Habibullo-Eugene Kiselev
A Synopsis of my Life
October 6th, 2017, Friday, 09:56:00 p.m.
Yekaterinburg, Russia. GMT 05:00
This day was kind of an upheaval to my creative activity. All was settled down; I hope so, at all events…
Let us consider all step by step, or blow by blow to be more precise. Okay. Having finished with my only class at the University, I had lunch and headed for “Dom Knigi” (English: “The Book House”) store to participate in a “total reading” action, which is held in the Sverdlovsk Oblast (Region) of Russia a third time, I think. There, I talked to the goods manager of the store on the subject of selling some of my English books there. This suggestion heartened me, because this is definitely a new level in the promotion of my poetry. Do I deserve it? That is a different question, which should also be thought over. At 01:00 p.m. one member of the store staff announced my reading with the following words in Russian (I do not remember them verbatim): “Dear visitors! I would like to offer you to listen to the poetry by a beginning poet and translator Eugene Kiselev. He will present his verses in both Russian and English”. The problem was that nobody told me I was supposed to bring my audience with me! So, the staff members became my listeners and even asked me to read more when I had been about to finish. I read “Sadness”, “The Toy Has Died” and “I see the hosts of dark mysterious worlds…” consequently in Russian. Then I added my improvised speech with “A Farewell”, a poem in English which was followed by a word-for-word Russian translation of it. Generally speaking, I liked this; however, I still do not think I really deserve the plaudits and admiration. Who am I in literature? A small bug, a worm! No more! I am trying to clamber, but… All of it is not always successful.
Following this, I headed for the Ural State Mining University (campus #4) to read my poetry in a University Library. Alexei Kuzin, whose longer poem “Sud’ba nevesty” (English: “The Destiny of a Fiancée”) was translated into English by yours truly and published in my book. For reference see: Eugene Kiselev. A White Raven. Yekaterinburg, 2016, pp. 36-46. I read some of my poems, namely, “Sadness” and “The Toy Has Died”. Also, I used my tablet to play a song by my Teacher, Eugene Lobanov, which is called “Pray for me, Imam” (Lyrics by yours truly). This song did not impress anyone, especially Alexei Kuzin, who said the music was not at all Islāmic. I was disappointed; my Teacher is an example to me. I will not give him up.
Kuzin also read the two of his poems, one of them was about the television tower, which had become a talk of our city around twenty years ago. Oh yes, the people also asked me to read something in English as well, I read that very poem called “A Farewell”. Other participants read some prose and poetry written by themselves or by others. For example, they read a monolog of Chatsky from “Wit Works Woe” by Alexander Sergeyevich Griboedov (Russian: Александр Сергеевич Грибоедов) or some excerpts from prose by Victor Pelevin. I left earlier and headed for home.
Having arrived home, I gave a call to Natalia Nikitina and shared my thoughts about ceasing from writing forever. She only chuckled and said this was temporary. “What if I have no talent for writing poetry?” – I asked. “No one of us has this talent. You should just write and try to make your way. I will not dissuade you from ceasing from writing; that is your choice, though” – Natalia Nikitina answered.
To some extent, I was satisfied with what she said. However, I decided to give a call to Elena Zakharova. She said I definitely should continue to write poetry, because this is something I can do well. She called me a talented person, who combined literary translation with writing poetry and that no one knew, which of my sides would shine brighter. I was a bit comforted, someone values me. This may be good.
Ad: