Contemporary East European Poetry: An Anthology

by Emery George (Editor)

"This ambitious work has long been overdue....An excellent introduction to Slavic and East European poetry."-- World Literature Today
Providing a unique window into a poetic tradition little known and little understood in the West, Contemporary East European Poetry features one hundred and sixty poets from ten countries, with works translated from fifteen languages. Emery George, himself a distinguished poet and translator,
brings together over five hundred poems, expertly rendered into beautiful English verse by an international group of translators, often working in collaboration with the original authors. Represented are poets from many walks of life, contrasting religious and political outlooks and, most important,
poets who work in a wide variety of styles--from traditional forms to the most up-to-date experimental modes. Here are tightly woven Petrarchan sonnets and elegant dramatic monologues alongside the free verse and mathematical experiments of a new generation. In these pages readers will find Nobel
laureates (Czeslaw Milosz, Jaroslav Seifert), major poets (Peter Huchel, Vasko Popa), translators of global stature (Michael Hamburger, Ewald Osers), as well as poets virtually unknown in the West. And new to this edition is the work of thirty-two young poets representing eight distinct cultures and
a whole new view of life in the former Easter Bloc. Also included are informative introducions to all selections and biographical sketches of each poet.
A gallery of poetic images, Contemporary East European Poetry is the only volume of this scope available. For lovers of poetry and literature interested in a rich tradition so long cut off from the world at large, this rich collection offers a wealth of insights and opportunities for discoveries.
"Praiseworthy....Offers exciting glimpses of poetic worlds still to be fully mapped."-- The Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Poetry

544 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1993

Reviews

[Judith Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag, as would be expected in an anthology of this size.

Reading this 40 years after it was first published and nearly 30 years after the updated version, it's fascinating to consider how the map has changed and what a version published today would include. The original covers 7 countries, part of an eighth (the USSR, with Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania being included) and one stateless people, but would now cover thirteen (only four of the former Yugoslav nations are represented in the anthology). East Germany wouldn't be included today and probably (and sadly) neither would there be European Yiddish poets to include.

I imagine Russia was excluded because that would have doubled the size of the book, but I wonder why Albania wasn't included?

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The anthology Contemporary East European Poetry, edited by Emery George, first appeared in 1983 from Ardis and then was reprinted, with a few new poems, by Oxford University Press in 1993. The book aimed to represent what was going on behind the Iron Curtain, in the countries under Communism, whose cultural output was little known in the West. All of the poetry here is presented in English versions by a team of translators, and the original-language text is not included.

However, the anthology did not extend to the Soviet Union. No Russian poetry is included, which is a bit of a shock. I had been led to this anthology by a misunderstanding that it contained some poems by Gennady Aigi, whose native Chuvashia and adopted Moscow are well within the bounds of geographical Europe, but alas no. Ditto for Ukrainian or Belorussian verse. However, the anthology also includes German poetry from East Germany, which one might not have expected.

Of course two decades on, one cannot expect anything here to still be "contemporary". Even by the time of the 1983 first printing (and even more so by the 1993 reprinting), several of the poets had been dead for some time already. However, lovers of poetry will discover many great figures of 20th-century literature, from the Estonian poet Marie Under to the keeper of the Yiddish flame Moshe Yungman. The poems by Romanian poet Nina Cassian are from before her exile in the United States for falling afoul of Ceausescu; her later poetry is perhaps better known in the West, but here you can see how she started off.

I might grumble a bit about the translations -- the Hungarian poet Sándor Weöres is particularly ill-served here compared to the accurate and memorable English renderings of his eternal moment anthology. However, this book remains quite helpful.

[Mills College Library]

891.8 C7613 1993

[Michele Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems I can follow and somewhat understand...the beauty and simplicity draws me in...