Venya Gushchin‘s (Ph.D. Candidate, Slavic) translations of poems by Dordzhi Dzhaldzhireev accompany the English translation by Tatiana Bosch of a lyrical essay by the Kalmyk poet. The essay and poems appear in PEN/Opp, an international online magazine founded by Swedish PEN in 2011. The two poems are part of Gushchin’s larger book project of translating Dzhaldzhireev’s poetry.

The Russian imperial politics have throughout history limited the Kalmyk culture, from the early oral epos “Dzjangar” to contemporary poetry. In this lyrical essay by Dordzhi Dzhaldzhireev, it’s clear how the past lingers on to the present.