Habibullo-Eugene Kiselev

A Synopsis of my Life
2017-11-09 22:05:45 (UTC)

November 9th, 2017, Thursday, 10:05:45 p.m.

Yekaterinburg, Russia. GMT 05:00
At 03:20 p.m. today, I arrived to the Uralmash Recreation Center, where the literary seminar of Lubov Ladeishchikova took place.
Other people talked about the October revolution basically in the apologetic vein, which made me het up a lot. I even wanted to leave having finished with my report about Velimir Khlebnikov. Elena Zakharova prepared a talk about Simon Kirsanov, a revolutionary poet, however I can hardly call him a “pure revolutionary” author. Following her speech, Lubov Ladeishchikova gave the floor to me, and I began to talk about Victor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov (Velimir was his penname), one of the greatest Russian littérateurs of the beginning of the twentieth century. At this very moment (O, my Goodness!) the lady, who was responsible for the refreshments, began to lay the table and the people began to chew! I took it as a sign of disrespect and disinterestedness and was upset and even furious. Elena Zakharova and Lubov Ladeishchikova were the two, who were not eating but rather were listening to me. I expressed my sincere gratitude to them at the end of my report. During my speech, L. Ladeishchikova was leading a discussion with me and she read poems by Khlebnikov, I remember many of them by heart. So, I was declaiming them in unison with her. This was kind of magic. Later on, I read several of my English translations of Velimir Khlebnikov, namely “Boh-beh-obee lips were chanted…”, “When steeds die, they breathe…” and “The elephants fought with their tusks…” My words about Khlebnikov begot a warm and friendly discussion, and my worries, concerns and prejudices faded away gradually. E. Zakharova even called me “a perspective poet”, L. Ladeishchikova noted, that my English translations of Khlebnikov were very well rhythmically organized and that I kept the rhyme and the rhythm carefully.
Okay. Following my message Lubov Anatolyevna Ladeishchikova read some of the revolutionary poems by Vladimir Mayakovski, Sergei Yesenin and other Russian poets of the beginning of the 20th century, which was a time of trouble in the Russian history.
At 07:00 p.m., we have finished, said “goodbye” to Lubov Ladeishchikova and to each other and went to our homes.




Ad: