Three Poems by Alena Maksakova (Алена Максакова), translated by Yana Kane

PIXEL

In photos
I don’t look
any worse nowadays
it’s just
that for a beautiful
photo
it’s necessary
to step back
from me
to retreat
farther and farther
some day
the photo
will show
a dot
.
and later
it too
will vanish






PIXEL

На фото 
я не стала 
получаться хуже 
просто 
для красивого
фото 
нужно 
теперь отходить
от меня
всё дальше 
отступать 
когда-нибудь
на фото 
будет 
точка
. 
а потом
и она
исчезнет

ZUNAMI

There will never be
A safe time

For building a house by the shore
In an age of tsunamis

For planting a cherry tree
In an age of firestorms

Having a child
Is always complicated

In an age of firestorms
An age of tsunamis
This age
That has become us

A safe time
Will never be

I look at the sea
Holding my son’s hand

I have built a house

I see
A tsunami





ZUNAMI

Никогда не наступит
Безопасное время

Построить дом на берегу
В эру цунами

Посадить вишнёвое дерево
В эру пожаров

Родить ребёнка
Всегда сложно

В эру пожаров
Эру цунами
Эру
Ставшую нами

Безопасное время
Никогда не наступит

Я смотрю на море
Держу за руку сына

Я построила дом

Я вижу
Цунами

MURMURACIJA

Murmuration interested me more
Than all else I saw in rome

I had dreamed
Of the eternal city

Knew by heart its palaces
Fountains
Parks

In books
All roads…

Mine too led to rome

I stumbled
On the first
Stone
Of the appian road

Of the vast
Pitiless
Empire

But overhead there was
Murmuration

Starlings were learning
To fly

Perfect formations
Of a celestial battalion

This impression
Arose

Pressed itself
Into the memory

Of my rome
Of my world





MURMURACIJA

Мурмурация самое интересное
Что я увидела в риме

Я мечтала
О вечном городе

Знала его дворцы
Фонтаны
Парки

В книгах
Все дороги…

Моя тоже вела в рим

Споткнулась
На первом
Камне
Аппиевой дороги

Огромной
Безжалостной
Империи

И только над головой
Мурмурация

Скворцы учились
Летать

Идеальные фигуры
Небесного войска

Возникло
Впечатление

Впечаталось
В память

Моего рима
Моего мира

Alena Maksakova is a writer, poet, and editor, originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and currently in Mainz, Germany. She holds a degree in Russian literature from the University of Kharkiv. Her work has appeared in various publications, including EWLF, Articulation, ROAR, Harpy Hybrid Review, Interpoezia, Слово/Word, Signaturen, and Golden Fleece. Her poems have been translated into Ukrainian, English, German, and Greek. She is the author of a poetry collection Маленький Дневник (“A Small Diary”). Olena is one of the organizers of the Hannover Spring Festival. 

Yana Kane came to the United States as a refugee from the Soviet Union. She holds a BSE from Princeton University, a PhD in Statistics from Cornell University, and an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Literary Translation from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She won the 2024 RHINO Poetry Translation Prize, was a finalist for the 2025 Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation, received an honorable mention in the 2024 Stephen Mitchell Prize competition, was included in the 2025 Deep Vellum Best Literary Translations anthology, and was longlisted for the 2026 edition. She is grateful to Bruce Esrig for editing her English-language texts.

17 February 2026