Sergey Stratanovsky

trans. by J. Kates

Brother-Bear

(According to a Nikvh myth)

I dreamed of my brother.
I dreamed of my brother who had died.
I was lost in the forest,
a hunter alone seeking
To kill Tsar Bear
and to feed with his breathless body
All the starving people.

I was lost in the forest
And my brother appeared to me
as if alive in the forest thicket
And led me after him
to a marvelous lodge, to the Master of the Forest.

When he saw me,
The Master of the Forest, he said:
"There is no struggle for power here,
in these thickets I alone
Am lord of all the wild beasts . . .
Answer me, which of them
Were you planning to shoot? "

"Lord, I wanted to kill Tsar Bear."

"Well then, we'll do it your way."
And pointing to my brother with his hand,
He ordered him: "Get dressed."

My terrified brother turned pale
But he nodded, obeying,
and put the bear’s skin on.

And suddenly he was not my brother—
Instead of my brother a powerful bear
Appeared and immediately left the lodge,
Went off into the forest without looking at me.

I woke up from my dream
and now I tell you, you hunters:
I, like a woman, will
watch the fire in the hearth,
I will not go armed into the forest
I will forget about snares and baits,
I will not shed brothers' blood . . .
But you, go on, you hunters,
Killing for meat
Taking life for food.
After all, there is no other way to survive. . .

J. Kates is a poet and a translator who lives in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. 

Sergey Stratanovsky: born 1944 and living in St. Petersburg, is a poet, playwright, critic, and co-editor for the magazine Obvodnyi Kanal. He has been widely published, first in samizdat and in the Western magazines, then in Russia. His selected poems was published by Carcanet Press as Muddy River in 2016. He was the first Russian poet to be granted a Joseph Brodsky Fellowship, and he has also been awarded the Tsarskoselsky Prize, the Pasternak Prize, and the Andrey Bely Prize.