the absence of spiritual or any other bread
consuming itself
in pitch darkness
it doesn't even see itself
in some reflection
the moon is a weak mirror
the sun's light is invisible to itself
it is blind
bequeathing us its gift of vision
and so we stare in indifference
at the odds of its survival
without any relatives
without friends
without money

2.

The sun is
not a political creature
although it was it that bred
the masses of political animals
the sun itself
is neither the right nor the left
nor is it the golden mean
the solar system
does not presuppose
an electoral system
that we may select another sun
in order to nominate it
for the post of heavenly light
it was it that chose us
it working
to enlighten us
to visit upon us day
and provision dreams at night
while we mindlessly presuppose
that the purpose of the sun's existence
is a suntan

3.

Ours is that sun
which lives on its surface
but at the same time beneath it
its interior life is invisible to us
despite the existance of northern lights
frequent magnetic storms
and the solar wind
our sun was invented
by the philosopher Heraclitus
moreover he had made his discovery
with his unaided naked eye only

4.

The sun does not make an appearance
for the sake of a minute-long eclipse
but only during that minute of eclipse
do we turn our attention to it
our wandering gaze
and by observing it through
tint-covered glasses satisfy
our long-standing desire
to remain in darkness
the sun's eclipse
for which purpose exists the moon
is an entirely transparent phenomenon
as distinct from the eclipse of minds
which is painstakingly hidden from us
and for which the convergence of the moon's
observable diameter with the quantity
of our bone marrow is no requirement

5.

The sun is a sun
such as it is
and not the sun of Russian poetry
nor is it even the sun of world poetry
even though it possesses its own measure
a rhythmic beat the verse of its existence
and so it occupies that venerable place
in world and in Russian poetry
though this bears no influence
on its revolution around its axis
or its location among the stars
the sun is an absolute
free agent