Волынь

Быт выветрился в Берестечке, а он был прочен здесь. Отростки, которым перевалило за три столетия, все еще зеленели на Волыни теплой гнилью старины. (И. Бабель, Берестечко)

"Everyday life, which once flourished, has blown away. Little sprouts that had survived for three centuries still managed to blossom in Volhynia's sultry hotbed of ancient times..." (I. Babel, Berestechko, trans. Peter Constantine)

Берестечко

"Paul, mon bien aime, on dit que l'empereur Napoleon est mort, est-ce vrai? Moi, je me sens bien, les couches ont ete faciles, notre petit heros acheve sept semaines... (Berestechko, 1820)..." (from a story by Isaac Babel, Berestechko)

Косив

Фун Косев биз Китев
Штейт а брикеле паранен
Аву дер Бал Шем
Аву дер Бал Шем
Шпацирн из геганен...

Запорожье

Бабышёва

Молокан

Мозырь

Чемодан

Бачевский

Краснояарск

Ветви

Шопен

The Russian spelling. A young woman at a piano, in Moscow, recent times. An old upright, black, with worn keyboard, like the black of her dress, which also appears a bit worn, especially for someone so young. Bending over the keys, strength of her forearms, and fragility--as if nothing else could at that moment possibly matter more...

Chopin, from the name of Fryderyk's French father, now carried farther to the east...

Ворон

Одесс

Житомир

Будёновка

Томск

Броды

Чешники

Русланова

Чапаев-Герой

Цветы

Зеленный

Аркадий

Французская

Тундряная

Планета

Заря

Белое

(Later reworked)

Хазари

Колыбель

Казань

Победа

Вьюга Листья

Одесса

Дерибасовская

Николаев

Война

Варшавянка

Китай

Леса

По смоленской дороге леса, леса, леса.
По смоленской дороге столбы, столбы, столбы.
Над дорогой смоленскою, как твои глаза
Две вечерних звезды голубых моей судьбы.

(Булат Окудзчава)

On the Smolensk road, woods and woods and woods...
On the Smolensk road, posts and posts and posts...
On the road to Smolensk, like your eyes,
Two blue evening stars of my fate...

(from a song by Bulat Okudzhava)

Самолет

Фригия

Курск

Девушка (Око)

Набекрень

"Наш Король, как король - он кепчонку, как корону-
Набекрень, и пошел на войну..."

Булат Окуджава (Лёнка Королёв)

Весна

Ахиска

The Ahiska, now in Astrakhan--a Turkish people from the Causcasus, deported under Stalin en masse to Central Asia. An Ahiska wedding, the bride, kneeling, in white, her hand curled in that of her young husband, his dark eyes, deepset, looking upwards.

Her tinted auburn hair, a row of dry trees, water somewhere behind them, in the distance...

Астрахань

Пилсудский

Piłsudski, which began as an image of anonymous figure in heavy coat from the time of the Russian Civil War--his strong character caught my eye, as with Chapayev, the legendary Bolshevik hero (listening to song,"Гуляал по Урали Чапаев-Герой"--Chapaev-the-Hero Strolled through the Urals), which sounds about right here except that the picture is indeed Josef Pilsudski--the aristocratic Polish commander who defeated the Red Army in the battle for Warsaw in 1920--about the time of the photo was made. Contradictions. On top of which, the painting shows a more ambiguous, pensive figure--fur-collared great coat notwithstanding.