Selected Poems of Anna Akhmatova

A companion to The Complete Poems, this collection offers in a bilingual format some of the Russian poet's most intense and lyrical moments, while retaining a preface by Roberta Reeder and accompanying notes for Judith Hemschemeyer's translations. "We needn't worry again about how to read Akhmatova in translation."-The Observer(London) "In this restrained and accurate translation ... the sense and message strike with all the weight of the original." -New York Times Book Review

Judith Hemschemeyerbegan translating Akhmatova in 1976. She is a professor at the University of Central Florida, and has published several books of poetry and translations. Roberta Reederhas taught at Harvard and Yale and is the author of Akhmatova's biography, Anna Akhmatova: Poet &Prophet.

Also available by Anna Akhmatova

The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

PB $29.00, 0-939010-27-5 • CUSA

A companion to The Complete Poems,this collection offers some of the Russian poet's most intense and lyrical moments in bilingual format, while retaining a preface by Roberta Reeder and accompanying notes for Judith Hemschemeyer's translations. "We needn't worry again about how to read Akhmatova in translation." -The Observer (London)"In this restrained and accurate translation ... the sense and message strike with all the weight of the original." -New York Times Book Review

THE PUBLICATION OF A BOOK

(From the Cycle "Secrets of the Craft")

That day is always unusual.

Concealing boredom, bitterness and malice,

The poet is a friendly host,

The reader-an appreciative guest.

One leads the guests into a mansion,

Another-under the pitched roof of a hut,

A third-directly into a night of languor,

For my readers-the rack is good enough.

Why, what sort are they and from where,

And along this road to nowhere,

What lures them-what miracle,

What black star?

But to all of them it's unquestionably clear

What kind of reward to expect,

That it is dangerous to stay here,

That this is not the Garden of Eden.

But just imagine! They keep surging in,

Inevitabl LANGUAGE: rus

Poetry. Translated from Russian by Judith Hemschemeyer. This book contains more than one hundred poems from The Complete Poems of Anna Akmatova, which was named of the best books of 1990 by the New York Times. Akhmatova first achieved fame as an icon of pre-Revolutionary literary society. In the post revolution era she became the unofficial spokesperson for her fellow countrymen who suffered through Stalinism. This book features poems both originally written in Russian and English and represents the full span of the poet's career. Also included is a translator's introduction and a preface to Akhmatova's life by Roberta Reeder and notes from Hemschemeyer's definitive translation.