When I asked a professor of Russian at my university for suggestions on lesser-known and less frequently translated Russian poets, she suggested Silver Age poet Maria Petrovykh. Petrovykh was friends with such luminaries as Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam, and although they appreciated her work, she didn’t publish much or get a whole lot of … Read more…
I promised Facebook I would, and so it is done! Presenting a Russian-to-English translation of this brief but beautiful poem by famed Silver Age poet Marina Tsvetaeva: You can listen to a nice reading of it here. I loved this poem as soon as I saw the word рябина (ryabina) — rowan. Besides the Siberian birch, which … Read more…
Her name was Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. Born just before French Revolution, she lived at a time of great upheaval and hardship. However, like the best poets, she was able to spin her suffering into beauty, into poetry that still strikes the heart today. I discovered her while reading a little pocket book, sensibly titled French Poetry, several … Read more…