Poetry Bookclub 3

[Dori]

I have Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, and within the volume there's a good deal of poetry (all at the end).

[Saladin]

Good deal. I think that's what I'll get.

So did we go for that one or? The local library doesn`t of course have Pasternak poetry (poorly on all russian literature). So i have to buy it if that is the one we are going for?

[Kafka's Crow]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

I couldn't imagine it to be cheaper than 70p (around 1 US$). Even including delivery to Canada or the US it shouldn't me more than £5.00 (around $7.00).

[JBI]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

I couldn't imagine it to be cheaper than 70p (around 1 US$). Even including delivery to Canada or the US it shouldn't me more than £5.00 (around $7.00).

Only one is .70p, the rest are 5pounds to 10 pounds, plus delivery, which comes to close to the same as the American ones.

[stlukesguild]

I do highly recommend the volume, My Sister-Life which is quite reasonably priced:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Sister-Euro...ref=pd_sim_b_1

I also have the Penguin volume and found that quite decent. Beyond that I also have a number of poems by Pasternak in Yevgeny Yevtuschenko's anthology, 20th Century Russian Poetry. I can't speak for any of the other translations... few of which seem readily available.

http://www.amazon.com/Twentieth-Cent...1081664&sr=1-3

[TheFifthElement]

My library has only one Pasternak collection which is none of the above. I'll pick it up tomorrow and see what's in there. I'm not entirely sure which collection it is we're supposed to be getting. Hmm.

[Virgil]

Well, I'm still not sure which collection to get. I don't think it absolutely necessary that we all have the same edition. It seems difficult to do so given our geographical locations and that Pasternak wrote in Russian and we have to deal with translators. I'm going to just order one of them. If someone has a collection already, how about that person posting a poem and starting the discussion? Anyone have a collection yet?

[Dark Muse]

Well I do not have a collection, but I found some of his poems online. I can be brave and go first. I don't know anything about this poet, and well this is the frist I have heard of him, but reading some of his works, this one just really jumped out at me.

The Earth

Spring bursts violently
into Moscow houses.
Moths flutter about
crawl on summer hats,
and furs hide secretly.

Pots of wallflowers and stock
stand, in the window, just,
of wooden second storeys,
the rooms breathe liberty,
the smell of attics is dust.

The street is friends
with the bleary glass,
and white night and sunset
at one, by the river, pass.

In the passage you’ll know
what’s going on below
and April’s casual flow
of words with drops of thaw.

It’s a thousand stories veiled
in a human sadness,
and twilight along the fence
grows chill with the tale.

Outside, or snug at home
the same fire and hesitation:
everywhere air’s unsure.
The same cut willow twigs,
the same white swell of buds,
at crossroads, windows above,
in streets, and workshop-doors.

Then why does the far horizon weep
in mist, and the soil smell bitter?
After all, it’s my calling, surely,
to see no distance is lonely,
and past the town boundary,
to see that earth doesn’t suffer.

That’s why in early spring
we meet, my friends and I,
and our evenings are – farewell documents,
our gatherings are – testaments,
so the secret stream of suffering
may warm the cold of life.


I do not have long to stay so I will have to come back later to really coment, but thought I would kick things off.

[Dark Muse]

Spring bursts violently
into Moscow houses.
Moths flutter about
crawl on summer hats,
and furs hide secretly.

The start of this poem really catches my attention. Spring and violence are not really paired together, I love the image which is conveyed in these lines. I can see how living in somewhere cold, and snowy, the spring could see more chaotic. I can see the sun breaking through the darkness and shining in the windows. Grass and plants breaking through their icy prisons, as snow beginning to melt and thaw.

And the mention of the moths suggests clothing which has been locked away in the closet forgotten for a long time.

the rooms breathe liberty,
the smell of attics is dust.

These two lines are just spectacular. It gives the feeling of coming alive again, or waking from a long sleep.

In the passage you’ll know
what’s going on below
and April’s casual flow
of words with drops of thaw.

I love the play upon words here, the double meaning this stanza gives. It alludes both to the poem itself, as well as the passage and changing of the seasons. It adds a touch of humor.

It’s a thousand stories veiled
in a human sadness,
and twilight along the fence
grows chill with the tale.

Just beautiful! I love the feeling and imagery portrayed in these words, and they mark a shift within the poem. It moves from the joy and renewal brought by spring, to the loneliness and cold marked by the long winter months.

And I think I will stop here for the moment.

[Virgil]

Oh my gosh, this is a fine poem Muse. Thanks for starting. I was really captivated by that "liberty" line as well. There is an intricate metaphor running through this but before I really add my thoughts, I wish to absorb it a little more. Can you provide the link where you found the poem?

Great that we got this going!! Thanks again.

[Dark Muse]

Yes, I also really like how the persepctive of the poem shifts twords the end.

Sure, here it is:

http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/Russian/Pasternak.htm

[Quark]

Good poem, DM.

I'm a little confused by these lines, though:

After all, it’s my calling, surely,
to see no distance is lonely,
and past the town boundary,
to see that earth doesn’t suffer. (32-35)

Why does the speaker believe he's only supposed to see what's optimistic and joyful?

[Dark Muse]

That is an interesting line

Maybe it is an allusion to his work as a poet. Perhaps he feels as a poet it his his calling to see the other side to things. To see beauty where others see only darkness.

[Quark]

Maybe it is an allusion to his work as a poet. Perhaps he feels as a poet it his his calling to see the other side to things. To see beauty where others see only darkness.

I thought of that, but put a little different spin on it. I supposed that as a poet he would be expected to see the rejuvenation of nature as a happy time. I don't know if were on the right track, though, with this poet theory. It could be a number of things. Perhaps, it's simply a societal pressure to be optimistic? Or, maybe it has something to do with the utopian views of Communism?

[JBI]

Good poem, DM.

I'm a little confused by these lines, though:



Why does the speaker believe he's only supposed to see what's optimistic and joyful?

I think he is alluding more along the lines to a social responsibility as a human being, than as portraying things as an optimist.

His ending alludes to a desire to see good within the destructive scene that is Moscow, but an inability, and thus, he seeks company, to be bitter amongst friends, and therefore unbitter, as the presence and reassurance of development and unaloneness remove him from the desolation.