Ten Russian Poets: Surviving the Twentieth Century

by Richard Mckane

Release Date: March, 2003

Edition: Paperback

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A good selection

Why has nobody reviewed this collection yet? McKane and co. have produced and excellent survey of Russian poetry from the dawn of the last century to the present day. Better known poets such as Velemir Khlebnikov and Osip Mandelstam share pages with less familiar names like Leonid Aronzon and Katia Kapovich. Each poet holds his/her own against the aformentioned greats, and their sections are nicely introduced with brief biographies. Helpful annotations are included when necessary.

McKane has been brave in that he has consciously decided not to include many of the better known Russian poets of the 1900s - No Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Blok, Akhmatova or Brodsky. His gamble pays off in that the underappreciated poets included make the volume far more entertaining than yet another collection of the more noteworthy poets same few famous poems. I for one would rather read the wonderful translations of Poplavsky included here than anything by Brodsky, and Khlebnikov - while much less famous than Mayakovsky - was a much more innovative and ultimatly entertaining champion of the Russian Futurist movement.

This volume is well worth purchasing for anyone interested in Russian poetry in translation. I would recommend it as an introduction only hesitantaly as at this present moment it is th only place that readers are likely to find some of these poets works in English.