Deaf Republic Quotes

“At the trial of God, we will ask: why did you allow all this?
And the answer will be an echo: why did you allow all this?”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“And when they bombed other people's houses, we

protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America

was falling: invisible house by invisble house by invisble house --

I tooka a chair outside and watched the sun.

In the sixth month
of a disastrous reignin the house of money

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“You can fuck
anyone—but with whom can you sit
in water?”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“The deaf don't believe in silence. Silence is the invention of the hearing.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Lord, such fire
from a match you never lit.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Question
What is a child?
A quiet between two bombardments.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“What is silence? Something of the sky in us.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“I do not hear gunshots,
but watch birds splash over the backyards of the suburbs. How bright is the sky
as the avenue spins on its axis.
How bright is the sky (forgive me) how bright.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“The body of the boy lies on the asphalt like a paperclip. The body of the boy lies on the asphalt like the body of a boy.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“At the trial of God, we will ask: why did you allow all this? And the answer will be an echo: why did you allow all this?”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“And when they bombed other people's houses, we

protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America

was falling: invisible house by invisble house by invisble house --

I took a a chair outside and watched the sun.

In the sixth month
of a disastrous reign in the house of money

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“ You are alive, I whisper to myself, therefore something in you listens. ”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Today
I have to screw on the expression of a person

thought I am at most an animal
and the animal I am spirals”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“She scrubs me until I spit
soapy water.
Pig, she smiles.
A man should smell better than his country—
such is the silence
of a woman who speaks against silence, knowing
silence moves us to speak.
She throws my shoes
and glasses in the air,
I am of deaf people
and I have
no country but a bathtub and an infant and a marriage bed!
Soaping together
is sacred to us.
Washing each other’s shoulders.
You can fuck
anyone—but with whom can you sit
in water?”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Be courageous, we say, but no one is courageous, as a sound we do not hear lifts the birds off the water.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“You step out of the shower and the entire nation calms—
a drop of lemon-egg shampoo,
you smell like bees,
a brief kiss,
I don’t know anything about you—except the spray of freckles on your shoulders!
which makes me feel so thrillingly
alone.
I stand on earth in my pajamas,
penis sticking out—
for years
in your direction.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Watch, God— deaf have something to tell that not even they can hear.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Now each of us is
a witness stand”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“I am your boy drowning in this country, who doesn’t know the word for drowning and yells I am diving for the last time!”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Deafness is suspended above blue tin roofs
and copper eaves; deafness
feeds on birches, light posts, hospital roofs, bells;
deafness rests in our men's chests.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“Observe this moment
-how it convulses-
The body of the boy lies on the asphalt like a paperclip.
The body of the boy lies on the asphalt
like the body of a boy.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“like a dumb pigeon's beak, I am pecking
every which way at astonishment.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“There were too many bodies and
not enough people—
too many ears and no one attached to them.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“I am not deaf
I simply told the world
to shut off its crazy music for a while.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“and what remains of her is
a puppet
that speaks with its fingers,
what remains of a puppet is this woman, what remains
of her (they took you, Sonya)—the voice we cannot hear—is the clearest voice.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“A man should smell
better than his country”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“ Deafness isn't an illness! It's a sexual position! ”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“In these avenues, deafness is our only barricade.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic