Boris Dralyuk

Vladimir Markov, who emigrated to LA after WWII and taught at UCLA for decades, amassed an enormous collection of one-line poems, and wrote some lovely ones himself. They would flit into his head, fully formed. This one flitted into mine as I surveyed the graves… (Thank you to editor Brooke Clark.)

Packed Carefully Away A poem by Jane Greer (1953–2025)

Today our free newsletter readers received a poem by Jane Greer, who passed away on July 22 of this year. We are honored to have published one of her final poems, and to know that the issue reached her and brought her joy.

nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/packed-car...

Ah, wonderful!

Thank you very much! I know you know…

"That’s what translators do: We find original forms of expression for unoriginal material." — Boris Dralyuk in conversation with Sara Gear on the question of whether one has to be a poet to translate poetry 🧿 www.asymptotejournal.com/interview/an...

Thank you, dear Ena!

Sara Gear is the best interviewer in the business.

In 2019 Jenny and I revisited a place where I spent many childhood mornings… The cruel hollow cynicism of Russians continues to stun me.

The Russian destruction of Odesa's Pryvoz Market — croftwork The first thing Boris and I did when we visited Odesa was walk to the house where he grew up. The next thing we did was buy fruit at Pryvoz Market.

A few pictures I took once at Pryvoz Market, which Russia tried and failed to destroy last night. croftwork.net/notes/the-ru...

Incredible thread! Makes me want to listen to the song Black Sabbath again to see if I pick up anything new.

In the pitch black of night of course.

Thank you!

You are a wonder!!

I would bet neither Ozzy nor Geezer had ever heard of Yesenin, but in their youths, Osbourne and the poet looked like twins separated at birth… The hardscrabble Sabbath boys and the singer of village life and urban squalor, lured and frightened by the dark. 5/5

Harassed by the Soviet secret police, the recently hospitalized Yesenin hanged himself at a hotel in 1925. For two years, he had been working on a long poem in which a dark figure appears at his bed to pass judgment. In Anton Yakovlev’s excellent translation, the poem begins: 4/5

Like Ozzy and Geezer, who hailed from in the Midlands, the poet Sergei Yesenin (1895-1925) was born far from the capital. He stormed onto the scene in Moscow as a singer of village life, but soon showed a rough edge. Handsome, hard-drinking, depressive… A true poète maudit. 3/5

The Sabbath aficionado Chris Wade tells the story behind the band’s signature song—one of decadent occult hijinks in 1969, during which Geezer Butler summoned a dark figure who stood at the foot of his bed.

Decades earlier, a similar dark figure confronted another young man. 2/5

An Ozzy 🧵

Many know of the influence of Mikhail Bulgakov’s MASTER AND MARGARITA on the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” Jagger is a literary fellow—the inspiration was direct.

Well, here’s a stranger link between Black Sabbath and another work of Russophone modernism. 1/5

The LA Times photo below was taken at the Hollywood Bowl in 1938. The fourth man from the left is Alexander Voloshin, whose poem SIDETRACKED: EXILE IN HOLLYWOOD will appear from @pauldrybooks.bsky.social in April 2026. Here I give some context to the shot: bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/07/19/n...

I read The Stolen Heart, by Andrey Kurkov (2025 translation by Boris Dralyuk).
Further adventures of the young Ukrainian police investigator in this second installment of The Kyiv Mysteries series.

@bdralyuk.bsky.social

I love it when famous fathers get together.

Please let Tom know about this!

Will be recommending...

Thank you, my friend!

This is just lovely.

Thank you, Farran!

How an Exiled Russian Noble Became a Great American Songwriter His story spans everything from Belarus to Balanchine to Bacharach

The incomparable @tedgioia.bsky.social has shared my intro to PASSPORT TO PARIS AND LOS ANGELES POEMS with his readers. And if you aren’t a reader of his, what are you doing with yourself? Join the club! www.honest-broker.com/p/how-an-exi...

This all began with my translation of Duke’s ode to LA’s Farmers Market. From there, it unfolded like a dream… Thank you, Vernon, for many happy hours…

Thank you, Alex Ross, for your praise of PASSPORT TO PARIS AND LOS ANGELES POEMS by Vernon Duke! With a new Introduction by @bdralyuk.bsky.social . Officially out tomorrow, now shipping from PaulDryBooks.com.

Tomorrow is pub day for Vernon Duke’s PASSPORT TO PARIS AND LOS ANGELES POEMS. In prose and verse, even at his most playful, he retains an immigrant’s melancholy sense of impermanence. Below he tells the tale of Venice, CA—the dream of Abbot Kinney (1850-1920). www.pauldrybooks.com/products/pas...

Yes!