Vesna’s Reviews > The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova > Status Update
Vesna
is on page 203 of 948
Reading in parallel with a few collections of her selected poems by other translators (D.M. Thomas, Kunitz & Hayward, Lyn Coffin, Andrew Kneller) and find it interesting that a few of her poems that strongly spoke to me so far were rendered poorly by all. Had to insert Russian text into Google translate to get a better sense of the actual meaning and then listen to the music of her rhyme and rhythm in audio version.
— Aug 10, 2026 03:21AM
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Vesna’s Previous Updates
Vesna
is on page 395 of 948
Oh, just finished her monumental REQUIEM, both personal and universal lament for the victims of oppression, those with uncertain fate inside the walls and the women like herself waiting outside the prison gates… shattered me into pieces. Hemschemeyer is fine for fidelity, but do seek out Anderson's version, best of the several I've read.
— Aug 17, 2026 05:43AM
Vesna
is on page 173 of 948
Delighted to see that Prokofiev set to music one of my favorite poems from Akhmatova's early period when she wrote mostly short love lyrical poetry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A8xk...
Modigliani's sketch of Akhmatova from the same year when she wrote this poem (1911)
— Aug 09, 2026 06:29AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A8xk...
Modigliani's sketch of Akhmatova from the same year when she wrote this poem (1911)
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Ulysse
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Aug 10, 2026 03:39AM
Reading poetry in translation can be frustrating, but with some poets we only have translators to go by, bless them!
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Ulysse wrote: "Reading poetry in translation can be frustrating, but with some poets we only have translators to go by, bless them!"Absolutely, Ulysse, and this only collection of her complete poems in English in Hemschemeyer's translation might not be as poetical as a few other attempts but generally succeeds in preserving fidelity to the original text. The incredible music of Akhmatova's versification alas is so difficult to render in a different language that I found listening to her poems in the original while reading the translated text like Hermschemeyer's to be the best way to connect to the beauty of her poetry.
Ok I'm buying this right away!Do you speak some Russian, Vesna?
Ulysse wrote: "Ok I'm buying this right away!Do you speak some Russian, Vesna?"
Unfortunately not, but I know Cyrillic and it's a Slavic language like mine with many words sharing the same roots, so I read some poems in their original text along with Hemschemeyer's translations and, have to say, Google translate too (warts & all :-)).
Maybe there are some good translations in French.