Russian Poetry

  • Prophets and Poets

    Poem translated: “The Prophet” by Mikhail Lermontov Keenly aware of his profound alienation from society and the tragic fate allotted to him, the Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov had a prophetic sense of his own destiny. His poem “The Prophet” (1841) was a response to, and a continuation of, an identically named poem by Russia’s greatest

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  • A Poet Remembers

    Poem Translated: “A Memory” by Nikolay Zabolotsky Though Nikolay Zabolotsky was not yet fifty when he wrote “A Memory” in 1952, he was already a broken man. One of the founders of the Oberiu group, Zabolotsky had started as an avant-guard poet before moving in a more classical direction. Although no dissident, by the late

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