Post-War Russian Poetry

by Daniel Weissbort (Translator)

English, Russian (translation)

Genres: Poetry

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Daniel Weissbort was educated at Cambridge, where he was a History Exhibitioner. In 1965, with Ted Hughes, he founded the magazine Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) which he edited for almost forty years. He also directed the Translation Workshop and MFA Program in Translation at the University of Iowa for over thirty years. In addition to his translations, Daniel Weissbort published many collections of his own poetry, co-edited a historical reader in translation theory, and wrote a book about the translator Ted Hughes.

Reviews

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of Russian poets mostly born in the late 1930s to 1940s. Some famous names and some not so well known in the West. Like all anthologies there are too few examples of the poet's work, and all the poems you don't really want to read. There is however, some good stuff here, and I found myself marvelling at the quality of the poetry even in translation.

[Karlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is easy to go looking for allegories of the Soviet Union in this collection and I see it in Nikolai Zabolotsky’s ‘The Solitary Oak’. But only half a dozen poems spoke to me personally even if all are readable and worthy of attention. I was surprised by a couple reading like Plath (and I enjoyed those) most notably Bella Akhmadulina’s ‘Though I’ve lived in contempt and disgrace...’ and Natalya Gorbanyevkaya’s ‘And there is nothing at all - neither fear...’.

The collection includes the heavyweights Slutsky, Pasternak and Brodsky but my favourite lines go to Yunna Morits:

“The train runs along the narrow gauge,
Like a boy down a path.”

[AliceinWonderland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ones in there!

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you lose your temper with me, -
spent,
crucified,
like tears
the stars will stand out
in broad
daylight.
The wind,
lifting a wisp of hair,
thunder
of clouds,
rustle
of grass,
rainbow-
glimmer
will say: 'You are not just!'
Dark gorges
will predict misfortune,
world catastrophe...
But first
I shall myself come to you,
and ask you
to forgive me.

Robert Rozhdestvensky.