Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Marina Tsvetaeva: a witness to the horrors of totalitarian rule

One of the greatest of 20th-century Russian writers

  • For My Poems, Written So Early
  • For my poems, written so early 
  • That I didn’t even know I was a poet, 
  • Hurled like drops from a fountain, 
  • Like sparks from rockets,
  • That burst like tiny devils, 
  • Into the sanctuary of sleep and incense, 
  • For my poems about youth and death 
  • — For my unread poems!
  • Scattered in dusty bookstores, 
  • Where no one ever buys them! 
  • For my poems, like precious wines, 
  • A time will come.
  • Poem for Blok (1)
  • Your name is a — bird in my hand, 
  • a piece of ice on my tongue. 
  • The lips’ quick opening. 
  • Your name — five letters. 
  • A ball caught in flight, 
  • a silver bell in my mouth. 
  • A stone thrown into a silent lake 
  • is — the sound of your name. 
  • The light click of hooves at night 
  • — your name. 
  • Your name at my temple 
  • — shrill click of a cocked gun. 
  • Your name — impossible — 
  • kiss on my eyes, 
  • the chill of closed eyelids. 
  • Your name — a kiss of snow. 
  • Blue gulp of icy spring water. 
  • With your name — sleep deepens.
Marina Tsvetaeva

Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941) was a Russian poet considered to be one of the greatest of 20th-century Russian writers. A witness to the Russian Revolution and the oppression which resulted from the Soviet rise to power, Tsvetaeva saw firsthand the horrors of totalitarian rule. Five years after the Revolution, Tsvetaeva left Russia, living in Paris, Berlin and Prague under increasingly impoverished conditions. In 1939 she returned to Russia with her family, whereupon her husband and daughter were arrested by the state on specious charges of espionage, leading to her husband’s execution. Three years later, Tsvetaeva took her own life. She has been recognized primarily as a lyric poet so that even in her narrative poems, the lyric element remains a constant. As fellow Russian poet Joseph Brodsky noted, her poetry bore witness to her times not in what she said but in how she embodied those times through her work: “Tsvetaeva is the unique case in which the paramount spiritual experience of an epoch…served not as the object of expression but as its means, by which it was transformed into the material of art.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Bait and Switch at San Diego Symphony

Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak
Next Article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
  • For My Poems, Written So Early
  • For my poems, written so early 
  • That I didn’t even know I was a poet, 
  • Hurled like drops from a fountain, 
  • Like sparks from rockets,
  • That burst like tiny devils, 
  • Into the sanctuary of sleep and incense, 
  • For my poems about youth and death 
  • — For my unread poems!
  • Scattered in dusty bookstores, 
  • Where no one ever buys them! 
  • For my poems, like precious wines, 
  • A time will come.
  • Poem for Blok (1)
  • Your name is a — bird in my hand, 
  • a piece of ice on my tongue. 
  • The lips’ quick opening. 
  • Your name — five letters. 
  • A ball caught in flight, 
  • a silver bell in my mouth. 
  • A stone thrown into a silent lake 
  • is — the sound of your name. 
  • The light click of hooves at night 
  • — your name. 
  • Your name at my temple 
  • — shrill click of a cocked gun. 
  • Your name — impossible — 
  • kiss on my eyes, 
  • the chill of closed eyelids. 
  • Your name — a kiss of snow. 
  • Blue gulp of icy spring water. 
  • With your name — sleep deepens.
Marina Tsvetaeva

Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941) was a Russian poet considered to be one of the greatest of 20th-century Russian writers. A witness to the Russian Revolution and the oppression which resulted from the Soviet rise to power, Tsvetaeva saw firsthand the horrors of totalitarian rule. Five years after the Revolution, Tsvetaeva left Russia, living in Paris, Berlin and Prague under increasingly impoverished conditions. In 1939 she returned to Russia with her family, whereupon her husband and daughter were arrested by the state on specious charges of espionage, leading to her husband’s execution. Three years later, Tsvetaeva took her own life. She has been recognized primarily as a lyric poet so that even in her narrative poems, the lyric element remains a constant. As fellow Russian poet Joseph Brodsky noted, her poetry bore witness to her times not in what she said but in how she embodied those times through her work: “Tsvetaeva is the unique case in which the paramount spiritual experience of an epoch…served not as the object of expression but as its means, by which it was transformed into the material of art.”

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Dim Sum Tour, Warwick’s Holiday Open House

Events November 24-November 27, 2024
Next Article

Birding & Brews: Breakfast Edition, ZZ Ward, Doggie Street Festival & Pet Adopt-A-Thon

Events November 21-November 23, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader