Habibullo-Eugene Kiselev
A Synopsis of my Life
September 2nd, 2017, Saturday, 10:59:05 p.m.
Yekaterinburg, Russia. GMT 05:00
Oh, the midnight will strike soon, and I am here in my apartment experiencing a tormenting headache. Nevertheless, I will try to commit my memories to paper, for I believe this was one of the brightest days in my life with which I am already finishing off, I think.
Okay. At 02:00 p.m. I came to the Verkh-Isetsky recreation center, for today was the meeting of “Petroglyph”, a literary cenacle, where I am one of the members. This meeting took place in Room 230, where the reading hall of the professional union Library of the Verkh-Isetsky Factory was located in 1957 – 2003. The meeting itself was sort of dull. Eugene Lobanov came to make a presentation of a new album of songs on verses by Yesenin. Lobanov recorded this album together with Sergei Belkov, a poet, composer, scientist, Russophile and my opponent, in addition to all. Eugene Lobanov has recently caught a cold; he has a sore throat, so his voice was not very good. He sang three songs without Belkov, who came much later. We had some discussions, too, which I think were not at all fruitful. Later on, we were reading our verses “in circle” as we were sitting. I read my “Retrospektsiya” in Russian. Oh, yes, Natalia Nikitina said that my poem “The Toy has died” had already become a classic poem. I replied, “When at least one of my English poems becomes part of classic poetry, I will think that my life did not pass in vain.”
Among the participants of this meeting, there was one lady, Olga Shaerman (Russian: Ольга Шаерман), an artist, graphic and draftsmanship teacher. When the meeting was over, Olga and I went to the terminus of the trams together. She asked me if I was a member of the “Petroglyph”. I said, “Yes”. “I also participated in a gala-concert, which took place in a “Literary Area” this year, as I am a laureate of the International Festival of Poetry” – I added. At the trams’ terminus, we met Elena Zakharova and Boris Weißberg, a member of the Union of Russian Writers. The four of us started a conversation. Weißberg told about his newspaper named “Stern” (Yiddish: שטערן ), which means “Star”. So, he was telling about his publishing métier and so forth. When we finally got on the tram, we continued with our warm discussion. We discussed nationalities: Boris Weißberg said he is a Ukrainian Jew and that he knows Ukrainian. We chatted in Ukrainian a little bit. Elena Zakharova said she has Russian and Polish roots, and Olga Shaerman is half-Russian half-Ukrainian. Also, she added that her ex-husband was a German. Later on, Weißberg and Zakharova began their dialog, whereas Olga and I started our own discussion about art and things like that. She briefly told me about her creative activity, her acquaintance with some famous artists and the demand for her pictures. She even told me that some of her canvases are in a collection of Mireille Mathieu! We also discussed our views on family issues. I told her that jealousy comes from the feeling of self-inferiority. If a man or a woman knows that he/she is a worthy person, they will never hold their partner or feel jealous anyway. She replied, that the one who is jealous, is simply afraid to lose their partner, especially when they had lived a long time together.
Olga and I got off at the “Square of 1905” stop and went to the “Passage” trade center as she needed some perfume to go to the concert with her girl friend. As we continued our conversation, Olga Shaerman offered me to participate in her new art project. She offered to paint my portrait with my biography, i.e., pictures from my past and present. She has already painted several portraits like that. I replied, that it is believed, that if someone paints a portrait, then something bad will happen to the person painted. She gave me an example of Ilya Repin, a Russian artist of a Jewish origin. He foresaw the deaths of people whose portraits he painted, and it was not because of his bad energy that the heroes of his canvases died soon. Olga, to the contrary, has a positive energy. She told me, that one lady, whose portrait she painted, told her that her life had changed to the better after the portrait was painted. I promised to think. Indeed, the offer is good. We parted at the crossroads of the Lenina Avenue and 8 of March Street, at the corner, where the main campus of the Conservatory is situated. She went to the concert. I said “goodbye” and kissed Olga’s hand. Then I went home.
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