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Title: The Collected Poems, 1952-1990: Yevgeny Yevtushenko by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Albert C. Todd, James Ragan ISBN: 0-8050-2378-X Publisher: Henry Holt (P) Pub. Date: 01 November, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Four decades of talent.
Comment: This 650-plus page volume does not cover the entire poetic work of Yevgeny Yevtushenko until 1990, but it comes close. Not all his collected poems are here, either: selections from from "Bratsk Station" and excerpts from long poems such as "Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty" and "Ivan the Terrible and Ivan the Fool" reduce a bit the scope that we are presented with, although not the quality. His most memorable poems are here and the translation is excellent. What I like the most about Yevtushenko is that he is capable of writing good, even great poetry, from an absolutely opposite perspective to mine. He was, for most of his life, a convinced socialist, a man who really believed in the "human face" of socialism and even in that catchy word "internationalism" that the old autocrats in the Kremlin liked so much. Life seems to have made it very plain to him that the dream had always been a nightmare. But his poems are still here and one of the reasons why Yevtushenko hasn't been swept away like many of the so-called poets who sang for the Soviet regime, is that he never did that. He believed in socialism, but he could write "Russian Tanks in Prague" and tell the truth about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. A very long poem, included in this collection, is "A Dove in Santiago: A Novella in Verse," where he attempts to understand and explain, from a socialist point of view, the events in Chile, 1973. He fails, but he is not the first one to get it wrong (most non-Chileans have gotten it wrong) and he, at least, does it with a lot of talent. I don't agree with Yevtushenko's socialism, but I can't help liking his poetry. "Babii Yar," also included in this book, is an ode to the Jews murdered by the nazis in a ravine, and violated a second time by the Soviets who covered up the crime because the Moscow government was deeply antisemitic. Yevtushenko writes about all this. He writes an elegy for New York and starts one of his poems with the verse "Moscow believed my tears..." This is a versatile poet, a man who has visited places and has the talent to tell us his version of what he has seen in an original, beautiful manner. Yevtushenko is far more accessible than some of the more modern Russian poets, but accessibility does not mean less quality. On the contrary, his poetry is clear, honest, passionate, direct, and articulate. My only regret regarding this volume is the absence of my favorite poem by Yevtushenko: "On the Death of a Dog." Other than that, his talent shines through this compact, affordable book, with poems such as "The City of Yes and the City of No," "Stolen Apples," "White Nights in Archangel," "Zima Junction," "The Heirs of Stalin," "Requiem for Challenger," etc. As soon as the book becomes available, buy it: you won't regret it.
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Title: Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Early Poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, George Reavey ISBN: 071452896X Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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