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Камень
Первая книга стихотворений Осипа Эмильевича Мандельштама (1891-1938), вышедшая впервые в 1913 г. В основном разделе тома воспроизведены композиция и редакция текстов стихотворений по второму изданию книги (Пг.: Гиперборей, 1916). В этот раздел включены два стихотворения, исключенные военной цензурой ("Заснула чернь. Зияет площадь аркой...", "Императорский виссон..."). Текстологическая подготовка издания осуществлена в привлечением источников, открытых недавно, в предшествующих изданиях не учтена.
398 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1913
6 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Osip Mandelstam
302 books245 followersOsip Emilyevich Mandelstam (also spelled Osip Mandelshtam, Ossip Mandelstamm) (Russian: Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам) was a Russian poet and essayist who lived in Russia during and after its revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school of poets. He was arrested by Joseph Stalin's government during the repression of the 1930s and sent into internal exile with his wife Nadezhda. Given a reprieve of sorts, they moved to Voronezh in southwestern Russia. In 1938 Mandelstam was arrested again and sentenced to a camp in Siberia. He died that year at a transit camp.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 31, 2017
Pretty astonishing verse. Mandelstram took me by the shoulders and said with a shake, you must wake up and look around. I obeyed.
It is easy from a historical perspective for the reader to color the lyricism with an impending doom. I think that this approach enhances the project, with a measured risk.
Stone offers a treatment of history layered in allegory. His images remain pellucid, his emotions sincere.
It is easy from a historical perspective for the reader to color the lyricism with an impending doom. I think that this approach enhances the project, with a measured risk.
Stone offers a treatment of history layered in allegory. His images remain pellucid, his emotions sincere.
Want to read
July 6, 2017You can get a free pdf of Mandelstam's poems translated by Ilya Bernstein* here:
http://jacket2.org/commentary/poems-o...
Insomnia. Homer. The rows of stretched sails.
I’ve read the catalogue of ships just to the middle:
That endless caravan, that lengthy stream of cranes,
Which long ago rose up above the land oh Hellas.
It’s like a wedge of cranes towards the distant shores –
The foreheads of the kings crowned with the foam of Gods.
Where are you sailing to? If Helen were not there,
What would Troy be to you, oh warriors of Achaea
The sea and Homer – everything is moved by love.
Whom shall I listen to? There is no sound from Homer,
And full of eloquence the black sea roars and roars,
And draws with thunderous crashing nearer to my pillow.
*I don't know Russian so I can't speak to accuracy, but I certainly found Bernstein's translations more interesting and pleasing than Yevgeny Bonver's later ones.
[Edited to add: There is also a more recent translation of Mandelstam's prose by Clarence Brown, which I have not looked at but which my friend all rate highly.]
http://jacket2.org/commentary/poems-o...
Insomnia. Homer. The rows of stretched sails.
I’ve read the catalogue of ships just to the middle:
That endless caravan, that lengthy stream of cranes,
Which long ago rose up above the land oh Hellas.
It’s like a wedge of cranes towards the distant shores –
The foreheads of the kings crowned with the foam of Gods.
Where are you sailing to? If Helen were not there,
What would Troy be to you, oh warriors of Achaea
The sea and Homer – everything is moved by love.
Whom shall I listen to? There is no sound from Homer,
And full of eloquence the black sea roars and roars,
And draws with thunderous crashing nearer to my pillow.
*I don't know Russian so I can't speak to accuracy, but I certainly found Bernstein's translations more interesting and pleasing than Yevgeny Bonver's later ones.
[Edited to add: There is also a more recent translation of Mandelstam's prose by Clarence Brown, which I have not looked at but which my friend all rate highly.]
January 14, 2012
I think I started this shortly before Christmas. As to be expected, this is a really good collection. One reason I didn't rate this 5 stars is that some of the poems that the editor points to as showing what a regular everyday guy Mandelstam was (movie going, tennis, etc.), were among the weaker poems. But, as Heaney points out in his book blurb, this collection does provide context, something the scattered collections -- that I've read -- do not. (It's usually Selected Poems stuff.) I also felt the best stuff was early on, when Mandelstam was ridiculously young, and ridiculously talented. Knowing what's coming historically, one can't help but feel uneasy as you read some of these poems. If you're looking for an examples of poet-as-prophet, you will find several such poems in this collection. One of my favorites (written in 1908) showed up early on, which coincided with the season:
2
In the wood there are Christmas trees
With golden tinsel blazing;
In the thickets toy wolves are gazing
With terrifying eyes.
O my prophetic sadness,
O my silent freedom
And heavens' lifeless dome
Of eternally laughing glass!
The collection has a first rate introduction by Robert Tracy. Tracy goes into Mandelstam's history, and its relationship with Acmeism (which has always sounded to me to be a lot like Imagism). I thought it interesting that Mandelstam saw himself not as a creator, but a builder (of poems). That may sound a bit dry, but it isn't. At their best, these poems possess a chilly beauty, kind of like that Ice Palace in Doctor Zhivago (the movie).
2
In the wood there are Christmas trees
With golden tinsel blazing;
In the thickets toy wolves are gazing
With terrifying eyes.
O my prophetic sadness,
O my silent freedom
And heavens' lifeless dome
Of eternally laughing glass!
The collection has a first rate introduction by Robert Tracy. Tracy goes into Mandelstam's history, and its relationship with Acmeism (which has always sounded to me to be a lot like Imagism). I thought it interesting that Mandelstam saw himself not as a creator, but a builder (of poems). That may sound a bit dry, but it isn't. At their best, these poems possess a chilly beauty, kind of like that Ice Palace in Doctor Zhivago (the movie).
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October 3, 2025Рильський краще
December 8, 2022
"
And on Mount Athos even now
A tree miraculously springs
Upon the mountain's steep green brow
Where God's name sings.
Muzhiks rejoice in every cell,
The venerators of God's name:
The Word is total joy to them
And heals their pain.
Now all across the land we see
Monks facing public condemnation.
But from this lovely heresy
We need not seek salvation.
Every time we love anew
We lapse into heresy again.
We destroy nameless love
Together with love's name.
И поныне на Афоне
Древо чудное растет,
На крутом зеленом склоне
Имя Божие поет.
В каждой радуются келье
Имябожцы-мужики:
Слово — чистое веселье,
Исцеленье от тоски!
Всенародно, громогласно
Чернецы осуждены;
Но от ереси прекрасной
Мы спасаться не должны.
Каждый раз, когда мы любим,
Мы в нее впадаем вновь.
Безымянную мы губим
Вместе с именем любовь.
The sea, and Homer - it's love that moves all things.
To whom should I listen? Homer falls silent now
And the black sea surges toward my pillow
Like a loud declaimer, heavily thundering.
И море, и Гомер — все движется любовью.
Кого же слушать мне? И вот, Гомер молчит,
И море черное, витийствуя, шумит
И с тяжким грохотом подходит к изголовью.
"
And on Mount Athos even now
A tree miraculously springs
Upon the mountain's steep green brow
Where God's name sings.
Muzhiks rejoice in every cell,
The venerators of God's name:
The Word is total joy to them
And heals their pain.
Now all across the land we see
Monks facing public condemnation.
But from this lovely heresy
We need not seek salvation.
Every time we love anew
We lapse into heresy again.
We destroy nameless love
Together with love's name.
И поныне на Афоне
Древо чудное растет,
На крутом зеленом склоне
Имя Божие поет.
В каждой радуются келье
Имябожцы-мужики:
Слово — чистое веселье,
Исцеленье от тоски!
Всенародно, громогласно
Чернецы осуждены;
Но от ереси прекрасной
Мы спасаться не должны.
Каждый раз, когда мы любим,
Мы в нее впадаем вновь.
Безымянную мы губим
Вместе с именем любовь.
The sea, and Homer - it's love that moves all things.
To whom should I listen? Homer falls silent now
And the black sea surges toward my pillow
Like a loud declaimer, heavily thundering.
И море, и Гомер — все движется любовью.
Кого же слушать мне? И вот, Гомер молчит,
И море черное, витийствуя, шумит
И с тяжким грохотом подходит к изголовью.
"
August 24, 2025
The person I have a crush on said that I would like Mandelstam's poetry, and I, ever the hopeless romantic, was dutifully obliged to read some of his poems.
Mandelstam's poetry took some warming up to get used to--after the first couple of poems in this collection, I was a bit frustrated that the images he painted in the beginning of a poem seemed to have little to do with the conceptual reflections at the end.
While I think this frustration went away in part because the poems are arranged chronologically and the later poems had a more mature style, I also let myself really sit in the lyricism of his words. Mandelstam's poems are short, small exhales of thought. I have not read other translations, but I like Robert Tracy's translation well enough. He managed the formality of Mandelstam's symbolist verse without overdoing it with archaic vocabulary.
Mandelstam's poetry took some warming up to get used to--after the first couple of poems in this collection, I was a bit frustrated that the images he painted in the beginning of a poem seemed to have little to do with the conceptual reflections at the end.
While I think this frustration went away in part because the poems are arranged chronologically and the later poems had a more mature style, I also let myself really sit in the lyricism of his words. Mandelstam's poems are short, small exhales of thought. I have not read other translations, but I like Robert Tracy's translation well enough. He managed the formality of Mandelstam's symbolist verse without overdoing it with archaic vocabulary.
October 19, 2025
Перечитал спустя долгое время из-за подкаста о Марине Цветаевой.
Потрясающий сборник -- одновременно гранитный, тяжелый, влажный и играючий, где можно увидеть и Цветаеву и даже Леху Никонова.
Потрясающий сборник -- одновременно гранитный, тяжелый, влажный и играючий, где можно увидеть и Цветаеву и даже Леху Никонова.
December 13, 2020
This is incredibly important book by an incredibly important Russian poet. I am obsessed with Mandelstam because so many Russian writers and ordinary Russians admire him. Yet this book left me cold. It’s classical allusions seemed artificial to me. Maybe I’ll try again with a different translation.
August 18, 2010
An incredible Russian poet.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews