For the saving grace of art. #amazonlink to The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova https://amzn.to/3ytLtTG from "In Place of a Forward" for "Poem Without a Hero" / by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Judith Hemschemeyer, edited by Roberta Reeder The poem does not have any third, seventh, or twenty-ninth meanings. I shall neither change it nor explain it. 'What I have written -- I have written.' {important information for you for the #amazonlink: as an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases; all books I link, I own, unless otherwise noted}
20th-Century Russian Poetry
DPF / Kublanovsky
For the love of poetry, from Contemporary Russian Poetry, selected and translated by Gerald S. Smith.
from 135 / by Yurii Kublanovsky
The fate of verse is world-sovereign,
though the column it makes be short,
if into the mysterious, missing the manifest,
it’s spectral remnant is inserted.
DPF / Bobyshev
For the squirrel ‘ s in paradise, from Contemporary Russian Poetry, selected and translated by Gerald S. Smith.
from There surely must be such places / by Dmitril Bobyshev
There surely must be such places,
where animals too have a simple life.
DPF / Tsvetaeva
For stars and curls, from Poem A Day, Volume 2, edited by Laurie Sheck.
from Where does this tenderness come from? / by Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941)
Your lashes are — longer than anyone’s.
DPF / Hippius (Gippius)
For division and birds, from The Penguin Book of Women Poets, edited by Carol Cosman, Joan Keefe, and Kathleen Weaver.
from A Grey Frock / by Zinaida Hippius (Gippius), Russia (1869-1945)
Girl in a grey frock . . .
Your braids seem cotton-spun
DPF / Blok
For years, from Selected Translations, by WS Merwin.
from To Zinaida Gippius / by Alexander Blok, Russia 1880-1921
Russia
gave birth to us in her years of anguish
and we can forget nothing.
DPF / Zhdanov
A themeless week with some about fathers. This one’s from Contemporary Russian Poetry, translated by Gerald S. Smith.
from Portait of My Father / by Ivan Zhadanov b. 1948
and on the throne floor with poppyseed thunder
plays a baby
DPF / Shvarts
For Bird Week. Maybe not the raven you were expecting. This one’s from Contemporary Russian Poetry, edited by Gerald S. Smith, 1993.
from The Raven / by Elena Shvarts, trans. by Gerald S. Smith
An old Raven asked for my heart
To take away to its baby ravens
DPF / Derieva
And, God reminds me of angels. Found this one in the current APR, Jan/Feb 2014, Vol 43/No1.
from False Shame / by Regina Derieva trans. by Frederick Smock
The angels do not have
human conventions:
they knock on a door
while it is open;
they knock on a heart
while it is open
DPF / Akhmatova
Dreams, war.
from Poem Without a Hero / by Anna Akhmatova
But a dream — is also something real,
Soft embalmer, Blue Bird,
The parapets and terraces of Elsinore.
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 