Fishes’ Tears
Translated from the Ukrainian by Alan Zhukovski
Spring passes!
Birds cry. Fishes’ eyes
Are filled with tears.
—Matsuo Basho
after the flood
subsided
we listened attentively
to fishes’ tongueless
weeping
through the lines
and planes
of gelid water
the fishes swam above
our sunken ships
and we observed
the gently swinging
silver earrings
of tears
fixed to their eyes
Serhiy Zhadan (born 1974) is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, and short story writer. English translations of his poetry and articles about him have appeared in The New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review, Poetry International, Asymptote, The Wolf, and elsewhere. He has received the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Award, the Angelus Central European Literature Award, the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, the Hubert Burda Prize, the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year Award, and the Brücke Berlin Prize.