Radio Lyrics: Found a colleague’s voice in the archive

Found a colleague’s voice in the archive.
The recording is from forty years back.
The voice is rich, fearless.
Not a voice, but “a whole life ahead”.
I asked the secretary for his number,
made a transatlantic call, said who I was,
told him I was doing a program about vocal material,
how it crumples, frays, decays.
Asked could he answer some questions.
Something rasped in the receiver.
“Speak louder”, I yelled.
Louder rasping.
“Wha-a-at? What qu-est-ions?”
“About the voice! How it crumples, breaks,
gives up the ghost.”
“Gives up – the ghost?”
“Louder!”
“What?”
It sounded like water was boiling, bubbling in the receiver.
Then it broke off.
Then a silence.
That kind.
Dead.


Translated from the Russian by Frank Williams