I was born to a very poor family. My father and mother were honest and hardworking. They believed that if they worked really hard their life would change in time.
After work my father played drums. It wasn’t actually a drum set - just a couple of wooden things covered by rubber. He used to turn the radio on and start playing. He was a huge fan of ( Read more... )

Sometimes love equals death. I mean that when you come across either of them you have the same feelings. For instance you suddenly recall all the significant things and encounters and happy moments of your life.
What do I remember? My memories are funny and inappropriate. For many years I have felt like the village fool brought to the top of a ( Read more... )

"Russians? I know Russians! They are communists. They kill Muslims in Chechnya. And most of them are Jews".

The blood splashing maples on my mind -

Leaflets of love posted by wild winds

Blizzards blowing through your marble heart

The blade of your smile is sharper than words I swallow

The sun is getting cold in your eyes

And my life is shorter than a sigh

When you silently exhale: “It’s over”…

The essence of English poetry can be easily described in one word: “the understatement”. The ear of an English-speaking intellectual is finely tuned to hear shy and charming echoes of the real but hidden meaning. Russian verse is a metaphorically overcharged expressionist ego. Where you use tiny clocksmith's instruments, we apply a generous amount ( Read more... )

A Swiss billionaire of Iranian origin once presented me with an expensive wrist watch. This was a watch that cost a couple of little Hondas or a half of a Steinway grand piano. Or 10 years’ income for an average Hindu family. Or a dozen of the Evian baths Bruce Willis likes to take.
It happened in 1992. My editor-in-chief sent me to interview this ( Read more... )

Oh, Amanda - fire of my loins! To love a political analyst is no less than a Nabokovian perversion. You - a white-toothed snake, a sleek image of my auto da fé, a marble heart that beats inside mine and leaves there no room for blood and soul, you - what do you know about passion?
I see you in your pink sneakers playing for a college team somewhere ( Read more... )

Il-92 - the largest Soviet airliner looked like the spread-wide palm of an invisible giant who was going to make a decisive move in an intercontinental chess game. A move from the back pocket of Europe to the cold northeastern outskirts of Asia. The flight “Moscow-Vladivostok” was always a symbol of the Empire’s greatness and glory. And of the ( Read more... )

The girls I knew liked me a lot

Since I met you it mattered not

Though now I’m faultless like a panda

You do not care for me, Amanda

My great-grandmother was a kind and almost illiterate woman. All her life she worked as a maid. When I was little she kept telling me: “Listen up, kid! I wash and clean for professor Tsurupa's family. He is an academic and a much-respected man. And I've never seen him work. He always sits in his study reading or writing. Never ever does he take a ( Read more... )