30 Days of Ukrainian Poetry - Day 5 - "I've lost my key"

Day 5 and on a roll! This poetry challenge worked out delightfully well today, as I found a neat little poem that mentions a pine needle, and hence decided to head to a park in my city that is aptly named "Pine Forest Park". It made for a wonderful Sunday outing.

Today's piece is a short and somewhat puzzling one written by the most contemporary of the poets I have featured so far: Ivan Malkovych. He was born in 1961 in Ivano-Frankivsk, a western city that is often a starting point for trips into the Carpathian mountains. Many of his poems feature the Carpathians, and it makes me wish I had a trip planned to them soon so that I could do a poetry recording there! Fun factoid: The city of Ivano-Frankivsk is named after another poet named Ivan: Ivan Franko. You can expect to see one of his poems on this blog at some point. 

In the meantime, let's get to "I've lost my key", by Ivan Malkovych. 

Я загубив свій ключ

Іван Малкович

Я загубив свій ключ: я голочку соснову 
назвав своїм ключем — І загубив чомусь, 
і чОмусь не знайду, й, відшукуючи, знову 
знаходжу не його — і до дверей тулюсь. 
Я всі ці довгі дні ключа свого шукаю,— 
я загубив свій ключ? я мав його чи ні? 
який він? і чому так пахне він мені, 
як голочку сосни у пальцях розтираю...

I've lost my key

Ivan Malkovych 

I've lost my key: I deemed as my key
a pine needle - and I lost it somehow. 
and somehow I won't find it, and looking,
again I find it not - and press against the doors.
All these long days I have searched for my key, - 
have I lost my key? Did I have it or not?
Which is it? And why does it smell to me
as though I rub a pine needle in my fingers... 

My own translation. Sorry it doesn't rhyme. 

Since this is a modern poem, we actually have a video of the original author reading it - although unfortunately, it's just an amateur video from an audience member and not of the best quality. (But hey, who am I calling amateur? I had my iPhone propped up on a log today to film my version...)
The video starts a touch late but is cool to listen to, and continues on with a few other poems as well.

I'm curious about your thoughts on this poem - what does it mean to you? Somehow it resonates, but beyond a vague sense of some sort of unconscious understanding, I really can't explain what I think is its message. Anyway, I like it.

Here's to seeing what Day 6 will bring!



(and as per usual, here's my disclaimer that my blog reflects my views only and not those of the Peace Corps or of the US or Ukraine).