Pavel Arseniev
THE DISSERTATION AS A PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT
i isolated myself a few years earlier
“when it was not yet in fashion”, when it was still possible,
ran away from my native city, changed my craft,
or more precisely, stuck to one of them,
before, I sought a belabored form in everything,
now, a simple form of whatever it may be
and whatever may come
(fill in the empty graphs yourselves, please)
in everything i triy to avoid complications,
i don’t leave the city for months at a time
don’t see anyone for weeks at a time
don’t converse for entire days
and instead i understand now how to do it:
how to fill out a biography
how to organize my time
how to eat right,
what you can even bother attempting,
and what is worth trying to finish.
i leave the house now rather rarely––
to the library, where i don’t spend my time
on conversations (with the living)
i immediately set myself to the texts
of dead white men,
turned off many of my functions long ago
so that nothing would disturb me
(in that life at the high-water mark
i always managed so much
but did not leave posterity
any written indications)
i select as a subject of inquiry
only facts worthy of attention,
i provide this my servers
for calculations, don’t spend
hardware capacity
on secondary sources
i dedicate myself to making sense of
what happened exactly at a certain time and among very certain people,
I save objects from the past
from not becoming it.
under full employment without any payment
i decided not to fly on the holidays
to the other side of the world,
to at least sort out
the documents in the far corner,
and the world suddenly shrunk to the size of the room,
perhaps never again
to restore its previous dimensions.
MARBACH POEM
We’re not longer in exile,
We’re just in history now
This story is well known:
Creation surpasses knowledge
Where are you, are you home? No,
I’m still in motion
Where are you, in Wagner’s convoy?
No, I’m in Schiller’s archive
Then everything returns again
Both to one’s own circles
And to the Saint-Charles station!
06/24
THE PRESENT MESSAGE
The present message is distributed by those
who didn’t suspect anything like this
and simply loved their motherland,
went to work and supported the foundations
of the state order, or concerns those
who didn’t suspect anything like this
and simply loved their motherland,
went to work and supported the foundations
of the state order.
The present message is distributed by those
who until the very last hoped
that common sense would prevail
and that the revolution would not be long in coming,
or concerns those
who until the very last hoped
that common sense would prevail
and that the revolution would not be long in coming.
The present message is distributed by those
who thought that the arrests of gays, migrants, and union members
didn't concern them, but then there was no one left to stick up them
or concerns those
who thought that the arrests of gays, migrants, and union members
didn't concern them, but then there was no one left to stick up for them.
The present message is distributed by those
who doesn’t give a fuck
and who just likes to have a drink with friends
or concerns those
who doesn’t give a fuck
and who just likes to have a drink with friends.
This message is distributed by those
who initially had no intention of making any compromises at all,
but then the symbolic capital, finally impossible to export,
gradually forced them to turn а deaf ear and carry on,
or concerns those who initially had no intention
of making any compromises at all,
but then the symbolic capital, finally impossible to export,
gradually forced them to turn а deaf ear and carry on.
The present message is distributed by part of that force
which eternally desires evil but does good
or concerns part of that force
which eternally desires evil but does good
The present message is distributed
by that what’s-his-name
or concerns that what’s-his-name.
The present message is distributed
by those whom it doesn’t concern
or concerns those
who do not distributed it.
The following message
is not distributed by anyone
and concerns no one.
A POEM ABOUT A CERTAIN DOG
Russia[1] –– that could be the name of a big dog
one that’s cinnamon-colored that no one likes much
and that no one really wants to see at their place,
because she barks loudly at seagulls and helicopters
(“and would stop a drone in flight”),
scratches herself and leaves fur and muddy footprints everywhere
it's very hard to find housing with it in Europe,
in developed society, the majority has developed
a prudent allergy to it,
in short, you understand,
our house is too small for you.
And only Kirill Medvedev cannot give it up
and drags it around with him,
for which people are beginning to look askance at him
and see him as someone who breaks in without asking
to the homes (of artists in exile),
getting in the way of people walking by and simply
possessing too many connections..
Our mutual sociologist friend who studies protests
also likes to play with her,
says “let’s go out in the street
with our dog.”
Sometimes she can even be found hidden
in my attic in the old port of Marseille,
and also at the antifa-artists’ summer house
and when crashing with certain trade union
activists in the Paris suburbs.
7/23
[1] The real names have been changed
Pavel Arseniev (born 1986 in Leningrad) is an artist, poet and theorist. Poems have been translated into English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Greek, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Bulgarian and Romanian. Books of poems include: Things that won’t fit inside your head published by AnnaNova (St.-Petersburg, 2005), Colorless green ideas sleep furiously by Kraft (Moscow, St.Petersburg, 2011), Spasm of Accomodation by Commune Editions (Berkeley, 2017), Reported speech by Cicada Press (New York, 2018), among others.