Elizaveta Friesem
  • About
  • Books
    • Media is us >
      • Principles of communication
      • Micro- and macropower
      • ACE model
      • Description of chapters
    • Hypertexts >
      • Me, looking for meaning >
        • All the pages I have started
        • List of completed pages
        • Human thinking is nonlinear >
          • Verbal vs. nonverbal communication
          • Human thinking
          • What is "natural"?
          • On being a writer >
            • On being a scholar
          • Paradox
          • Make Sense >
            • Interpretation
            • Knowledge
          • Human brain
        • Content and form of this book >
          • Rhizome in philosophy
        • My quest for meaning >
          • Why do people hurt each other? >
            • Good vs. evil
            • Violence in the human nature
            • Mean and stupid >
              • Free will
              • Can I give myself credit for being empathetic?
            • Circumstances
            • Cycle of violence
            • Doing the right thing
            • Norms
            • Everybody is connected
            • We hurt others when we are in pain >
              • Emotional pain
            • (Mis)understanding each other's needs
            • Both sides
            • Self-awareness and empathy of higher order
          • Postmodern philosophy >
            • On being right
            • Truth
            • Reality
            • Binaries
            • Power
            • Cognitive biases
            • Why do misunderstandings happen?
            • Postmodern worldview
            • Us and them
          • Science, religion and art
          • Human nature
          • Meaning >
            • Human needs
            • Meaning of life
            • Where do meanings come from?
            • Ideas
            • Why do everyday objects make sense?
            • Meaningless >
              • Common sense
              • Explain/excuse conflation
              • Choice
              • Subjectivity and objectivity
            • "It is what it is"
            • How much do we understand each other?
            • Meaning wars
            • Communication
            • Objectification
            • Meaning communities
            • Meaning-seeking vs. meaning-making
            • Individual meanings vs. shared meanings
            • Feelings
        • Hypertext books
        • Why am I trying to stay sane? >
          • Coronavirus and me
          • I am an optimist
          • What does it mean to "understand"? >
            • Polarization >
              • Parenting
              • Problem/solution binary
            • Understanding ourselves
            • Why is language so unhelpful? >
              • Synesthesia
              • Language
              • Media
            • Empathy >
              • When conflict gets out of control
              • "Little lady" and "differently-abled"
              • Empathy as a matter of self-preservation
              • Self-empathy
            • "I'll never understand!"
          • Everybody has their struggles
          • Privilege
          • "The Death of the Author"
          • What is a text?
          • Literal vs. nonliteral communication
        • What's the point? >
          • Depression
          • Do children ask themselves about the purpose of life?
          • The importance of having a purpose >
            • Knowing your true purpose
            • Self-awareness
            • Inner compass
            • Forgetting about your purpose
        • What will this project become? >
          • Suggested citation format
      • Power of meanings // Meanings of power
      • It's not about "them"
  • Editing
    • Me as your editor
    • How I will help you
    • Pricing
    • Privacy policy
  • Blog
  • Workshops
    • Five (easy) steps to become media literate
    • Surviving the polarization vortex
  • Learn more
    • Bio
    • Talks and interviews
    • Poems >
      • Stranger
      • Lonely heart
      • Fairy tales
      • Dreams and nightmares
      • Moon
      • Seasons
      • Muse
      • Sketches
      • Nonsense
    • Educational materials
  • Contact me

POEMS: Lonely Heart

Picture
***
Притворимся, что нам всё равно.
Сквозь тебя посмотрю на прохожих.
Сквозь тебя они будут похожи
На актёров немого кино.

Ты уйдёшь, и останется дно.
Толща тёмная давит на плечи.
Утону без тебя в этот вечер.
Мне бы слово – лишь слово одно…
***
Let's pretend that we don't care.
Through you, I will look at passers-by.
Through you, they will resemble
Actors in a silent movie.

You will leave, and leave me on the bottom,
Dark mass of water pressing on my shoulders.

I will drown without you tonight,
Wishing for a word, just one word...
  

***
​Эти нервные руки

Гладят кошек,
Помогают словам объяснять;
На коленях умерев понарошку –
От скуки -
Воскресают опять.

Обо мне и не думая даже,
Живут,
Привычным движеньем подносят ко рту сигарету
И грустят в ее душном дыму,
В этом маленьком городе где-то.
***
These nervous hands
​Pet cats,
​Help words to explain;
Having pretended to die on the knees -
From boredom -
Come to life again.

Without even thinking about me,
​They live,
Bring a cigarette to the mouth with a habitual gesture,
And feel sad in its stuffy smoke,
Somewhere in this small city. 

***
Мы все безумно одиноки.
И я тебе не расскажу,
Какой сегодня дождь по крыше
Гулял – с хвостом лилово-синим,
Какая ночь в окно втекала,
Как сладко облака молчали
И терлись спинами о землю.
И ты, прошу, не говори мне,
Не говори мне ни о чем.
*** <about>
We all are madly, terribly lonely.
So I will not tell you
What kind of rain was walking today on the roof
With its purple-blue tail,
Or what kind of night was flowing into the window,
Or how the sweetly silent clouds
Were rubbing their backs against the earth.
And you too, I am begging you, don't tell me,
Don't tell me anything at all.

***
На стенах расцветают маки, -

Сквозь тюль их сеет фары свет.
И рядом – теплый бок собаки…
Сижу в вечернем полумраке.
А ты не здесь. Тебя здесь нет.

***
Деревья, под которыми мы шли,

За нашу немоту нас пожалели
И в глубине земли слова нашли,
Но мы уже исчезли с их аллеи.

Дома на нас смотрели из-под крыш
И намекали блеском серых окон.
Ты говорил. Я знала - ты молчишь.
Весь мир застыл в молчании стооком.

И я молчала, говоря в ответ
О стены разбивавшиеся фразы...
А с неба тёк волшебно синий свет
И превращал осколки слов в алмазы.
***
Trees that were were walking under
Pitied us for our muteness
And found words for us deep within the earth,
But we already left their street.

Buildings were looking at us from under their roofs
And hinting to us with a glint of their gray windows.
​You were talking. I knew that you did not say anything.
The whole world froze in its all-seeing silence. 

And I did not say anything, while uttering in response
Phrases that broke into pieces against the walls...
But a magically blue light was flowing down from the sky
And turning pieces of the words into diamonds.
  • About
  • Books
    • Media is us >
      • Principles of communication
      • Micro- and macropower
      • ACE model
      • Description of chapters
    • Hypertexts >
      • Me, looking for meaning >
        • All the pages I have started
        • List of completed pages
        • Human thinking is nonlinear >
          • Verbal vs. nonverbal communication
          • Human thinking
          • What is "natural"?
          • On being a writer >
            • On being a scholar
          • Paradox
          • Make Sense >
            • Interpretation
            • Knowledge
          • Human brain
        • Content and form of this book >
          • Rhizome in philosophy
        • My quest for meaning >
          • Why do people hurt each other? >
            • Good vs. evil
            • Violence in the human nature
            • Mean and stupid >
              • Free will
              • Can I give myself credit for being empathetic?
            • Circumstances
            • Cycle of violence
            • Doing the right thing
            • Norms
            • Everybody is connected
            • We hurt others when we are in pain >
              • Emotional pain
            • (Mis)understanding each other's needs
            • Both sides
            • Self-awareness and empathy of higher order
          • Postmodern philosophy >
            • On being right
            • Truth
            • Reality
            • Binaries
            • Power
            • Cognitive biases
            • Why do misunderstandings happen?
            • Postmodern worldview
            • Us and them
          • Science, religion and art
          • Human nature
          • Meaning >
            • Human needs
            • Meaning of life
            • Where do meanings come from?
            • Ideas
            • Why do everyday objects make sense?
            • Meaningless >
              • Common sense
              • Explain/excuse conflation
              • Choice
              • Subjectivity and objectivity
            • "It is what it is"
            • How much do we understand each other?
            • Meaning wars
            • Communication
            • Objectification
            • Meaning communities
            • Meaning-seeking vs. meaning-making
            • Individual meanings vs. shared meanings
            • Feelings
        • Hypertext books
        • Why am I trying to stay sane? >
          • Coronavirus and me
          • I am an optimist
          • What does it mean to "understand"? >
            • Polarization >
              • Parenting
              • Problem/solution binary
            • Understanding ourselves
            • Why is language so unhelpful? >
              • Synesthesia
              • Language
              • Media
            • Empathy >
              • When conflict gets out of control
              • "Little lady" and "differently-abled"
              • Empathy as a matter of self-preservation
              • Self-empathy
            • "I'll never understand!"
          • Everybody has their struggles
          • Privilege
          • "The Death of the Author"
          • What is a text?
          • Literal vs. nonliteral communication
        • What's the point? >
          • Depression
          • Do children ask themselves about the purpose of life?
          • The importance of having a purpose >
            • Knowing your true purpose
            • Self-awareness
            • Inner compass
            • Forgetting about your purpose
        • What will this project become? >
          • Suggested citation format
      • Power of meanings // Meanings of power
      • It's not about "them"
  • Editing
    • Me as your editor
    • How I will help you
    • Pricing
    • Privacy policy
  • Blog
  • Workshops
    • Five (easy) steps to become media literate
    • Surviving the polarization vortex
  • Learn more
    • Bio
    • Talks and interviews
    • Poems >
      • Stranger
      • Lonely heart
      • Fairy tales
      • Dreams and nightmares
      • Moon
      • Seasons
      • Muse
      • Sketches
      • Nonsense
    • Educational materials
  • Contact me