Day - Michael Cunningham - Jan- Feb 2024

[Joy]

Deb, that sounds more like the (author interview) universe conspiring against you than anything your inner being(s) is/are doing! :-)

Thank you both for doing this Buddy Read with me!!

[madrano]

Indeed, Joy.

I'm glad we all took the time to do this together.

[Maxim]

madrano wrote: "So, i tried to find the poem from which the Anna Akhmatova's lines arose. Thirty minutes later, i surrendered without success."
I guess it's "The souls of those I love are on high stars..."
Anyway, the Russian edition of this book uses an epigraph from this poem. I haven't had the chance to compare it with the original. But if they don't match, that would be strange...

[Alias Reader]

Maxim wrote: "madrano wrote: "So, i tried to find the poem from which the Anna Akhmatova's lines arose. Thirty minutes later, i surrendered without success."
I guess it's "The souls of those I love are on high s..."

Welcome to Book Nook Cafe, Maxim.

One of our members, Deb (madrano) , is the go to person about poems. Maybe she can help.

[Maxim]

Alias Reader wrote: "Maxim wrote: "madrano wrote: "So, i tried to find the poem from which the Anna Akhmatova's lines arose. Thirty minutes later, i surrendered without success."
I guess it's "The souls of those I love..."
Thank you!
It seemed to me that I was the one trying to help, though.

[Alias Reader]

Sorry, Maxim. I misread your post. I see you are referring to post #3 by Deb/Madrano.

I no longer have the book so I don't know what the epigraph was. If it was posted in the thread, I missed it.

Anyway, here is the poem you referenced, Maxim. Thank you.

Anna Akhmatova
The souls of those I love are on high stars...

The souls of those I love are on high stars.
How good that there is no-one left to lose
And one can weep. Tsarskoye Selo’s
Air was made to repeat songs.

By the river bank the silver willow
Touches the bright September waters.
Rising from the past, my shadow
Comes silently to meet me.

So many lyres, hung on branches, here,
But there seems a place even for my lyre.
And this shower, drenched with sun and rare,
Is consolation and good news.

https://ruverses.com/anna-akhmatova/t...

[madrano]

Maxim, thank you very much for this information. Below is the entire poem, which i find touching. I can see that this fitting the story. Again, thank you.

The souls of those I love are on high stars...
Anna Akhmatova

The souls of those I love are on high stars.
How good that there is no-one left to lose
And one can weep. Tsarskoye Selo’s*
Air was made to repeat songs.

By the river bank the silver willow
Touches the bright September waters.
Rising from the past, my shadow
Comes silently to meet me.

So many lyres, hung on branches, here,
But there seems a place even for my lyre.
And this shower, drenched with sun and rare,
Is consolation and good news.

*Tsarskoye Selo was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located 24 kilometers south from the center of Saint Petersburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarsko...

[Alias Reader]

Deb, what was the epigraph in the book? Was it the title of the poem ?

[Maxim]

madrano wrote: "Maxim, thank you very much for this information. Below is the entire poem, which i find touching. I can see that this fitting the story. Again, thank you."

You are very welcome. The book was translated and published in Russia only now. I really like Akhmatova, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the epigraph. I came across this thread and decided that even a year later, it was worth replying.

[madrano]

Alias Reader wrote: "Deb, what was the epigraph in the book? Was it the title of the poem ?"

Alias, i see you, too, shared the poem, within an hour of one another. LOL

The actual epigraph is
Rising from the past, my shadow
Comes silently to meet me.
The sole attribution was the poet's name, Anna Akhmatova.

[madrano]

Maxim wrote: "You are very welcome. The book was translated and published in Russia only now. I really like Akhmatova, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the epigraph. I came across this thread and decided that even a year later, it was worth replying...."

It was...and i thank you. When i read some of her poems on the link i shared above, i was impressed. But, also, sad, because i'd not seen her work previously, outside that epigraph.

[Alias Reader]

madrano wrote: "
The actual epigraph is
Rising from the past, my shadow
Comes silently to meet me.
The sole attribution was the poet's name, Anna Akhmatov..."

Thanks !

[Maxim]

madrano wrote: "Maxim wrote: "You are very welcome. The book was translated and published in Russia only now. I really like Akhmatova, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the epigraph. I came across this thread a..."

Let me tell you a little more about her. Akhmatova is one of the most famous Russian poets. Her poems are filled with pain and loss—and for good reason. She lived a difficult life.

Her first husband was arrested and executed during the Red Terror on false charges. Her son was arrested during Stalin’s Great Purge and spent five years in the Gulag. Her third husband was arrested and sent to a Gulag, where he died.

The Soviet government declared Akhmatova "alien to the people" and a "meaningless" writer because she refused to write about the revolution, socialist ideals, and Stalin. She was officially banned from publication until the mid-1980s. All her poems were removed from libraries and destroyed. She was expelled from the Writers' Union and deprived of food ration cards. She survived only thanks to the help of others.

Despite the ban, people copied her poems by hand or typed them themselves and passed them from person to person. The Soviet authorities could do nothing about it.

Today, Akhmatova's poems are part of school and university literature programs. Her name is known to everyone in the country. A monument to Anna Akhmatova stands on the banks of the Neva River in St. Petersburg, exactly where she wished it to be placed in her poem Requiem—opposite the former "Kresty" ("Crosses") prison, where her son was held for a long time and where she spent months standing in line, hoping to see him.

The poem Requiem is Akhmatova’s most famous and significant work, in which she captured, through her own suffering, the pain of the wives and mothers of thousands of innocent political prisoners of that time. I found a good metrical translation into English but the site doesn't allow me to attach the link. So, just try to google "anna akhmatova requiem lingua fennica" if you're interested. Honestly, I can't hold back my tears when I read it.

[Alias Reader]

Thank you so much, Maxim. That was an informative and heartfelt post.

I found this webpage on her.

Requiem (Реквием), Anna Akhmatova
https://linguafennica.wordpress.com/2...

I am going to cross post this discussion to the poetry thread, so more people may see it

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[madrano]

Thank you, Maxim. What a marvel of a poem. I teared up in the "Instead of a Preface". The sweetness in knowing the poet would write about the mutual misery they are experiencing. Oh, my.

And then, of course, the ending. Like you, tears came to my eyes.

Thanks, also, for sharing her story, the losses and art. It's rewarding to know her poetry is taught in schools there now.

[madrano]

Alias Reader wrote: "Thank you so much, Maxim. That was an informative and heartfelt post.

I found this webpage on her.

Requiem (Реквием), Anna Akhmatova
https://linguafennica.wordpress.com/2......"

Alias, thank you for sharing this on the poetry thread. I agree, more folks will see it there.

[Maxim]

Alias Reader wrote: " I am going to cross post this discussion to the poetry thread, so more people may see it"

Thank you so much!