The collection showcases Marina Tsvetaeva's previously unpublished poems from 1912 to 1920, capturing her personal and artistic struggles during a tumultuous period in Russia. The verses reflect her relationships, particularly with poet Sonya Parnók and economist Nikodim Plutser-Sarnya, while also exploring themes of identity, loss, and cultural heritage through tributes and evocative imagery. Notably, it includes a unique cycle featuring Don Juan and Carmen, presenting some of Tsvetaeva's most significant and poignant works, now available in English for the first time.
Three of the legendary Russian dissident writer's greatest poems, two autobiographical and one based on a Russian folktale, now in a new, invigorating English translation. Three by Tsvetaeva collects three dazzling and devastating reckonings with love and the end of love by a poet celebrated for the unequaled verbal inventiveness and emotional intensity of her work. “Backstreets,” translated into English for the first time, is a retelling of a Russian fairy tale that offers a witches’ brew of temptation, bodily transformation, marriage, and murder. “Poem of the Mountain” and “Poem of the End,” perhaps the most celebrated of Marina Tsvetaeva’s poetic sequences, explore the shifting dynamics of a love affair. The voices of the lovers, the voice of the narrator, and the voice of poetry combine and recombine, circle each other and split, engaging the reader in a constantly shifting spectrum of emotion, from unbridled passion to rawest grief, and discovering at last a strange triumph in loss. Andrew Davis’s translations of Tsvetaeva bring out the wild brilliance of an incomparable artist. This English-only edition does not include the poems in their original language.
Set against the backdrop of Russia's tumultuous transition during 1917-1918, this collection captures the poignant lyricism of Tsvetaeva's poetry. Each poem serves as a gateway into her rich imagination, reflecting her deep existential inquiries amid chaos. The works grapple with complex ethical and human dilemmas, mirroring the era's upheaval. Tsvetaeva's declaration that "It befits heroes to be frozen" invites contemplation of her personal heroism during a time of profound uncertainty and impending challenges.
Tsvetaeva always regarded the narrative poem as her true challenge, and she created powerful and intensely original works in this genre. They can be seen as markers of various stages in her poetic development...
Set between 1913 and 1915, the poems reflect Marina Tsvetaeva's vibrant life marked by newfound freedom, marriage, and motherhood. Through candid and honest verses, she explores her deep affection for a slightly older woman poet. The collection balances a troubling sense of self-denigration with sharp humor and a playful spirit, all while showcasing Tsvetaeva's exceptional formal craftsmanship.
Featuring a diverse array of poems, this collection stands out for its faithful representation of the original works. It is particularly notable for its inclusion of numerous pre-revolutionary poems, offering readers a rich historical context and a deeper understanding of the era's literary landscape.
Exploring the intense correspondence with Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva's final collection reveals deep emotional layers and connections. Tender poems reflect on émigré critic Alexander Bakhrakh, while her tumultuous affair with Konstantin Rozdevich is notably understated. As the collection progresses, Tsvetaeva increasingly embraces references to Russia and its culture, culminating in poignant tributes to a Russian peasant woman and Pasternak, which provide a powerful conclusion to her exploration of identity and longing.
Exploring profound themes of anguish and alienation, this collection showcases Marina Tsvetaeva's lyrical mastery through evocative imagery and technical experimentation. The poem sequence 'Trees' reflects her affection for the Bohemian landscape, while 'Wires' symbolizes the emotional and geographical distance from Boris Pasternak. Tsvetaeva's work captures her struggles with suicidal thoughts and a deep sense of exclusion from love and companionship, marking a poignant high point in her poetic output.
A moving collection of autobiographical essays from a Russian poet and refugee of the Bolshevik Revolution. Marina Tsvetaeva ranks with Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, and Boris Pasternak as one of Russia’s greatest twentieth-century poets. Her suicide at the age of forty-eight was the tragic culmination of a life buffeted by political upheaval. The essays collected in this volume are based on diaries she kept during the turbulent years of the Revolution and Civil War. In them she records conversations of women in the markets, soldiers and peasants on the train traveling from the Crimea to Moscow in October 1917, fighting in the streets of Moscow, a frantic scramble with co-workers to dig frozen potatoes out of a cellar, and poetry readings organized by a newly minted Soviet bohemia. Alone in Moscow with two small children, no income, and a missing husband, Tsvetaeva struggled to feed her daughters (one of whom died of malnutrition in an orphanage), find employment in the Soviet bureaucracy, and keep writing poetry. Her keen and ruthless eye observes with compassion and humor—bringing the social, economic, and cultural chaos of the period to life. These autobiographical writings not only give a vivid eyewitness account of Russian history but provide vital insights into the workings of Tsvetaeva’s unique poetics. Includes black and white photographs.
Literary Nonfiction. Translated from the Russian by A'Dora Phillips & Gaelle Cogan. Introduction by Catherine Ciepiela. Like many of Marina Tsvetaeva's essays and poems, LETTER TO THE AMAZON is addressed to another writer, in this case Natalie Clifford Barney, a wealthy American expatriate in Paris. Though written in 1932, Tsvetaeva's letter was in response to what Barney said about lesbian relationships and motherhood in her 1920 Pensees dune Amazone (Thoughts of an Amazon). Tsvetaeva uses her essay to emphasize what is to her mind a general truth of lesbian relationships (i.e. they cannot endure because of a woman's innate desire for a child) and to explore her seemingly agonized feelings about Sophia Parnok, the Russian poet with whom she fell in love in 1914, when Tsvetaeva was twenty-two and Parnok twenty-nine."
