Poems of Akhmatova Author:Anna Akhmatova, Stanley Kunitz (Translator, Editor), Max Hayward (Editor, Translator) A legend in her own time both for her brilliant poetry and for her resistance to oppression, Anna Akhmatova, denounced by the Soviet regime for her eroticism, mysticism, and political indifference is one of the greatest Russian poets of the twentieth century. — Before the revolution, Akhmatova was a wildly popular young poet who lived a bohemian ... more »life. She was one of the leaders of a movement of poets whose ideal was beautiful clarity in her deeply personal work, themes of love and mourning are conveyed with passionate intensity and economy, her voice by turns tender and fierce. A vocal critic of Stalinism, she saw her work banned for many years and was expelled from the Writers' Union condemned as half nun, half harlot. Despite this censorship, her reputation continued to flourish underground, and she is still among Russia;s most beloved poets.
Here are poems in the original Russian with English translations on facing pages from all her major works, including the magnificent "Requiem" commemorating the victims of Stalin's terror and some that have been newly translated for this edition.
This long-awaited volume of superb poetry is enhanced by illuminating essays on Akhmatova's life and work by the translators, Stanley Kunitz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and Max Hayward, a well-known translator of such Russian as Pasternak, Babel, Mayakovski, Sinyavski, Voznesenski, and Nadezhda Mandelstam.« less