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A TERRIFYING DEATH by Daniil Kharms (translated by Alex Cigale)

July 1, 2011 Contributed By: Alex Cigale, Daniil Kharms

Once upon a time, a man, feeling hungry, sat at the table and ate cutlets.
Beside him sat his wife, rambling on about the cutlets not containing enough pork.
Nevertheless he ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, until he sensed somewhere in the pit of his stomach a morbid heaviness.
In that moment, having moved aside the food, he began to tremble and cry.
The gold watch in his pocket ceased to tick.
His hair suddenly lightened a shade, and his vision brightened.
His ears tumbled to the floor, as in autumn the yellow leaves do from the poplars, and he dropped dead.

April 1935

Return to table of contents for Issue 4 Summer 2011

Filed Under: Poetry, Translation Posted On: July 1, 2011

Further Reading

Saoirse
by Peter Gordon

Can you imagine naming a girl freedom? he asks me. Can you even know what that would do to her brain, starting when she was a baby, being someone who gets to go through life doing whatever the fuck she wants?

WHAT MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME
by Michael Meyerhofer

This poem was selected as a finalist for the 2021 MAYDAY Poetry Prize and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The older you get, the less likely someone will want to see you naked. Stretch less. Don’t give into the desire to stroll through walls because it’s a long fall to the earth’s core. Remember that […]

The Poem Under Gag by Abdellatif Laâbi
translated from the French by Allan and Guillemette Johnston

Hello sunshine of my country
how good it is to be alive today
so much light
so much light around me

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