What do you think?
Rate this book
February: Selected Poetry
One of the greatest poets of the Silver Age, Boris Pasternak (February 10, 1890 - May 30, 1960) became known in the west after he was awarded the 1958 Nobel Laureate in Literature and was forced by the Russian authorities to decline the prize. This scandal won him a large audience in the west and his novel, Dr. Zhivago became an instant success. However, contrary to popular belief, Boris Pasternak has never actively rebelled against the Soviet regime. His poetry has always reflected his inner self and was not dictated by the atmosphere of the epoch. In Russia, where the novel, Dr, Zhivago, had been banned until the late 1980's, Boris Pasternak was primarily known for his work as a poet. Boris Pasternak, whose first true love was music, brings a unique sense of melody to his poetry. Barely a whisper, one almost needs to overhear the subtle song in his words. It is this quality of his poetry that sets him apart from his contemporaries and makes his work moving and unforgettable.
Nearly all of the poems from Dr. Zhivago (with the exceptions of "Wedding," "Star of Nativity," and "The Miracle," which proved to be too difficult to translate adequately) are included in this dual-language edition, as well as some other poetry written throughout his life. Great emphasis has been placed on retaining the musical quality of the work, without sacrificing the content.
Nearly all of the poems from Dr. Zhivago (with the exceptions of "Wedding," "Star of Nativity," and "The Miracle," which proved to be too difficult to translate adequately) are included in this dual-language edition, as well as some other poetry written throughout his life. Great emphasis has been placed on retaining the musical quality of the work, without sacrificing the content.
109 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2008
41 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Boris Pasternak
600 books1,647 followersBoris Leonidovich Pasternak was born in Moscow to talented artists: his father a painter and illustrator of Tolstoy's works, his mother a well-known concert pianist. Though his parents were both Jewish, they became Christianized, first as Russian Orthodox and later as Tolstoyan Christians. Pasternak's education began in a German Gymnasium in Moscow and was continued at the University of Moscow. Under the influence of the composer Scriabin, Pasternak took up the study of musical composition for six years from 1904 to 1910. By 1912 he had renounced music as his calling in life and went to the University of Marburg, Germany, to study philosophy. After four months there and a trip to Italy, he returned to Russia and decided to dedicate himself to literature.
Pasternak's first books of verse went unnoticed. With My Sister Life, 1922, and Themes and Variations, 1923, the latter marked by an extreme, though sober style, Pasternak first gained a place as a leading poet among his Russian contemporaries. In 1924 he published Sublime Malady, which portrayed the 1905 revolt as he saw it, and The Childhood of Luvers, a lyrical and psychological depiction of a young girl on the threshold of womanhood. A collection of four short stories was published the following year under the title Aerial Ways. In 1927 Pasternak again returned to the revolution of 1905 as a subject for two long works: "Lieutenant Schmidt", a poem expressing threnodic sorrow for the fate of the Lieutenant, the leader of the mutiny at Sevastopol, and "The Year 1905", a powerful but diffuse poem which concentrates on the events related to the revolution of 1905. Pasternak's reticent autobiography, Safe Conduct, appeared in 1931, and was followed the next year by a collection of lyrics, Second Birth, 1932. In 1935 he published translations of some Georgian poets and subsequently translated the major dramas of Shakespeare, several of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and Ben Jonson, and poems by Petöfi, Verlaine, Swinburne, Shelley, and others. In Early Trains, a collection of poems written since 1936, was published in 1943 and enlarged and reissued in 1945 as Wide Spaces of the Earth. In 1957 Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak's only novel - except for the earlier "novel in verse", Spektorsky (1926) - first appeared in an Italian translation and has been acclaimed by some critics as a successful attempt at combining lyrical-descriptive and epic-dramatic styles.
Pasternak lived in Peredelkino, near Moscow, until his death in 1960.
Pasternak's first books of verse went unnoticed. With My Sister Life, 1922, and Themes and Variations, 1923, the latter marked by an extreme, though sober style, Pasternak first gained a place as a leading poet among his Russian contemporaries. In 1924 he published Sublime Malady, which portrayed the 1905 revolt as he saw it, and The Childhood of Luvers, a lyrical and psychological depiction of a young girl on the threshold of womanhood. A collection of four short stories was published the following year under the title Aerial Ways. In 1927 Pasternak again returned to the revolution of 1905 as a subject for two long works: "Lieutenant Schmidt", a poem expressing threnodic sorrow for the fate of the Lieutenant, the leader of the mutiny at Sevastopol, and "The Year 1905", a powerful but diffuse poem which concentrates on the events related to the revolution of 1905. Pasternak's reticent autobiography, Safe Conduct, appeared in 1931, and was followed the next year by a collection of lyrics, Second Birth, 1932. In 1935 he published translations of some Georgian poets and subsequently translated the major dramas of Shakespeare, several of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and Ben Jonson, and poems by Petöfi, Verlaine, Swinburne, Shelley, and others. In Early Trains, a collection of poems written since 1936, was published in 1943 and enlarged and reissued in 1945 as Wide Spaces of the Earth. In 1957 Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak's only novel - except for the earlier "novel in verse", Spektorsky (1926) - first appeared in an Italian translation and has been acclaimed by some critics as a successful attempt at combining lyrical-descriptive and epic-dramatic styles.
Pasternak lived in Peredelkino, near Moscow, until his death in 1960.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 22, 2020
New poems are composed in tears -
The more unplanned, the more compelling.
***
The hands of time are growing tired
Of always turning in a daze
And decades in a day transpire,
And nothing breaks up the embrace.
***
The plot is predetermined to proceed,
The outcome of my destiny is marked.
Alone, amidst the Pharisees and greed.
***
There's still the twilight of the night.
It's far too early. It appears
That fields eternally subside
Across the crossroad to the side
And till the sunrise and the light,
There's still a thousand years.
***
Life has suddenly returned again,
Just as once it strangely went away.
On this ancient street, once more I stand,
Just as then, that distant summer day.
***
A man out of the courtyard gapes,
Not knowing what to say.
Her leave was much like an escape.
The house is disarrayed.
...
When icy windows block the light
And one can barely see,
The suffocating grief is like
The deserts of the sea.
He dearly loved all of her traits
And he and she were close,
Like shores are intimate with waves
Along the whole wide coast.
...
The parting will consume them both,
By grief they will be devoured.
Ths man now overlooks the place.
Before she left, she tossed
Out of the cupboard in a haste
Her dresses and her clothes.
He wanders and until the night,
He folds the things she scattered.
***
No boundaries between us
And closer still we grow.
But who are we, from where,
If all those years are gone,
Just rumours are to spare,
And we have long passed on?
The more unplanned, the more compelling.
***
The hands of time are growing tired
Of always turning in a daze
And decades in a day transpire,
And nothing breaks up the embrace.
***
The plot is predetermined to proceed,
The outcome of my destiny is marked.
Alone, amidst the Pharisees and greed.
***
There's still the twilight of the night.
It's far too early. It appears
That fields eternally subside
Across the crossroad to the side
And till the sunrise and the light,
There's still a thousand years.
***
Life has suddenly returned again,
Just as once it strangely went away.
On this ancient street, once more I stand,
Just as then, that distant summer day.
***
A man out of the courtyard gapes,
Not knowing what to say.
Her leave was much like an escape.
The house is disarrayed.
...
When icy windows block the light
And one can barely see,
The suffocating grief is like
The deserts of the sea.
He dearly loved all of her traits
And he and she were close,
Like shores are intimate with waves
Along the whole wide coast.
...
The parting will consume them both,
By grief they will be devoured.
Ths man now overlooks the place.
Before she left, she tossed
Out of the cupboard in a haste
Her dresses and her clothes.
He wanders and until the night,
He folds the things she scattered.
***
No boundaries between us
And closer still we grow.
But who are we, from where,
If all those years are gone,
Just rumours are to spare,
And we have long passed on?
March 14, 2026
3.5 Stars. First, I’d like to say that I have the greatest respect for Boris Pasternak. Doctor Zhivago is an incredible story that I have loved since my 20’s. I have probably seen the David Lean movie 25 times, at least. It and Casablanca are my two most watched films.
However, I was not particularly inspired by this poetry collection. And I’m not really completely sure why.
I think part of it was that many of the poems were very long. Several of them were religious but many not, so it felt disjointed. But I also think that some of it might have been translation issues. I mean, how do you get a translation of a Russian poem to rhyme? Having taken a couple of years of Russian and having lived in Russia for a year, I know that the whole structure of the language is very different from English. And I can’t imagine how they arrived at rhyming poems when translating from the Russian. And more to the point, was rhyming even necessary? Was meaning sacrificed to achieve rhyme?
Because of these issues, I couldn’t seem to find a ´voice’ for Boris Pasternak. These poems did not feel like a cohesive unit, in my mind. So very unlike the feeling I got from the volume of Langston Hughes poems I read in January. I mean, those were all plainly written by the same person, right? These? No so much.
I’m still glad I read this collection, but more because of my longstanding fascination with all things Russian. Not because this volume was particularly inspirational.
However, I was not particularly inspired by this poetry collection. And I’m not really completely sure why.
I think part of it was that many of the poems were very long. Several of them were religious but many not, so it felt disjointed. But I also think that some of it might have been translation issues. I mean, how do you get a translation of a Russian poem to rhyme? Having taken a couple of years of Russian and having lived in Russia for a year, I know that the whole structure of the language is very different from English. And I can’t imagine how they arrived at rhyming poems when translating from the Russian. And more to the point, was rhyming even necessary? Was meaning sacrificed to achieve rhyme?
Because of these issues, I couldn’t seem to find a ´voice’ for Boris Pasternak. These poems did not feel like a cohesive unit, in my mind. So very unlike the feeling I got from the volume of Langston Hughes poems I read in January. I mean, those were all plainly written by the same person, right? These? No so much.
I’m still glad I read this collection, but more because of my longstanding fascination with all things Russian. Not because this volume was particularly inspirational.
October 10, 2020
Formal gelungene, ebenso anschauliche wie klangprächtige Lyrik mit absolut schlüssiger Methaphorik, aber wenig inhaltlicher Substanz, alles in allem eher wehleidig, melancholisch, rührselig. Die Lyrik Schiwagos ließ mich als junger Mann ziemlich kalt, daran hat sich gut 30 Jahre später wenig geändert, auch wenn formales Gelingen inzwischen an Bedeutung gewonnen hat. Nach dem Majakowski-Schock blieb Pasternak nur bei der Lyrik, weil er als Komponist und Philosoph schon zwei mal vor der endgültigen Entscheidung für eine Laufbahn zurück geschreckt war, weil die Selbstzweifel zu groß wurden. Als Neukantianer wäre er sogar als Musterschüler von Cohen längst auf dem Müllhaufen der Zunft gelandet, ich habe auch so meine Zweifel daran, ob er als Komponist nicht immer im Schatten seines Lehrmeisters Skrjabin geblieben wäre oder später substanzielle Musik komponiert hätte. Allenfalls ein weiterer Kabalevsky. Vielleicht war eine gewisse Substanzlosigkeit auch das Geheimnis, das Pasternak die Stalinischen Säuberungswellen überstehen ließ, der alle anderen großen Lyriker seiner Generation zum Opfer fielen, falls sie sich nicht in den Selbstmord treiben ließen.
May 1, 2018
Boris Pasternak, the 1958 Nobel Prize winner who declined the honor under pressure from the Soviet Government, and whose work, Doctor Zhivago has been immortalized in every possible form of media, was born in a well to do Jewish family (though the Pasternaks had assimilated into the Russian Orthodox Church for years) and had lived through the most turbulent years of Russian History – World War I, Russian Revolution, World War II and the Great Purge, had captured all this changing history of the land and her people and thought about it and then poured it into words of great beauty and resonance, in an act of making a private world, public!
ebruary is a slim volume of only 110 pages but within it, are 27 pieces of powerful poetry, that touch upon a variety of subjects ranging from politics, the faith of Pasternak’s beloved Russia, Nature, Christianity and Love! The compilation begins with the said poem February, first published in 1912, and in sparse, terse words, Pasternak manages to blend in the pathos of the last dregs of winter, with mankind and poetry. I fell in love with the simple but powerful opening lines of the poem –
Oh, February, To get ink & Sob!
To weep about it, spilling ink
One poem that especially was singed into my imagination, is apparently nameless, and powerfully captures the rule of Stalin and its destructive forces on a person and his soul!
The cult of personality is stained,
But after forty years, the cult
Of gray monotony and disdain
Persists like the day of old
Each coming day appears lackluster
Until, it’s truly hard to bear
It brings but photographic clusters,
Of pig like and inhuman stares.
The cult of narrow minded thinking
Is likewise cherished and extolled.
Men shoot themselves from over drinking,
unable to sustain it all.
There is a soul searing piece called Noble Prize, written, after he declined the honor which captures the raw anguish and pain of Pasternak on the stands he was being forced to take, by the very same country and government, he did not choose to abandon or flee, while all his family and friends left, believing in the ultimate good of Lenin led Socialist society! And here in lies the greatness of the poet, that despite all the angst and heartbreak, he ended the poem in hope and faith –
Even now as I am nearing the tomb
I believe in the virtuous fate
And the spirit of goodness will soon
Overcame all the malice and hate
Yet another poem titled Hamlet, captures the need to walk away from a predestined plot, to address something more urgent and ephemeral!There are lovely play of words in his poems about nature, from White Nights to the one called Spring Flood, to yet another work called Easter. His love for Olga Ivinskaya comes through in all the glory of meeting, falling in love and then when Ivinskaya was sentenced to Siberia, of longing, guilt and memories, in the poems titled as Meeting and then, Parting. The fact that Pasternak was a student of philosophy is a fact that is never really far off in his poetry and in many of his writings, he touches upon ideas of what is tangible and what is transcendental, especially in his poetry of nature. In Autumn, he says,
The Lodge’s wooden walls now gaze
At us with grief and hopelessness.
We never vowed to break the restrains’
We will decline with openness.
There are many powerful and moving things in this collection that shines like a beacon of what poetry is all about! Pasternak in this collection of 27 poems brought the Russia that he knew, with all its beauty and tragedy to life, painting on a vast canvass, touching upon the key notes of everything that constitutes mankind. And while I am wary of all translated works, simply because one does not know exactly what is lost is translation, even in essence, there is enough in this work to enrich your soul and your mind!
ebruary is a slim volume of only 110 pages but within it, are 27 pieces of powerful poetry, that touch upon a variety of subjects ranging from politics, the faith of Pasternak’s beloved Russia, Nature, Christianity and Love! The compilation begins with the said poem February, first published in 1912, and in sparse, terse words, Pasternak manages to blend in the pathos of the last dregs of winter, with mankind and poetry. I fell in love with the simple but powerful opening lines of the poem –
Oh, February, To get ink & Sob!
To weep about it, spilling ink
One poem that especially was singed into my imagination, is apparently nameless, and powerfully captures the rule of Stalin and its destructive forces on a person and his soul!
The cult of personality is stained,
But after forty years, the cult
Of gray monotony and disdain
Persists like the day of old
Each coming day appears lackluster
Until, it’s truly hard to bear
It brings but photographic clusters,
Of pig like and inhuman stares.
The cult of narrow minded thinking
Is likewise cherished and extolled.
Men shoot themselves from over drinking,
unable to sustain it all.
There is a soul searing piece called Noble Prize, written, after he declined the honor which captures the raw anguish and pain of Pasternak on the stands he was being forced to take, by the very same country and government, he did not choose to abandon or flee, while all his family and friends left, believing in the ultimate good of Lenin led Socialist society! And here in lies the greatness of the poet, that despite all the angst and heartbreak, he ended the poem in hope and faith –
Even now as I am nearing the tomb
I believe in the virtuous fate
And the spirit of goodness will soon
Overcame all the malice and hate
Yet another poem titled Hamlet, captures the need to walk away from a predestined plot, to address something more urgent and ephemeral!There are lovely play of words in his poems about nature, from White Nights to the one called Spring Flood, to yet another work called Easter. His love for Olga Ivinskaya comes through in all the glory of meeting, falling in love and then when Ivinskaya was sentenced to Siberia, of longing, guilt and memories, in the poems titled as Meeting and then, Parting. The fact that Pasternak was a student of philosophy is a fact that is never really far off in his poetry and in many of his writings, he touches upon ideas of what is tangible and what is transcendental, especially in his poetry of nature. In Autumn, he says,
The Lodge’s wooden walls now gaze
At us with grief and hopelessness.
We never vowed to break the restrains’
We will decline with openness.
There are many powerful and moving things in this collection that shines like a beacon of what poetry is all about! Pasternak in this collection of 27 poems brought the Russia that he knew, with all its beauty and tragedy to life, painting on a vast canvass, touching upon the key notes of everything that constitutes mankind. And while I am wary of all translated works, simply because one does not know exactly what is lost is translation, even in essence, there is enough in this work to enrich your soul and your mind!
April 1, 2018
A whispering of birches
The soul of Russia murmurs through these poems like wind whispering through a forest of birches. The magic is not just in the words themselves but in the unspoken stirring of memories and dreams they evoke. The translations are wonderful. There is an occasional jarring note in awkward rhyming schemes, though I cannot say if this just reflects the Russian original.
The soul of Russia murmurs through these poems like wind whispering through a forest of birches. The magic is not just in the words themselves but in the unspoken stirring of memories and dreams they evoke. The translations are wonderful. There is an occasional jarring note in awkward rhyming schemes, though I cannot say if this just reflects the Russian original.
December 22, 2014
I enjoyed reading the poems included in this compilation of Boris Pasternak's work encompassing many years of his writing career. It is a shame that Pasternak's own country forbid the publication of these works.
There are beauty in these words. I would believe it to be challenge to translate poetry and maintain the prose and beauty. I commend Andrey Kneller on achieving just that.
There are beauty in these words. I would believe it to be challenge to translate poetry and maintain the prose and beauty. I commend Andrey Kneller on achieving just that.
January 2, 2020
Very moving
I had forgotten how evocative poems were. Loved this book especially the shorter poems shuddered to flow much better than the longer ones.
I had forgotten how evocative poems were. Loved this book especially the shorter poems shuddered to flow much better than the longer ones.
Read
March 31, 2020What i liked about this was that it had both the original and the translation together.
I've never claimed to truly understand poetry. And I know there are several facets that make up a composition other than pretty words that sometimes rhyme. Lord knows I couldn't do better when it comes to translation, but there were times when I could envision my Russian translation professor's bushy grey eyebrows disappearing into his hairline at some of the translations. I even compared these translations to a couple other versions and they weren't necessarily any better.
I've never claimed to truly understand poetry. And I know there are several facets that make up a composition other than pretty words that sometimes rhyme. Lord knows I couldn't do better when it comes to translation, but there were times when I could envision my Russian translation professor's bushy grey eyebrows disappearing into his hairline at some of the translations. I even compared these translations to a couple other versions and they weren't necessarily any better.
September 8, 2021
Contrary to it being promoted as a dual-language edition, this book does not contain the Russian originals. As most of it are translations of the poems from Doctor Zhivago, which I already have in the back of that book, I returned it.
February 2, 2019
I think the poems suffered from clunky translation. I feel it might have been better not to try to conserve the rhyme schemes, and rather to keep to the language choices.
August 5, 2021
Poems including topics of nature, seasons, Russia, love, and Christianity.
February 6, 2022
Great poet. Deep soul.
March 14, 2025
NOBEL JOURNAL
I'm in a mission to read at least one book by every Nobel laureate in Literature.
I was not going to read Doctor Zhivago for this challenge, so I went with this anthology compiled by translator Andrey Kneller; I bought the Kindle ebook, which has a note at the end that specifies that books with Russian text are not allowed on the Amazon-owned platform, which is why this edition is only 58 pages long and includes only the English translations penned by Kneller. As I am unfamiliar with the Russian language, I can only read Pasternak's work in translation.
I enjoyed the poems in the collection. From what I read, I wouldn't classify Pasternak as an unbelievable poet, even though he's clearly very good, and his style is not of my predilection, but he did impress me with a couple of pieces, most of them dedicated to Jesus Christ through a Russian Orthodox perspective. Kneller favors meaning and musicality over rhyme, so despite the structure of most of these poems, quatrains with a very tight meter, there are many instances of awkward punchlines and pattern-breaking rhymes; this is just due to the impossibility of translation and the traductological methods, so it's not a disgrace to the work of Pasternak or of Kneller. In the times where the English rhymes mirror the original Russian verses, the poetry of Pasternak flows like a crystalline river. That is absolutely commendable. If I spoke Russian, I would attempt reading the works in their original language and comparing them with these English translations. I instead give faith to the fact that the translations are loyal to the originals and preserve as much of their essence as possible.
If you're in the mood for Pasternak's naturalistic romanticism and longing, I say you read this volume crafted by Andrey Kneller.
I'm in a mission to read at least one book by every Nobel laureate in Literature.
I was not going to read Doctor Zhivago for this challenge, so I went with this anthology compiled by translator Andrey Kneller; I bought the Kindle ebook, which has a note at the end that specifies that books with Russian text are not allowed on the Amazon-owned platform, which is why this edition is only 58 pages long and includes only the English translations penned by Kneller. As I am unfamiliar with the Russian language, I can only read Pasternak's work in translation.
I enjoyed the poems in the collection. From what I read, I wouldn't classify Pasternak as an unbelievable poet, even though he's clearly very good, and his style is not of my predilection, but he did impress me with a couple of pieces, most of them dedicated to Jesus Christ through a Russian Orthodox perspective. Kneller favors meaning and musicality over rhyme, so despite the structure of most of these poems, quatrains with a very tight meter, there are many instances of awkward punchlines and pattern-breaking rhymes; this is just due to the impossibility of translation and the traductological methods, so it's not a disgrace to the work of Pasternak or of Kneller. In the times where the English rhymes mirror the original Russian verses, the poetry of Pasternak flows like a crystalline river. That is absolutely commendable. If I spoke Russian, I would attempt reading the works in their original language and comparing them with these English translations. I instead give faith to the fact that the translations are loyal to the originals and preserve as much of their essence as possible.
If you're in the mood for Pasternak's naturalistic romanticism and longing, I say you read this volume crafted by Andrey Kneller.
February 11, 2017
Mixed Feelings
I've read several of Mr. Keller's translations and have no doubt that they are superb. However, I found myself less drawn e this collection than those of Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva.
I've read several of Mr. Keller's translations and have no doubt that they are superb. However, I found myself less drawn e this collection than those of Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews