“Faces”, by Nika Turbina | Profile

In it Culture Supplement of the newspaper PROFILE We offer every week “Narcolepsy – Coordinates for an approach to poetry”, and the one chosen on this occasion is “Faces”, by the Russian-Ukrainian Nika Turbiná:

There are faces in which eyes,

after midnight,

where the rising sun is reflected.

I walk the dusty road,

My tired legs ache.

But I believe in those faces

and they are not made by gods.

(Translation by Juan Arabia)

Nika Turbina (1974-2002). Russian-Ukrainian poet, known for her poems written at a very young age. At the age of 11, she reached her peak by obtaining the Golden Lion at the Venice International Poetry Festival, an award that had only been won by another Russian: Anna Akhmatova. They wrote about Nika Turbiná in the newspapers, they invited her to television programs and poetic concerts where she recited together with the established poets. She knew how to captivate the audience with his voice that revealed vulnerability and at the same time a bitter and tragic security. According to his account, she once accidentally fell from a balcony and survived, it happened in 1997, his friends confessed that Nika he had thrown himself from a fifth-story balcony after a fight, survived but his spine was damaged. At the age of 27, the episode was repeated and she was left lifeless.