The Heritage of Russian Verse

by Dimitri Obolensky (Editor)

A generous selection of Russian poetry from medieval times down to the modern period.

Genres: Poetry, Russia, Russian Literature

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Scholar of Byzantium, the early medieval Balkans and Russia who could claim descent from Rurik.

Reviews

[Zachary Lacan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this while noodling through my attic with my sisters' things, and swear the poems were all too familiar, like nursery rhymes heard over in prehensile nubile musings, even the Russian poem in itself seemed to sing in a native language neither understood, nor had read, yet had heard before in a half-dumb state of literary being read to, and read aloud the poems seemed to speak all their own, and at odd hours the verses came to me like Pushkin's Eugene Onegin reciting at opportune moments in the waking hours, as if I had always only lived in night. I seem to find the page, and the poem with the slightest reference by peers, whether intentional or no, and turn right to the page directly. Detour, no.

Scrapping my own writings there are references too numerous in my stream of conscious writings to rule out possession by spirits, or reincarnation. In a past life was my corporal form a native of the blue sea, or is the symbolic language a symptom of a functional awareness the development of which belongs to a much more utilitarian cause, the sorting and ordering of call numbers in a library catalog, and the subsequent absorption of names and dates with numbers and logistics. Can the same be true of beautiful poetry? No, I deny.

There is a plausible explanation that while reading poetry to me, my sister and her spirited entourage of cabbalistic school girls in green short skirt uniforms before a pep rally read to me aloud, and there my first language must be one which is neither spoken, but heard in these verses.

Will a putrificant blogger post something in adendum to this, a quick spelling correction or a debuff of my pluralistic sense of genius? Dare they, I say. No, go go lol.

[Noah Badger · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing look at the cultural development of literature in Russia. Really showed me how not all Russian writing is depressing or bleak. I really enjoyed this quick read.

[Sharat Chandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I love poetry - and classical Russian verses are very beautiful. They are close to in style, but not as complex as, classical Indian verse which makes them very simple to read, but also very meaningful. Unfortunately I can't read Russian, so I use the English translation provided, which I'm sure changes the power and meaning - but then again, after you read enough poetry, you do start to get a feel for the grandeur of certain styles and topics even if you can't understand them fully. Definitely a wonderful collection

[Namrirru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russian poetry is very tricky to translate. So it's good that the original Russian is also presented in this book, especially as the editor's tranlation isn't a good one in the first place.

[Charles Seluzicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russian texts with prose translations. These very literal renditions are refreshing, essential companions to the other versions.