Horses in the Ocean

Boris Slutsky

1956

for I. Ehrenburg

Horses weren’t made for water.
They can swim but not too far.
“Gloria” means the same as “glory”—
You will easily remember this part.
Braving the sea, a transatlantic vessel
Raised its flag above the stormy waves.
In its hold stood a thousand horses.
Four thousand feet stamping night and day.
A thousand horses! Four thousand horseshoes!
Not…
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Creator Bio

Boris Slutsky

1919–1986

Russian-language Jewish poet Boris Slutsky was born in Slovyansk and grew up in Kharkov, Ukraine. He studied law and literature before dedicating himself to poetry. Although he began writing in the 1930s, Slutsky’s first volume of poetry was not published until 1957, after Stalin’s death. A leading poet and a member of the Communist Party who was nonetheless critical of the regime, Slutsky circulated his poems only in the samizdat press. Many of his poems on Jewish themes were not published until after his death.

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