Field-Russia

by Gennady Aygi, Peter France (Translator)

The central work by the world-famous Chuvashian who "writes with an imagistic compression an real time candor that is utterly unique" ("Publishers Weekly").
Lifelong Aygi translator and friend Peter France wrote in "The Guardian": "Aygi wrote from a deep awareness of the losses and destructions of the 20th century." "Field-Russia" is a book of poems arranged shortly before Aygi's death, which in his view occupied a central place in his work. The collection opens with an informal conversation about poetry, and is followed by a series of little lyric "books"--"Field-Russia, Time of the Ravines," and "Final Departure"--that form a part of Aygi's "life-book." Like Ahkmatova and Celan before him, Aygi has left us with these most necessary words to dwell in--a quiet, spiritual poetry in a time of uprootedness and despair.

Genres: Poetry, Russia

171 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2007

About the author

Gennady Nikolaevich Aygi (Russian: Геннадий Николаевич Айги, Chuvash: Геннадий Николаевич Айхи; 21 August 1934 - 21 February 2006, Moscow) was a Chuvash poet and a translator. His poetry is written both in Chuvash and in Russian. Aygi is widely considered to be one of the great avant-garde poets from the former Soviet Union. He was born in Chuvashia, then a Soviet Republic, and moved to Moscow in 1953 to study at the Literary Institute. Though Aygi's poetry was not published in the Soviet Union until the 1980s, his work was widely translated and he received numerous honors, including multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize.

Reviews

[atito · Rating 5 out of 5]

total & earnest commitment to truth, beauty, and the world. i am becoming disinterested in reading things that won't make me dream! the land shivers flowers

[Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not claim to understand most of these poems. Falling somewhere between Gerard Manley Hopkins and Paul Celan, they seem to both invite and defy the wandering attention. But the glimmerings I receive are precious.

a wonder — this is always simple (but a mystery — it is simple — but a wonder...)

[Gerardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great book. I really enjoyed that the author is telling us to become part of nature and to forget about the industrial cities. Great images and simbolism. the window becomes a medium of inspiration because it becomes part of something else.