Liebesgedichte

by Alexander Puschkin

A selection of the very finest love poems from the master of the genre, in a lavishly produced edition

The wondrous moment of our meeting . . .
I well remember you appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.

One of the many aspects of Alexander Pushkin's immense contribution to Russian language and literature, and perhaps the one he is most popular for, is his mastery of the love poem, a genre which he perfected like few others before or after him. This volume contains a selection of his most famous and enduring verse explorations of love, such as "I Loved You," "Night," and "A Magic Moment I Remember," pieces which are crowning achievements of the European canon and still have the same timeless emotional resonance today.

Genres: Poetry, Russia, 19th Century, Russian Literature, Literature, Classics

Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este é um livro-coletânea no qual o editor juntou uma centena de pequenos poemas de Pushkin relativos ao amor. Apesar do tema fechado, se tivermos em conta que o poeta escreveu a partir do romantismo, encontramos aqui tudo aquilo que pode definir a estética do poeta.

A particularidade mais interessante destes poemas, e provavelmente de toda a obra do génio das letras russas, é o modo como à superfície o texto se dá facilmente à compreensão, mas como quando paramos, relemos e aprofundamos os textos ganham novos e mais densos significados.

[Мила · Rating 4 out of 5]

My interest in poems was first struck two years ago by Pushkin, in his novel Eugene Onegin. It has been a long time since then, since I held one of his works, and as it was then, I was left amazed again. His way of writing inspires me, leaves me vigorously writing hundreds of excerpts in my diary.

𝐀𝐧 𝐔𝐧𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞
"𝘈𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯'𝘴 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮-
𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮.
𝘉𝘶𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴:
𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘺𝘮𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘦𝘴.
𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨?
𝘖𝘩, 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘴, 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦! 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨?
𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘴? 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘩𝘶𝘩! -
𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘯; 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 - 𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘯𝘸𝘦𝘳!"

[Matisse Nikolaevna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE IT, as i said because i was reading it with my dad.

[Edlira Dibrani · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of Love poems.

[Dita Majore · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a Christian reader, I was so disappointed in this. Instead of love poems they should be called lust poems. It's basically a long description of all his sexual escapades, and almost every poem is dedicated to another woman. The poems are very worldly and shallow, apart from a few. I wanted to give this two stars because of the fact that I did find a couple of poems that I liked, but I can't recommend this, which is why it gets one star. Even in the poem he writes to his wife after presumably their first night together, he compares her sexual performance to the performance of other women that he's been with. For goodness' sake.
So my problem is not how the poems were written, but what they were about. Where I went in expecting something like Bright Star, I was met with moans and mounting and prostitutes and nothing regarding the women's characters. When I read that some people read this together with their parents, I was dumbfounded. This is like 19th century pornography. Who wants to read this together with their parents? Anyway, I am happy to be done with this.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pushkin's poetry is so romantic, you will swoon all over the place. I am often moved to tears.

[raShit · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ve yürek mest olmuş çarpıyordu.
Ve onun için dirildi bak
Bir kez daha hem ilham, hem Tanrı,
Hem hayat, hem gözyaşı, hem aşk."

[Isis ♡︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

｡ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ｡
ﾟ。detailed book review ahead ✨
　ﾟ･｡･ TIME: 01:39 // 28-07-23

✧ I adore this translation so much because it is accessible and captures Pushkin’s essence with brief notes on every poem. I marked like 30% and will definitely be revisiting the world of Poesjkin. Some of my favorites were: ‘Cupid and Hymen’, ‘Her’, ‘Friendship and Love’, ‘For Princess Golítsyna’, ‘The Desire for Fame’, ‘To Prakóvya Ósipova’, ‘For Nanny’, ‘The Winter Road’, ‘The Angel’, ‘A Winter’s Morning’, ‘My Autograph’, ‘Farewell’, ‘The Promise’ and ‘Fragment from Anacreon’.

✧ It liked reading about his love for Moscow, even though he didn’t live there for a big part of his youth, it still seems to have a special place in his heart. Meanwhile his relation with St Petersburg seems to be more complicated. I believe I also read somewhere that he responded to enquiries about his seemingly many different lovers in his poems, saying that some scenarios were more fantasy (correct me if I am wrong). I found it relatively easy to dissect the writings that exuded a lover’s fantasy opposed to those that were closer to his reality which made it all the more interesting.

✧ Secondly, his love poems discuss issues and situations which anyone can relate to making it touch the heart even more than just reading about the writer’s perspective.

ೃ⁀➷ To conclude, I would recommend this to any lovesick human or any of Pushkin’s poems really to people who are new to poetry / russian literature :).

4.5 / 5

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

[carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stanza: "I love you - even though insane,
though plagued by pointless shame and pain; and, wretched in this foolishness,
I kneel before you and confess."

Book review: A collection of Pushkin's love poems. I have to admit, I didn't get some of the poems in this book, but those that I did will stay in my mind for a long time. Just the line above: "I love you - even though insane" has a very strong grip unto me in spite of the very simple words strung together; I am hooked. I will need to read this again to fully appreciate it. For now, I can say that I liked it, and I'm glad to have read it.

[alina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did love some poems, but the translation is too overly complicated therefore some poems were just words on paper. Pushkin puts too much love into his writing and Roger Clarke (the translator) terribly failed to convey the atmosphere that the poems were supposed to give.
I feel so bad to give this such a low rating because this book was a gift from a lovely friend of mine but objectively this book is not that good purely because of the translation. Learned my lesson the hard way that russian poems MUST be read in their original form.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had hoped to like Pushkin’s poetry more, and it is unfair that, not knowing Russian, I have only the translations to make any more complete determination. Yet, the subject matter and the thoughts expressed themselves do not seem to rise anywhere near the level of thought found in other poets and writers, and these are things which are less likely to be the fault of poor translation. I conclude Pushkin is a better story writer than poet, and leave others to enjoy his poetry if they are more able.

[Stephen Sayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

mixed bag. some poems are awesome.. some are difficult to wade through

[Iona · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a beautiful edition!

In terror and despair, I ponder life anew:
I want now to live long, so that, till I depart,
her image long may glow within my grieving heart. (p.66)

[olive tree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sappho

Well-favoured lad, you've won me over by your worth -
your verse, nobility, good nature, all alike -
and those good looks of yours, so fresh, so womanlike.
p.93

[sincerely, jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
‘But just pretend: your lovely eyes
speak words so easily believed;
oh, readily I’ll trust their lies,
so glad I am to be deceived’

[Mahina Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alexander is a baddie he know he a ten

[vesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

pushkin you romantic

[kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[hireth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Las primeras 125 páginas se pueden resumir en poemas que dan la sensación de haber sido escritos para cortejar a cientos de mujeres distintas. Es como si Pushkin se hubiese limitado a escribir poemas (que para mi gusto pecaban de cursilería y eran simples) para llevarse a nuevas mujeres a la cama. Quitando alguno que otro, no he sido capaz de ver la profundidad que normalmente se ve en la poesía cuya temática es el amor y por eso me ha decepcionado. La parte final, una vez casado, se ve claramente una evolución que me ha llamado y que seguramente me impulse a leer más obras suyas dentro de otros campos. A ver qué tal.

[Nick Traynor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Pushkin makes me want to read more Pushkin. I read all these poems aloud with Matisse. A nice little biography at the end, with an interesting account of how Pushkin was friends with General Raevsky (famous for the Raevsky Redoubt fortification at the Battle of Borodino, and mentioned in War and Peace) and his family from about 1820-22.

[Hans Ostrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds you of how much of a Society, almost courtly, writer Pushkin was. Some of the poems break through the conventions of that. Good translations.