MAJOR UPDATE

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It may seem like a long time's gone since the last update, but what is a year in the great hall where history tapdances? A few taps? An echo? If the latter, then at least this echo carries with it from the Russian Modernist (and Futurist) past one of our biggest ever updates! So, check out our expanding "Poets and their Works" section to find freshly translated works by the Zhivago author Boris Pasternak, poems by the sly Sherlock Holmes proto-cosplayer Daniil Kharms, the epic "Wayward Streetcar" by Nikolay Gumilev, as well as a whole section dedicated to the legendary thunder-voiced iconoclast Vladimir Mayakovskiy! Therein you'll find English versions of some brazen-most verse-works from Mayak's sewer-pipe flute as well as the first part of his hard-etched ego-Futurist memoir "I MYSELF"!

Secondly, we are proud to share with you several translations from the digitized quill of the Russian-American poet Dasha Bulatova. As the Silver Age Poets' new contributing voice she is presently gifting you with brilliantly interpreted works by Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, and Alexander Blok. So, don't waste time reading this prosaic marketing! Check out her work!

Finally, we are glad to announce that our contributor Aleksey Calvin's newly revised translation of Anna Akhmatova's "Requiem" is being published in this year's issues of Poetry International and UC Berkeley's Troika Magazine (who published our translation of Alexander Blok's "Twelve" last year).

More updates coming soon! The one we are presently working on will feature poems by Velimir Khlebnikov, Sergey Esenin, Vladimir Nabokov, and others!

Update: Voloshin and More Poplavsky

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As promised, here comes the second weekly update! This time we have for you several poems by the great Maksimilian Voloshin: the influential Crimean poet, painter, and warlock of friendly hearths whose Koktebel house once served as a year-round Black Sea-side hostel of sorts for the diverse cream of early 20th century Russian art and literary crops, including our fellow Silver Agers Tsvetayeva and Gumilev. The poems on hand are anything but cozy, however (except for one perhaps). They are epic, strange, mystical, and even apocalyptic. Much of the same can be said of the poems belonging to the pen of our favorite Russian Surrealist in Paris Boris Poplavsky. Today we have a few more of his choicest works as well. Enjoy while keeping warm with a cup of black tea or a bottle of wine!

Lots of updates: Women Poets of Russia's Silver Age and More

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A new year has arrived, bringing with it the upcoming hundredth anniversary of the two momentous Russian Revolutions of 1917. Regardless of one's attitude towards the Soviet State which eventually sprung out of these socio-political development, some of the more remarkable and unique qualities of the poetic, literary, and broader artistic communities of  the early 20th century Russia (and of the early Communist state) had to do with their relative gender equality, at least in contrast with other Modernist movements burgeoning at that time in Europe and elsewhere. To commemorate this history and the art produced throughout its course, we are updating our site with dozens of poems by female Russian Modernists, some legendary and others obscure. Among these is poetry by the great Russian original Marina Tsvetayeva, including some of her famous early lyrics as well as excerpts from a longer poem "Separation" dedicated to her husband Sergey Efron and written on the eve of Tsvetayeva's immigration to the West in the early 1920's. While scouting through our new Tsvetayeva section, you can also check out a freshly translated excerpt from the poet's striking memoirs. More translated sections of these recollections are on the way! Another of today's grandest site updates consists of another section dedicated to the work of Elena Guro, an amazing female Poet and illustrator who is popularly classified as the sole major female "cubo-futurist" poet. Indeed, her works are already frequently included in Russian-language anthologies of that revolutionary avant-garde artistic movement alongside the likes of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov (whose  selected works in our original translation are also coming to the site in 2017!). Unfortunately, Guro's poetry has faced much neglect on the part of major Russian poetry anthologists due to the supposed thematic and formal obscurity of the poet's mindbogglingly diverse and innovative creative oeuvre. On top of that, Guro's far too early youthful death from illness contributed to the travesty of her being nearly written out of the mainstream canon of Russia's 20th century literary history. This year we begin doing our part, however small, in correcting this glaring historical error. Guro's brilliance deserves her a place at the very peak of Russia's poetic pantheon and alongside both female icons like Tsvetayeva and Akhmatova and other globally-famous Silver Age figureheads like Mayakovsky and Blok (both of whom were major fans and champions of Guro's poetry). Lastly, after checking out our fresh translations of poetry by Guro and Tsvetayeva located within these poets' sections, don't be too quick to sign off! Stick around for a few minutes longer to read the unforgettable and haunting poem "The Wolf" by the fiery Imaginist Nadejda Volpin (located in her own respective new section of the site). Volpin is frequently remembered as a close confidante and lover of the great Sergey Esenin. Yet, as more and more of her own poetry becomes uncovered, published, and translated, Volpin is increasingly revealed as a poet of no lesser talent, originality, or insight than the famed singer of Russia's open fields and clamorous cheap bar-rooms.

Finally, we appeal to all of our readers to stay tuned for WEEKLY UPDATES IN 2017 as we commit ourselves to expanding our site into becoming THE widely accessible 21st century resource for English-based enjoyment and study of Russian Modernist poetry! And do shoot a message to alekseycalvin@berkeley.edu if you have any specific questions, suggestions, tips, rare texts, comments, collaboration ideas, if you yearn for frequent updates, or simply wish to get in touch!

 

Autumnal Celebrations/Fresh Leafs

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In celebration of that mysterious empress Autumn who unfailingly arrives each year all donned in soft marigold, garnet, bronze, and meditative melancholy we've expanded our Russian Silver Age poetry library with freshly translated works from yet another set of inimitably sublime vintage geniuses. The most queenly among them is, of course, the great Anna Ahmatova, that brilliantly mournful shimmering seer. We've also introduced newly translated works by the eternally youthful Russian dreamer in Paris Boris Poplavsky as well as by Russia's early modern Villon Sergey Esenin. Simpl go into our Poetry and Poets section and click on one of the framed portraits of the famed versifiers to access their respective pages. The grand poetic hearts this site contains are each mere clicks away from this post! Oh, but that isn't all! Not by a well-trodden verst!

Our Andrey Bely and Alexander Blok sections are finally up and feature biographical/analytical texts about these two great Symbolists (and famous "frenemies") and thorough representative collections of their most revered masterpieces (including Blok's Twelve and The Stranger) and more obscure poetic explorations alike. 

Additionally, you can tickle the vanity of your proud hosts by checking out our "Original Poetry" section located under the menu tab "Our Other Projects". It is now filled with numerous verse works by yours truly, some youthful (even darkly teenage, though hardly juvenile ) and others more recent and wizened. Meanwhile, the "Music and Else" section now includes links to our sonic and even cinematic works which some of you might quite enjoy! 

We won't hide the fact that even now we have far more content under our belts. We are excited to share more of it with you when the time is ripe. We don't ask for much in return: merely for you to allott to us a tiny little corner slice of your memory and to let it remind you that if you keep visiting our site you will certainly keep finding more and more fresh exciting translations, inspiring or tragic histories, as well as biographies (and mini memoirs!) of the great Russian versifiers. Soon enough you would also start finding newly translated or penned stories, more mystifying old pictures, more fresh original poems, songs, and basically more of everything that makes some of us squeal and giggle from the profound joy of nurturing our hearts and minds! Lastly, if you enjoy what we do, please don't hesitate or neglect to spread the word about us through social media or to repost our work for your friends, family members, partners, mentors, and absolutely everyone else! So, why don't you stick with us as we expand our horizons into every corner of Russia's eternal Silver Age and then far far beyond?!

 

- Aleksey Calvin Tsukanov