Dwarves On The Shoulders Of Giants Poem by viacheslav kupriyanov

It isn't every giant who is willing
and has the time to carry dwarves around.
But dwarves manage to find
the ability to carry around at least
parts of giants: here a dwarf
carries around a giant's liver —
you are sitting in my chopped liver
the giant is annoyed and resettles
the dwarf on his shoulders. Look how
a dwarf is carrying lungs and confusing
exhalation with inhalation, the giant
spits the dwarf out onto his shoulder.
And here is a dwarf posed like Atlas
carrying around the giant's heart, whispering:
the most important part is the ventricle,
the giant drags the dwarf out of his heart
into the light and sets him on his shoulders.
Dwarves are carrying around eyeballs,
nibbling at the sky reflected in them
they crawl into ear canals and steal
the sound of the ocean drop by drop,
they lie down in bones under the tongue,
just to mess with with the giant's speech,
foregather as a team to carry around
the edifice of the giant's brain,
trying to push the left hemisphere
and the right hemisphere together.
They all congregate on the giant's shoulders,
they pat him on his back
the dwarves of the heart, the dwarves of his thoughts,
the dwarves of his speech, the dwarves of his breath —
it takes your breath away when from the height
of someone else's shoulder, they sound off, sing and dance,
until now you too are dancing
to the harmonious ensemble of their deafening tunes.

Translated from Russian by Maia Tekses