The X-word Translating profanity in contemporary Russian poetry Ainsley Morse Dartmouth College This article describes changes in the use of profanity in contemporary Russ- ian poetry and its implications for translation into English. While Russian poetry now more closely resembles English-language poetry in embracing the profanity typical of conversational speech, the highly taboo nature of Russian profanity is still relevant, including gender-specifc taboos. Using examples from a range of female and male poets from the 2000s and 2010s (including Dina Gatina, Elena Fanailova, Dmitri Prigov, Andrei Rodionov, Alexander Skidan, Oksana Vasyakina, Lida Yusupova and others), the arti- cle explores the ambivalent status of profane language today, whereby the same phrase for diferent speakers can be considered entirely unremarkable or profoundly taboo. In addition to the exigencies of poetic form, this is the most relevant factor (and vexing problem) for Russian-to-English transla- tion. Special attention is also paid to specifcally queer uses of profanity, with the suggestion that profanity is perhaps best translated in a maximally expressive sociolect-specifc way. Keywords: profanity, contemporary Russian poetry, taboo, sex, Russia Но товарищи хуй и пизда это ведь не органы – это идеи, Keti Chukhrov это материализованная диалектика 1 In a recent essay published on the Poetry Foundation website, the poet Claire Luchette discussed the power of profanity in contemporary American poetry. She quotes Eileen Myles, who “argues that fuck and shit are ‘good strong words’ on a sonic level”; Myles also acknowledges that “socially they are made even stronger https://doi.org/./tis..mor Translation and Interpreting Studies ISSN - | E‑ISSN - © John Benjamins Publishing Company 1. “But comrades the cock and the cunt/these are of course not organs, but ideas,/they are the materialized dialectic.” This translation and all subsequent ones are mine unless otherwise indi- cated – AM.