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Vladimir Mayakovsky and Other Poems
This book is the only single-volume anthology in English that fully represents the scope of Mayakovsky’s artistic work. It includes new translations of his major lyrics, as well as versions of several poems that have never been translated into English before. The predominant image presented in earlier translations and anthologies, of Mayakovsky as a hectoring, ranting poet, is replaced by a more nuanced figure, a writer whose apparent egotism is rather a means of dealing with a hostile world by fitting himself to its size.
256 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2016
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About the author
Vladimir Mayakovsky
504 books627 followersVladimir Mayakovsky (Владимир Владимирович Маяковский) was born the last of three children in Baghdati, Russian Empire (now in Georgia) where his father worked as a forest ranger. His father was of Ukrainian Cossack descent and his mother was of Ukrainian descent. Although Mayakovsky spoke Georgian at school and with friends, his family spoke primarily Russian at home. At the age of 14 Mayakovsky took part in socialist demonstrations at the town of Kutaisi, where he attended the local grammar school. After the sudden and premature death of his father in 1906, the family — Mayakovsky, his mother, and his two sisters — moved to Moscow, where he attended School No. 5.
In Moscow, Mayakovsky developed a passion for Marxist literature and took part in numerous activities of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party; he was to later become an RSDLP (Bolshevik) member. In 1908, he was dismissed from the grammar school because his mother was no longer able to afford the tuition fees.
Around this time, Mayakovsky was imprisoned on three occasions for subversive political activities but, being underage, he avoided transportation. During a period of solitary confinement in Butyrka prison in 1909, he began to write poetry, but his poems were confiscated. On his release from prison, he continued working within the socialist movement, and in 1911 he joined the Moscow Art School where he became acquainted with members of the Russian Futurist movement. He became a leading spokesman for the group Gileas (Гилея), and a close friend of David Burlyuk, whom he saw as his mentor.
The 1912 Futurist publication A Slap in the Face of Public Taste (Пощёчина общественному вкусу) contained Mayakovsky's first published poems: Night (Ночь) and Morning (Утро). Because of their political activities, Burlyuk and Mayakovsky were expelled from the Moscow Art School in 1914.
His work continued in the Futurist vein until 1914. His artistic development then shifted increasingly in the direction of narrative and it was this work, published during the period immediately preceding the Russian Revolution, which was to establish his reputation as a poet in Russia and abroad.
Mayakovsky was rejected as a volunteer at the beginning of WWI, and during 1915-1917 worked at the Petrograd Military Automobile School as a draftsman. At the onset of the Russian Revolution, Mayakovsky was in Smolny, Petrograd. There he witnessed the October Revolution.
After moving back to Moscow, Mayakovsky worked for the Russian State Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) creating — both graphic and text — satirical Agitprop posters. In 1919, he published his first collection of poems Collected Works 1909-1919 (Все сочиненное Владимиром Маяковским). In the cultural climate of the early Soviet Union, his popularity grew rapidly. As one of the few Soviet writers who were allowed to travel freely, his voyages to Latvia, Britain, Germany, the United States, Mexico and Cuba influenced works like My Discovery of America (Мое открытие Америки, 1925). He also travelled extensively throughout the Soviet Union.
The relevance of Mayakovsky's influence cannot be limited to Soviet poetry. While for years he was considered the Soviet poet par excellence, he also changed the perceptions of poetry in wider 20th century culture. His political activism as a propagandistic agitator was rarely understood and often looked upon unfavourably by contemporaries, even close friends like Boris Pasternak. Near the end of the 1920s, Mayakovsky became increasingly disillusioned with the course the Soviet Union was taking under Joseph Stalin: his satirical plays The Bedbug (Клоп, 1929) and The Bathhouse (Баня, 1930), which deal with the Soviet philistinism and bureaucracy, illustrate this development.
On the evening of April 14, 1930, Mayakovsky shot himself.
In Moscow, Mayakovsky developed a passion for Marxist literature and took part in numerous activities of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party; he was to later become an RSDLP (Bolshevik) member. In 1908, he was dismissed from the grammar school because his mother was no longer able to afford the tuition fees.
Around this time, Mayakovsky was imprisoned on three occasions for subversive political activities but, being underage, he avoided transportation. During a period of solitary confinement in Butyrka prison in 1909, he began to write poetry, but his poems were confiscated. On his release from prison, he continued working within the socialist movement, and in 1911 he joined the Moscow Art School where he became acquainted with members of the Russian Futurist movement. He became a leading spokesman for the group Gileas (Гилея), and a close friend of David Burlyuk, whom he saw as his mentor.
The 1912 Futurist publication A Slap in the Face of Public Taste (Пощёчина общественному вкусу) contained Mayakovsky's first published poems: Night (Ночь) and Morning (Утро). Because of their political activities, Burlyuk and Mayakovsky were expelled from the Moscow Art School in 1914.
His work continued in the Futurist vein until 1914. His artistic development then shifted increasingly in the direction of narrative and it was this work, published during the period immediately preceding the Russian Revolution, which was to establish his reputation as a poet in Russia and abroad.
Mayakovsky was rejected as a volunteer at the beginning of WWI, and during 1915-1917 worked at the Petrograd Military Automobile School as a draftsman. At the onset of the Russian Revolution, Mayakovsky was in Smolny, Petrograd. There he witnessed the October Revolution.
After moving back to Moscow, Mayakovsky worked for the Russian State Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) creating — both graphic and text — satirical Agitprop posters. In 1919, he published his first collection of poems Collected Works 1909-1919 (Все сочиненное Владимиром Маяковским). In the cultural climate of the early Soviet Union, his popularity grew rapidly. As one of the few Soviet writers who were allowed to travel freely, his voyages to Latvia, Britain, Germany, the United States, Mexico and Cuba influenced works like My Discovery of America (Мое открытие Америки, 1925). He also travelled extensively throughout the Soviet Union.
The relevance of Mayakovsky's influence cannot be limited to Soviet poetry. While for years he was considered the Soviet poet par excellence, he also changed the perceptions of poetry in wider 20th century culture. His political activism as a propagandistic agitator was rarely understood and often looked upon unfavourably by contemporaries, even close friends like Boris Pasternak. Near the end of the 1920s, Mayakovsky became increasingly disillusioned with the course the Soviet Union was taking under Joseph Stalin: his satirical plays The Bedbug (Клоп, 1929) and The Bathhouse (Баня, 1930), which deal with the Soviet philistinism and bureaucracy, illustrate this development.
On the evening of April 14, 1930, Mayakovsky shot himself.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 12, 2022
I absolutely adore this poetry collection. Anyone who is interested in Mayakovsky should read this book.
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January 5, 2017I read this in giant mouthfuls, gobbling it up as though starved of all literature, so it came into my head fully formed, bright red and full of life. It's bold and brash, and utterly delightful.
June 27, 2017
I thought Stalin had him killed. He committed suicide. He plays with it: 'softly,/ kissing the sleepers' knees,/ a steam-engine's wheel will caress my nape,' indicating a propensity towards. 'They've declared you a prince' indicates his wish to be important on the basis of poetry. I don't know how much the translator's language is true to the content of Mayakovsky - the allusions to other poetry, like TS Eliot makes, may be the choice of the translator rather than what Mayakovsky himself chose - but the inversion of 'The rain falls, I am jostled by it -/ my face is pressed against its pock-marked face'/ would seem too particular not to be true to the original. He adopts the posture of a christ, 'I say unto you:/ the smallest fragment/ of life is more than all I have done/ or ever will!' Suicide again, 'I'll be dead and gone,/ whether from hunger, or blasting myself away'. He's arrogant: 'I will give you the wealth of my soul -/ ...which, thundering throughout countless aeons,/ will push to their knees all the people of the world -/ all of this - do you want it? - I will abandon/ for one single tender human word.' From whom? me? the reader? Wouldn't it have had to be then? Never believe what a poet writes. 'Come on down then, come with your kind word.../ Question is how will you find one?' Oh he's so bad. Arrogance too in the self-deprecation: 'On what night,/ infirm/ and delirious,/ was I sired, by which Goliaths -/ so enormous,/ and so useless?' He has a Byronic way with words He was a revolutionary who espoused Bolshevism and had an intense relationship with a White Russian. His suicide note quote from a poem he left, changing 'you' to 'life': 'as they say the case is closed/ the boat of love wrecked on the dull beat of life/ Now you and I are even there's no cause/ to go through our mutual pain insult and grief' though the intention is to add to that of the other by cutting off his nose, in this case his life, despite his face.
February 22, 2018
I found Mayakovsky a delightful character. Some of his most amusing poems take the form of verse-plays in which he is himself the protagonist. It is somewhat ironic that such an anarchic egotist became the official poetic cheerleader of egalitarian authoritarianism in the early years of the Soviet Union.
The pre-revolution Mayakovsky was a darkly funny surrealist and futurist who seemed to create bizarre visions via verse with an almost super-natural ease. These poems sometimes reminded me of the lyrics of Highway 61/ Blonde on Blonde-era Bob Dylan.
After the victory of the Bolsheviks, Mayakovsky's work becomes less bizarre and magical, yet still extremely enjoyable. His acidic tounge came to target the short-comings of the new society from a radical perspective. He never stopped being a savage satirist. As he became more and more consumed with a poisonous love affair, his work grew both more sensual and despairing. In this phase, he reminded me of another literary-minded rock star: Elvis Costello.
What one picks up most of all from the post-1917 poems is the genuine pride and joy Mayakovsky took in being part of a revolutionary society. It is perhaps just as well that he committed suicide in 1930, when Soviet society still held promise of something of which to be proud.
The pre-revolution Mayakovsky was a darkly funny surrealist and futurist who seemed to create bizarre visions via verse with an almost super-natural ease. These poems sometimes reminded me of the lyrics of Highway 61/ Blonde on Blonde-era Bob Dylan.
After the victory of the Bolsheviks, Mayakovsky's work becomes less bizarre and magical, yet still extremely enjoyable. His acidic tounge came to target the short-comings of the new society from a radical perspective. He never stopped being a savage satirist. As he became more and more consumed with a poisonous love affair, his work grew both more sensual and despairing. In this phase, he reminded me of another literary-minded rock star: Elvis Costello.
What one picks up most of all from the post-1917 poems is the genuine pride and joy Mayakovsky took in being part of a revolutionary society. It is perhaps just as well that he committed suicide in 1930, when Soviet society still held promise of something of which to be proud.
August 7, 2025
4.5
Very interesting poet, indeed. He also has an interesting life story and it is interesting to read his poetry knowing the trajectory of his life.
Very interesting poet, indeed. He also has an interesting life story and it is interesting to read his poetry knowing the trajectory of his life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews