Olga Zvyeryeva
Translated by Yana Kane, edited by Bruce Esrig
As a child, I loved the terminology…
As a child, I loved the terminology
of Soviet botany—
“babies” was the word used for offset shoots on cactuses
and tulips.
Tear away the baby, Papa used to say,
keep it in a cold, dark basement
until it sprouts.
Papa was very practical
when it came to tulips.
Mama didn’t have it in her to tear away.
Even while hiding in the basement, she would write:
Baby, everything’s fine,
it’s not cold down here, even
not that dark.
I’m a puny bulb.
My root is much too weak.
I tear away the baby,
hide it in the basement,
then, forget.
В детстве я любила термины…
В детстве я любила термины
советской ботаники –
как назывались детками отростки кактусов
и тюльпанов.
Оторви детку, говорил папа,
положи в холодный, темный подвал,
пока не прорастет.
Папа был очень практичен
в делах тюльпанов.
Мама не умела отрывать.
Даже прячась в подвале, писала:
Детка, все хорошо,
здесь не холодно, даже
почти не темно.
Я мелкая луковичка.
Мой корешок совсем слаб.
Я отрываю детку,
прячу в подвал,
забываю.
Yana Kane (USA) is a member of Kopilka, an international poetry translation collective. Her translations appeared in Deep Vellum's 2025 Best Literary Translations anthology and are longlisted for their 2026 anthology. She won the 2024 RHINO Poetry Translation Prize and was a finalist for the 2025 Gabo Prize. Her translation of Ukrainian poet Dmitry Blizniuk, My Fish Will Stay Alive, is forthcoming from Serving House Books.
She came to the United States as a refugee from the Soviet Union. She holds a BSE from Princeton University, a PhD in Statistics from Cornell University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Yana is grateful to Bruce Esrig for editing her English-language texts.
Olga Zvyeryeva (Netherlands) was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. She is a sociolinguist by training, holding a PhD in Germanic Languages from Kharkiv National University. She is the author of two poetry collections and has won awards at Ukrainian and international poetry festivals. Her poems have been published in anthologies and on platforms in Ukraine, Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Israel, and the United States. She is an editor of the literary platform Tochka Zreniya and a member of Kopilka, an international poetry translation group.