Maria STEPANOVA (Russia) is a poet, essayist and journalist. She is the author of ten poetry collections and three books of essays, and a recipient of several Russian and international literary awards, including the Bolshaya Kniga Prize, the Russia’s main literary award, as well as the NOS Prize and Andrey Bely Prize. Her poems have been translated into many languages, including English, French, German, Hebrew and Italian. Her novel Pamiati pamiati (In Memory of Memory), which blends memoir, documents and essays into an epic narrative, came out in Russian in November 2017 and received the Big Book Prize in December 2018. Stepanova is the founder and editor-in-chief of COLTA.RU, a crowdfunded online daily covering the cultural, social, and political life in Russia and in the world; it attracts an audience of 600,000 unique visitors per month.
the human body
the human body
is not soap wearing thin to a hole
in the scented water bowl
nor is it ever wholly
of the past, always of the here and now
glows through the deadwood
not easy to dispatch
it creeps up like a snowdrop
through the carbon patch
and what was pining, barely alive
shut away within its bony cage
now floods into the dark recesses
to happen again
new life emerges when hope is no more
and you stand there, empty-handed and unsure
(Translated by Sasha Dugdale)
瑪麗亞．斯捷潘諾娃（俄羅斯），詩人、散文家與記者，著有十本詩集和三本散文集。曾獲多項俄羅斯與國際文學獎，包括俄羅斯Bolshaya Kniga大獎、NOS大獎及安德雷．貝利獎。她的詩作獲翻譯成多種語言，包括英語、法語、德語、希伯來語和意大利語。她的小說《悼念記憶》糅合回憶錄、檔案和散文，滙成史詩式敍述，2017年十一月以俄語出版，於2018年十二月榮獲大書獎。斯蒂潘諾娃創辦並主編眾籌網上日誌COLTA.RU，報導俄羅斯與世界各地的文化、社會和政治生活，每個月的瀏覽量達到六十萬人次。
人的身體
人的身體
不會像肥皂
在塗了油膏的水中消失
它從沒有過「曾經」
它總是「現在」和「在哪裏」
穿過枯樹枝它被照亮
要將它摧毀很困難
它像雪花蓮一樣
衝破碳灰開始生長
它體內的一切勉強存在
卻在囚禁中疲憊不堪
它將衝出黑色的塌陷
為了再次的重生
新生活將會出現當你不再抱著期待
你無法知道，你將會拿什麼來迎接它
（翻譯﹕張猛）