14 January 2025
by Lev Shlosberg
Source: Telegram
A year ago, on 14 January 2024, Lev Semyonovich Rubinstein passed away. He left, dissolving into glimmers of sunlight, the fragile mist of fog, the gusts of rainy wind, the molecules of airborne oxygen, the drops of morning dew, and the shadows of the fading evening light.
18+ THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS CREATED AND DISTRIBUTED BY A FOREIGN AGENT, LEV MARKOVICH SHLOSBERG, OR RELATES TO THE ACTIVITIES OF A FOREIGN AGENT, LEV MARKOVICH SHLOSBERG. [This capitalised text is published by Lev Shlosberg as a requirement imposed by Russia’s foreign agent legislation and is reproduced here for information purposes only – to illustrate the repressive nature of Russian law – RiR] [Thank God they didn’t get to you Lev Semyonovich.]
Lev Rubinstein was made of words, like molecules of language. He could play with them, handling them like prayer beads, weaving them into garlands. He could see them in their purest form, and imbue them with new meaning. Rubinstein’s poetry was made up entirely of new discoveries. When he wrote, everyone could see: here is a new word, a new symbol, a new image.
Lev Rubinstein was a man untethered by time. Poetry kept him young. He was an intangible person in a tangible world. His poetic gift was the source of his being.
Lev Rubinstein was totally devoid of hatred, malice, vengeance, or despair. He was profoundly human. Lev Rubinstein was a source of light.
The terrible death that destroyed his body did not distort a single facet of his spiritual being.
Among Lev Rubinstein’s poems written on cards,* there isn’t a single unnecessary entry. Everything has its place. Rarely does anyone manage to assemble their life as precisely as words. Lev Semyonovich succeeded.
A year has passed since Lev Rubinstein’s death, and the light of his words still shines.
@shlosberg
Translated by James Lofthouse
* Ed.: Lev Rubinstein habitually wrote his poems on a series of cards (initially, on library cards). For more information, see for example: ‘Жизнь по карточкам,’ https://jewish.ru/ru/people/culture/204596/, 19 January 2024
