Gedicht
Yuri Andrukhovych
Jamaica the Cossak
oh how many tough miracles are out there my stallion my brotheri\'d gaze at them until ravens drink up my eyes but still\'d want more
on this side is bahama mama on the other the palms of haiti
at night stepping out of the bungalow i see the towers of freetown
and it makes me feel so frustrated that our sharovars have faded
what the hell for, out of which underground faunas
the sea mowers-corsaires betrayed us in the battle
when father wanted to take that blessed place, freetown
there they have thirteen churches and an eternal war with cupid
and also thirteen abysses where silver and gold are hidden
young girls there are like vines growing quietly behing the walls
they\'re dying to make love but they\'ve been dressed in black
and now i drink moonshine together with dick the pirate
i tell him come to your senses, repent i tell him you bastard
is it really that if you\'re european you don\'t have to be a man
why the fuck have you sold yourself for thirty rotten escudos
and dick he\'s a weird one he strokes a piebald parrot
pats me on the shoulder wrings hands up high
here\'s a knight errant for you here\'s all that green stuff
to be or not to be he says and burps i\'m sorry
he says i have a slave girl with skin the color of cocoa
buy her oh my grey eagle it\'s tough without a woman
no need to plant a garden he adds chuckling slyly
a garden grows out of her body with tobacco pineapples melons
you\'ll make a lot of little cossacks take all of them into your host
however my neck my soul does not yield to a yoke
but i don\'t even hear him i spit on his miserable entreating
my stallion my unfaithful one my thomas the apolstle
i will go out at sunset
make a flute out of sugar cane
sit down by the ocean
and now i am no more
© Translation: 1998, Yuriy Andrukhovych
From: A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry
Publisher: Litopys, Lviv, 2000
From: A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry
Publisher: Litopys, Lviv, 2000
JAMAICA THE COSSAK
© 1991, Yuriy Andrukhovych
From: Exotic Birds and Plants
Publisher: Lilea-NV, Ivano-Frankivsk
From: Exotic Birds and Plants
Publisher: Lilea-NV, Ivano-Frankivsk
Gedichten
Gedichten van Yuri Andrukhovych
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JAMAICA THE COSSAK
From: Exotic Birds and Plants
Jamaica the Cossak
oh how many tough miracles are out there my stallion my brotheri\'d gaze at them until ravens drink up my eyes but still\'d want more
on this side is bahama mama on the other the palms of haiti
at night stepping out of the bungalow i see the towers of freetown
and it makes me feel so frustrated that our sharovars have faded
what the hell for, out of which underground faunas
the sea mowers-corsaires betrayed us in the battle
when father wanted to take that blessed place, freetown
there they have thirteen churches and an eternal war with cupid
and also thirteen abysses where silver and gold are hidden
young girls there are like vines growing quietly behing the walls
they\'re dying to make love but they\'ve been dressed in black
and now i drink moonshine together with dick the pirate
i tell him come to your senses, repent i tell him you bastard
is it really that if you\'re european you don\'t have to be a man
why the fuck have you sold yourself for thirty rotten escudos
and dick he\'s a weird one he strokes a piebald parrot
pats me on the shoulder wrings hands up high
here\'s a knight errant for you here\'s all that green stuff
to be or not to be he says and burps i\'m sorry
he says i have a slave girl with skin the color of cocoa
buy her oh my grey eagle it\'s tough without a woman
no need to plant a garden he adds chuckling slyly
a garden grows out of her body with tobacco pineapples melons
you\'ll make a lot of little cossacks take all of them into your host
however my neck my soul does not yield to a yoke
but i don\'t even hear him i spit on his miserable entreating
my stallion my unfaithful one my thomas the apolstle
i will go out at sunset
make a flute out of sugar cane
sit down by the ocean
and now i am no more
© 1998, Yuriy Andrukhovych
From: A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry
Publisher: 2000, Litopys, Lviv
From: A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry
Publisher: 2000, Litopys, Lviv
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