|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Russia's Cruel Muse
| Article
# : |
18238 |
|
|
Section : |
BOOK WORLD
|
| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1990 |
3,699 Words |
| Author
: |
Richard Lourie
Richard Lourie is the author of Sakharov: A Biography. |
THE COMPLETE POEMS OF ANNA AKHMATOVA
Edited and introduced by Roberta Reeder, translated by Judith Hemschemeyer
Somerville, Mass.: Zephyr Press, 1990
Volume 1, 650 pp.; volume 2,871 pp.; $85 for the set.
Anna Akhmatova, one of the great poets of the twentieth century, was by temperament destined to write solely of romantic love and the love of God. But as Napoleon once remarked, in modern times “politics is destiny,” and Akhmatova lived in Russia, where politics-as-destiny was as mighty as a tsunami and as abrupt as a firing squad. She, like tens of millions of other Russian women, was to suffer horribly at the hands of Stalin and the secret police - not because she was a poet, not because she was a person of virtue and heart, but because such was the will of the Kremlin. In one poem she speaks of herself as a river deflected from its true course by the sternness of her era. It is the triumph of her spirit that she not only remained uncrushed but could extend the love she initially felt only for the beloved to all of suffering Russian humanity.
Born Anna Gorenko in 1889, she published her first book of poetry in 1912 at the age of twenty-three. Early on she knew with electrifying certainty that she was a poet. Her father thought this profession would do nothing but disgrace the family name. Her response was to take on the last name of her maternal grandmother, a Tatar. Thus, Anna Akhmatova was born in an act of self-naming, nothing could be more appropriate for a poet whose certainty would only grow more adamant and
... (1934 of 20185 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
