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classicbhaer's review
2.0
This is by no means a bad book/collection, but the content of the poems wasn't for me. It tended to reflect upon old stories and myths so I needed to from time to time research a bit and it caused the poems to loose some of their allure. When reading poetry for me personally I like to reflect and think about the possible meanings, this reference of caused a huge disconnect. Also these were originally written in 1910-1930 about so culture and the world is also very different.
Some of the poems are absolutely beautiful and Osip Mandelstam had a way with words. Additionally, Peter France did an amazing job on the translation.
Some of the poems are absolutely beautiful and Osip Mandelstam had a way with words. Additionally, Peter France did an amazing job on the translation.
spacestationtrustfund's review
2.0
Although Osip Mandelstam wrote in modern Russian, his phraseology is distinctly ancient. One of my favourite descriptions of Mandelstam's poetry was to say that one of his poems "slides allusively around its own centre." This short collection, only around 60 pages, was translated by Peter France (aptly named, since he served as a professor of French literature), an acclaimed translator and scholar. In the foreword France writes, "This is a personal selection from the poetry—poems that for one reason or another I wanted to translate."
It's impossible, of course, to convey all the subtle nuance Mandelstam used in Russian when translating his poetry into English. One example is his use of the word шелом to mean "helmet," an archaic poetic term, in this poem:
France's translation of the first two lines was, more or less, solid, with the exception of a quibble I have with his translation of прозрачный to mean "crystalline" instead of the more-common "transparent":
The bones of this are exquisite, but the selection was too brief for me to really get a good idea of France's adroitness as a translator of Mandelstam specifically. France has also translated another collection of Mandelstam's writing, Black Earth: Selected Poems and Prose, so I'll see if I can get my hands on that compilation.
It's impossible, of course, to convey all the subtle nuance Mandelstam used in Russian when translating his poetry into English. One example is his use of the word шелом to mean "helmet," an archaic poetic term, in this poem:
В Петрополе прозрачном мы умрем,Written in 1916, this is one of my favourite of Mandelstam's poems, one of the Petropolis poems. "Petropolis" is an alternate name for St. Petersburg, known as Petrograd at the time. The year 1916 marked a sharp change in the way Mandelstam's poetry approached the subject of St. Petersburg, evident in this poem where Mandelstam cautions Athena (her statue stood in the vestibule of the Admiralty building) that the ruler of the city will be not her but Persephone (Proserpine), goddess of death. The first two lines ("В Петрополе прозрачном мы умрем, / Где властвует над нами Прозерпина") are particularly emblematic of this eschatological resignation, describing St. Petersburg as прозрачный (transparent), i.e., spectral. Mandelstam would use this word to describe ghostly apparitions or other inimical shadows repeatedly throughout his works; the use of the stylistic name, Petropolis, evokes the word некрополь (necropolis), another macabre motif. Ultimately Mandelstam's view of St. Petersburg as a doomed spectre was unintentionally prophetic: the city would be brutally attacked during WWI and the Russian Revolution.
Где властвует над нами Прозерпина.
Мы в каждом вздохе смертный воздух пьем,
И каждый час нам смертная година.
Богиня моря, грозная Афина,
Сними могучий каменный шелом.
В Петрополе прозрачном мы умрем,—
Здесь царствуешь не ты, а Прозерпина.
France's translation of the first two lines was, more or less, solid, with the exception of a quibble I have with his translation of прозрачный to mean "crystalline" instead of the more-common "transparent":
We’ll die in crystalline Petropolis,The word "crystalline" doesn't really evoke anything ghostly or chimeric, but rather something glittering and bright, more fitting for the famed "white nights" during St. Petersburg's summer months.
where we are governed by great Proserpina.
The bones of this are exquisite, but the selection was too brief for me to really get a good idea of France's adroitness as a translator of Mandelstam specifically. France has also translated another collection of Mandelstam's writing, Black Earth: Selected Poems and Prose, so I'll see if I can get my hands on that compilation.
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