Ilya Kaminsky (Ukrajina, ZDA), rojen leta 1977 v Odesi. Leta 1993 se je z družino kot azilant preselil v Združene države Amerike. Njegova pesniška zbirka Ples v Odesi (2004) je prejela številne ugledne nagrade in bila med drugim razglašena za najboljšo knjigo poezije po mnenju revije ForeWord Magazine. Konec 90. let je soustanovil organizacijo Pesniki za mir, katere namen je podpora organizacijam, kot sta Zdravniki brez meja in Survivors International. Na Phillips Exeter Academy je bil gostujoči pisatelj, poezijo pa je poučeval tudi na drugih literarnih šolah in univerzah. Trenutno poučuje sodobno svetovno poezijo, kreativno pisanje in literarni prevod na univerzi v San Diegu.

Več o pesnici najdete tukaj:
http://www.ilyakaminsky.com/1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Kaminsky
http://www.theadirondackreview.com/interviewkaminsky.html
http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2009/05/ilya-kaminsky-from-musica-humana-elegy.html

Ilya Kaminsky (Ukraine, USA), born in 1977 in Odessa, and arrived to the USA in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. Ilya is the author of Dancing In Odessa (2004) which won numerous prizes and was declared the Best Poetry Book of the Year 2004 by ForeWord Magazine. In late 1990s, he co-founded Poets For Peace, an organization which sponsors poetry readings in the United States and abroad with the goal of supporting such relief organizations as Doctors Without Borders and Survivors International. Ilya lived as a Writer In Residence at Phillips Exeter Academy and taught poetry at numerous literary centers, colleges and universities. Currently, he teaches Contemporary World Poetry, Creative Writing, and Literary Translation in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at San Diego State University .

More about poet you can find here:
http://www.ilyakaminsky.com/1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Kaminsky
http://www.theadirondackreview.com/interviewkaminsky.html
http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2009/05/ilya-kaminsky-from-musica-humana-elegy.html


We Lived Happily During the War


And when they bombed other people’s houses, we

protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed our country

was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.

I took a chair outside and watched the sun.

                        In the sixth month
of a disastrous reign in the house of money

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.


Med vojno smo živeli srečno

In ko so bombardirali hiše drugih ljudi, smo

protestirali,
a ne dovolj, nasprotovali smo jim, a ne

dovolj. Ležal sem
v postelji, okrog postelje je naša dežela
propadala: nevidna hiša za nevidno hišo za nevidno hišo.

Stol sem nesel ven in gledal sonce.

  V šestem mesecu
katastrofalne vladavine v hiši denarja

na ulici denarja v mestu denarja v deželi denarja,
v naši veliki deželi denarja, smo (oprostite nam)

med vojno živeli srečno.

Prevedel Goran Dekleva.