Status Updates From Letters: Summer 1926

‘‘A letter is like an otherworldly communication—less perfect than a dream but subject to the same rules,’ Tsvetayeva. Rilke—sympathised w/ her. Their correspondence—conversation of people who understood one another—as if they'd been initiated—the same mystery—felt no need to explain—The uninitiated reader must labour over—their letters. The impression at times that they were conspirators—accomplices—mutually aware—’

‘—domain of reckless feeling—Tsvetayeva writes: ‘The poet can have only one prayer—not to understand the unacceptable—let me not understand, so that I may not be seduced.’ Leading readers through—labyrinth of elliptical memoiristic prose—Maybe the ecstasies channeled into this correspondence—Nothing can dim the incandescence of those exchange—Today,—their ardors & tenacities feel like raft, beacon, beach. (Sontag) ’