Customer Reviews

The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally, the poems of one of my favorite authors are out in one book, and what a book this is! For lovers of graceful, touching, heartfelt poetry, but also for those who are interested in that period of Russian history between the twilight of the Czars and the horror of Stalin, Akhmatova's poetry covers a very wide spectrum. She wrote of love and nature. She wrote about and for her friends. She wrote about her personal tragedies and the tragedy of her country. If you have never read Akhmatova, do yourself a favor and discover her in this magnificent translation by Judith Hemschmeyer: translating poetry is particularly tricky, but the job is superbly done here, because it feels as if the author had written her verses in English, not Russian. If you like what you have read, or if you already appreciate Akhmatova's style and are interested in more about her life, nothing better than the book by Roberta Reeder on Anna Akhmatova. Reeder has also edited this volume and her love for the work of a great poet is evident. These "Complete Poems" are truly complete and satisfiying, ordered chronologically, supported by biographical material, photographs, and an astonishing section of notes. A book for the poetry lover in us, and also a book for the student. I must also say that the translation of "Requiem," my favorite poem by Akhmatova, is one of the best I have read. My only complaint has to do with the binding: this is a paperback, and we all know what happens to paperbacks, and at 948 pages this one may break fairly soon. My advice is to buy it nonetheless, and also buy one of those plastic, self-adhesive covers on sale in most big bookstores, protect the book with it and, as an additional touch, put one more layer of the hard plastic on the spine, so it'll reinforce it better and your book will last a lot longer. At least that is what I did with my copy and after almost two years it still looks new. So, a great collection, indeed, by a great poet, and by people who truly cared about her art. Five stars is the maximum, but I would give it more.

For the totally nonRussian speaking English speaker, this is definitely the definitive Akhmatova (...say that ten times fast...). Not only are all her poems here (over 800), but we get a host of other useful things like introductory essays, an essay by Isaiah Berlin, chronology, notes, and tons of beautiful pictures of the beautiful poet herself.

Akhmatova is one of the premier 20th century poets, and it is a shame that her reputation is still only establishing itself among English speaking countries. This volume should help in that regard. However, it must be strongly emphasized that readers who hear Akhmatova only in English are really missing most of the beauty of her poems. Russian poetry is musically beautiful, and this is NOT carried over into the Enlglish, although it must be granted that Hemschemeyer does make some pretty valiant attempts to do just this.

So the reason for the four stars is that there is no Russian in this edition. Granted, the size of it would hardly permit it. So I would ask that people complement it with an edition of Akhmatova's poems in the original, and either learn cyrillic or get someone who can read them to read them to you! You will hardly recognize them, they are so beautiful. She is a master of alliteration, assonance and rhyme... all of these being so important to her lyricism.

I actually bought this edition, and when I found there was no Russian, I returned it and got Hemschemeyer's "Selected Poems of Anna Akhmatova" instead, which only has 100+ poems but has the Russian on the opposing pages. It was sad to have to do this, but after I sat down and read through some of the poems, I realized I had made the right decision. What I miss most are the pictures...

Akhmatova was one of the few unrepentant Acemist poets to survive Russia's Bolshevik revolution and subsequant Stalinist takeover and purges. She was seen by authorities as a dangerous element, related to the pre-revolutionary order. Somehow, even as her fellow poets - including friend Osip Mandlestam and husband Nikolay Gumilov - were executed, exiled, sent to camps, or fled, she managed to survive - outliving Stalin himself. Her poems range from the early tales of love and unrequitation, to the tormented later works such as Requium - a harrowing dedication to the victoms of Stalinism. Her use of words is fantastic - the reader can truly feel her presence. This collection is very comprehensive, and well-translted from the original Russian. Definately worth the $21.

The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova translated by J.Hemschmeyer (expanded paperback edition) offers an incredible affordable offering of world class Russian poetry. Akhmatova's poems are universally accessible to an English speaking/reading audience. You can jump right into the poetry and bypass the introductory material on Anna but my guess is that after sampling these incredible poems most readers will satisfy at least some of their curiosity about the poet and investigate what Anatoly Naiman and Isaiah Berlin have written about Akhmatova. Furthermore the text supplies numerous pointers to places for more information. But the poetry itself is well worth the money for this text. Like Yeats, Akhmatova draws the reader into a poem's world with an ease and grace which belies the efforts of writing whether the subject is heartbreak, love, travel, nature etc.. Akhmatova's "voice" is not that of a supreme being lecturing on high but rather of one person conversing, confiding, contemplating with another. Thus, this Russian woman enters your life through the poetry of her own and it's a very gratifying experience.

I am studying Russian writers of the 1930s particularly those who fled to Paris after the Bolshevik Revoltion of 1917. Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva were part of the pre-Revolution intelligencia and suffered terribly from the Reds suppression of artistic freedom. The Complete Poems of AA was helpful to me in this study. The photos, the biography and the dating of individual poems aided my work. Since I am not skilled in Russian, I cannot comment on the quality of the translation but the very moving English version of AA's expression is what I would hope is even better in her native tongue. There is no doubt that even in translation AA and MT were among the great poets of the 20th Century.

William Farragher

Finally, the poems of one of my favorite authors are out in one book, and what a book this is! For lovers of graceful, touching, heartfelt poetry, but also for those who are interested in that period of Russian history between the twilight of the Czars and the horror of Stalin, Akhmatova's poetry covers a very wide spectrum. She wrote of love and nature. She wrote about and for her friends. She wrote about her personal tragedies and the tragedy of her country. If you have never read Akhmatova, do yourself a favor and discover her in this magnificent translation by Judith Hemschmeyer: translating poetry is particularly tricky, but the job is superbly done here, because it feels as if the author had written her verses in English, not Russian. If you like what you have read, or if you already appreciate Akhmatova's style and are interested in more about her life, nothing better than the book by Roberta Reeder on Anna Akhmatova. Reeder has also edited this volume and her love for the work of a great poet is evident. These "Complete Poems" are truly complete and satisfiying, ordered chronologically, supported by biographical material, photographs, and an astonishing section of notes. A book for the poetry lover in us, and also a book for the student. I must also say that the translation of "Requiem," my favorite poem by Akhmatova, is one of the best I have read. My only complaint has to do with the binding: this is a paperback, and we all know what happens to paperbacks, and at 948 pages this one may break fairly soon. My advice is to buy it nonetheless, and also buy one of those plastic, self-adhesive covers on sale in most big bookstores, protect the book with it and, as an additional touch, put one more layer of the hard plastic on the spine, so it'll reinforce it better and your book will last a lot longer. At least that is what I did with my copy and after almost two years it still looks new. So, a great collection, indeed, by a great poet, and by people who truly cared about her art. Five stars is the maximum, but I would give it more.

A truly amazing and captivating collection of not only all of the Poet's work but also the riveting and heart breaking story of her life and harrowing survival as a writer in Communist Russia.
A must read!

AA is a true poetic spirit. If you are interested in finding out how true poets get inspired, here is a good example. I would caution readers though, that there is an a sense of pessimism, sadness and a nauseating mood that permeates many of the poems, but there is diversity though. Here is a human being who, in my opinion, found her hope in her sadness, which, interestingly, was and became expressive of a whole generation of the Russian people. Perhaps this is why she is called a prophet in the sense that she expressed the feelings of the people. This stance is good and many can benefit from it but, what is beyond the relishing in sadness, i would ask?

This was one of a set of books I gave my daughter so I cannot rate the books so far as contents are concerned. To order it was easy and fast.

you have to read it in Russian. You CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT, and i repeat, CANNOT (!) read it in translation- its like trading feces for gold. That is literally what it sounds like in comparison to the original. The specificity, brutality, the sumptuous tenderness of the Russian language are all but lost in these translations of one of this century's greatest poets. Although you might enjoy what you are reading, given you do not speak Russian- you honestly cannot even BEGIN to touch the greatness of Akhmatova or any other Russian poet by reading it in translation.

I honestly don't know who came up with the concept of translating poetry- to me its barbaric. A poem is so brief, it is so immediate and so dependent upon every word- no one should ever touch it. If you want it bad enough, learn Russian. And just so you know, reading Russian poetry in its original form is MORE than worth going through the trouble of learning the language. There is nothing in the world like it- nothing. It beats Shakespeare.