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The Garden: New and Selected Poetry and Prose
Russian poems and their English translations are accompanied by essays on the ideal reader, the poet's grandmother, and Pushkin
171 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Bella Akhmadulina
54 books11 followers
Белла Ахмадулина
Белла Ахатовна Ахмадулина , Bella (Izabella) Akhatovna Akhmadulina was a Soviet and Russian poet, short story writer, and translator known for her apolitical writing stance. She was part of the Russian New Wave literary movement. Akhmadulina was cited by Joseph Brodsky as the best living poet in the Russian language when she was alive.
Despite the aforementioned apolitical stance of her writing, Akhmadulina was often critical of authorities in the Soviet Union, and spoke out in favour of others, including Nobel laureates Boris Pasternak, Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. She was known to international audiences for her travels abroad during the Khrushchev Thaw, during which she made appearances in sold-out stadiums. Upon her death in 2010 President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev hailed her poetry as a "classic of Russian literature".
The New York Times said Akhmadulina was "always recognized as one of the Soviet Union's literary treasures and a classic poet in the long line extending from Lermontov and Pushkin". Sonia I. Ketchian, writing in The Poetic Craft of Bella Akhmadulina, called her "one of the great poets of the 20th century. There's Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam and Pasternak — and she's the fifth".
Белла Ахатовна Ахмадулина , Bella (Izabella) Akhatovna Akhmadulina was a Soviet and Russian poet, short story writer, and translator known for her apolitical writing stance. She was part of the Russian New Wave literary movement. Akhmadulina was cited by Joseph Brodsky as the best living poet in the Russian language when she was alive.
Despite the aforementioned apolitical stance of her writing, Akhmadulina was often critical of authorities in the Soviet Union, and spoke out in favour of others, including Nobel laureates Boris Pasternak, Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. She was known to international audiences for her travels abroad during the Khrushchev Thaw, during which she made appearances in sold-out stadiums. Upon her death in 2010 President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev hailed her poetry as a "classic of Russian literature".
The New York Times said Akhmadulina was "always recognized as one of the Soviet Union's literary treasures and a classic poet in the long line extending from Lermontov and Pushkin". Sonia I. Ketchian, writing in The Poetic Craft of Bella Akhmadulina, called her "one of the great poets of the 20th century. There's Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam and Pasternak — and she's the fifth".
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 29, 2019
Three of my faves -
DON'T SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON ME
Don't spend a lot of time on me;
not point in asking questions or
trying to pin my hands with your
kind, faithful eyes.
In spring, no point in following me
through all the puddles. I know
that even if we meet again
there's nothing more.
You think me proud to go everywhere
like this and not be friends with you?
Not pride but a heavy heart makes me
hold my head high.
THE FOG
All means of adoration cause great pain.
Never to coincide nor lose the bond.
Like that forever; so, even at my grave,
my eyes cast down, not bearing to be near you
I accept the clear, articulate
hostility offered overground.
The wind comes over the gulf; the sun goes down;
I stand like a beggar driven form the porch.
Grinning only, not cursing back.
The cross is nobler than its iron cast.
Irony is the avocation of the elect.
The finality of the end is lost in fog.
PARTING
I thought you were my enemy,
my terrible calamity,
but no, your not, you have a line,
and you've been stringing me along.
Remember how in Manege Square
you tossed money in the snow
and tried to get the coins to say
does she love me, yes or no?
Who wrapped whose scarf around my legs
in the Alexander garden? You!
And warmed my hands and kept pretending,
always thinking that I'd lie, too.
All that lying wove a web
like a flock of crows overhead.
So now you're really saying good-bye,
your eyes not evil, no, nor kind.
Oh, you'll make out you'll never cry
and, whatever happens I don't mind.
What a big mistake it was!
Ridiculous! Inept!
Go; you're going right.
Me, I'm going left.
DON'T SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON ME
Don't spend a lot of time on me;
not point in asking questions or
trying to pin my hands with your
kind, faithful eyes.
In spring, no point in following me
through all the puddles. I know
that even if we meet again
there's nothing more.
You think me proud to go everywhere
like this and not be friends with you?
Not pride but a heavy heart makes me
hold my head high.
THE FOG
All means of adoration cause great pain.
Never to coincide nor lose the bond.
Like that forever; so, even at my grave,
my eyes cast down, not bearing to be near you
I accept the clear, articulate
hostility offered overground.
The wind comes over the gulf; the sun goes down;
I stand like a beggar driven form the porch.
Grinning only, not cursing back.
The cross is nobler than its iron cast.
Irony is the avocation of the elect.
The finality of the end is lost in fog.
PARTING
I thought you were my enemy,
my terrible calamity,
but no, your not, you have a line,
and you've been stringing me along.
Remember how in Manege Square
you tossed money in the snow
and tried to get the coins to say
does she love me, yes or no?
Who wrapped whose scarf around my legs
in the Alexander garden? You!
And warmed my hands and kept pretending,
always thinking that I'd lie, too.
All that lying wove a web
like a flock of crows overhead.
So now you're really saying good-bye,
your eyes not evil, no, nor kind.
Oh, you'll make out you'll never cry
and, whatever happens I don't mind.
What a big mistake it was!
Ridiculous! Inept!
Go; you're going right.
Me, I'm going left.
October 30, 2023
Poems on her muse, poetic tradition, and relationships. Top tip: Fairy Tale About Rain.
February 2, 2023
Bella Akhmadulina was one of my grandmother's favourite poets, which is why I tracked down this compilation of her poetry. It had the Russian originals and the English translations. Maybe I'm biased but the former were much better than the sometimes-awkward translations.
I confess I picked and sampled the pieces that appealed to me and skipped others. I suspect that this isn't the best representation of Akhmadulina's poetry, or at least not of the type that most appealed to my grandmother and to me, which is basically love poetry. This compilation tried to get a wide range of her poems, but there's too much of the political and the weirdly-metaphorical for my personal tastes. I'm a simple woman, I like poems about other people's unhappy love lives.
I confess I picked and sampled the pieces that appealed to me and skipped others. I suspect that this isn't the best representation of Akhmadulina's poetry, or at least not of the type that most appealed to my grandmother and to me, which is basically love poetry. This compilation tried to get a wide range of her poems, but there's too much of the political and the weirdly-metaphorical for my personal tastes. I'm a simple woman, I like poems about other people's unhappy love lives.
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January 23, 2024You are […]
the love, the blood.
the love, the blood.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews