Бездумное былое

by Sergey Gandlevsky, Сергей Гандлевский

Сергей Гандлевский — поэт, прозаик, эссеист, переводчик. Окончил филологический факультет МГУ. Работал школьным учителем, экскурсоводом, рабочим сцены, ночным сторожем; в настоящее время — редактор журнала “Иностранная литература”. С восемнадцати лет пишет стихи, которые до второй половины 80-х выходили за границей в эмигрантских изданиях, с конца 80-х годов публикуются в России. Лауреат многих литературных премий, в том числе “Малая Букеровская”, “Северная Пальмира”, “Аполлона Григорьева”, “Московский счет”, “Поэт”. Стипендиат фонда “POESIE UND FREIHEIT EV”. Участник поэтических фестивалей и выступлений в Австрии, Англии, Германии, США, Нидерландах, Польше, Швеции, Украине, Литве, Японии. Стихи С. Гандлевского переводились на английский, французский, немецкий, итальянский, голландский, финский, польский, литовский и японский языки. Проза — на английский, французский, немецкий и словацкий.
“Бездумное былое” — “беглые мемуары”, по определению автора, которые начинаются историей семьи и заканчиваются декабрем 2011-го, многотысячными московскими митингами протеста.

Genres: Poetry, Biography

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Sergey Gandlevsky (Russian: Сергей Гандлевский) was born in Moscow in 1952. He graduated in Russian literature at the University of Moscow and has been writing poetry since he was eighteen. One of the most prominent among the Russian poets, he is a complete author: beside poetry he has been writing short stories, novels, essays, critical writings and plays. In the 70’s, he was one of the founders and participants of the group of poets “Moscow Time” (Московское время) along with Alexei Tsvetkov, Aleksandr Soprovski and Kenzheiev Bakhit, and the group “The intimate conversation” (Задушевная беседа) – later “The Almanac” (Альманах) – together with Dmitri Prigov, Timur Kibírov, Lev Rubinstein and others. At present, he is a member of the club “Poetry” and collaborates with the journal “Foreign literature» (Иностранная литература). In 1991, he was admitted to the Union of Russian Writers.

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this gem in a local Little Free Library. Yeah, our neighborhood is cool like that.

After starting this book, I handed it to a friend. "What do you think of this?" He read a few lines of one poem, tossed it on the floor, and said he wouldn't waste his time on it. I shrugged my shoulders, and continued to read. After all, it's a book of poems. It shouldn't take long to finish, as long as I don't dwell on esoteric meaning.

I came to love this book, in all its complexity, realizing I probably grasped 10% of its significance. I know close to nothing about poetry and Russian history, but I'll trust my heart to know this is the best poetry I've ever read.

This stanza from In Memory of My Mother nestled in after reading commentary by Philip Metres, then coming back to the poem:

*Speak. But what do you want to say? Perhaps
How the barge moved along the city river, trailing sunset,
How all June until the solstice
Summer stretched on its tiptoes to the light,
How breath of linden blew through sultry squares
And how thunder rolled from all directions that July?
You once believed that speech needs an underlying cause
And a grave occasion. But that's a lie.*

I worked with Russian and Ukranian people in the past. I've long been drawn to their culture. Some of the people I worked with would intermittently speak Russian to me forgetting that I didn't speak the language. They would say things like, "You seem like you are Russian. You look Russian." It was a marvelous connection of the heart. Intellect stepped aside and made room for enigma. I'm certain this is one reason I'm drawn to Sergey Gandlevsky's poetry.

I'm tempted to hold on to this book, aim to pick it up again, study its depths. I know I probably won't. I should return it the a Little Free Library, and allow someone else to stumble upon A Kindred Orphanhood.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is damn good poetry. And you will look cool reading it because no one has ever heard of him, maybe not even in Russia. Buy it buy it buy it buy it

[emma]

Speak. But what do you want to say? Perhaps
How the barge moved along the city river, trailing sunset,
How all June until the solstice
Summer stretched on its tiptoes to the light,
How breath of linden blew through sultry squares
And how thunder rolled from all directions that July?
You once believed that speech needs an underlying cause
And a grave occasion. But that's a lie.
-from "Stanzas"

Some of the poems in this collection (like Stanzas) were absolutely beautiful—the kind of beautiful that reminds you why you love poetry. However, I unfortunately didn't connect with a lot of the works. This might be in part due to the fact that these are poems in translation, and thus I inevitably lost out on a lot of the work in meter, sound, and rhyme that was happening in the originals. It might also be due to the fact that Gandlevsky included a ton of Russian cultural and literary references that I didn't really know what to do with or how to comprehend.