Moving, poetry-soaked memoirs by poet Nayrnan of his time with
Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (A.A.), whom he met in 1959 when he was
23. He later became her secretary. In 1911, A.A. was a founding
member of the Poets Guild, from which grew the Acmeists. Until
1922, as we discover, she managed to publish five books, but in
1921 ex-husband N.S. Gumilyov was executed and a year later A.A.
was banned from publishing. Her son was arrested three times,
sentenced to death (commuted), then exiled, all to keep her silent.
A.A. turned to translation, stopped publishing poetry until her ban
was lifted in 1940. Later, she was expelled from the Soviet
Writers' Union for writing "ideologically harmful" private emotions
"totally alien to Soviet literature," and her latest book of poetry
was destroyed in the presses. To help save her son's life, she
unwillingly wrote a cycle of banal poems in praise of Stalin. When
Nayman went to A.A.'s house in Leningrad, he met a quiet woman
whose "appearance, words, and gestures all expressed the fact that
she was doomed, utterly...I left, stunned by the fact that I had
spent an hour in the presence of a person with whom I had no ideas
in common...but with whom no one on earth could have anything in
common." Nayman captures A.A.'s great but reserved spirit largely
by repeating her answers to literary questions and responses to
poems sent or read to her. By this time, she had a "phonograph
record" of about three stock replies that sounded thoughtful but
said nothing - in her day poets were killed for their poetry.
A.A.'s terse poetry is poorly served by Walter Arndt's flowing
translations herein, but A.A. comes off majestically anyway.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Akhmatova was a leading figure in the renaissance of Russian poetry
earlier this century who, despite seeing family and friends
deported to labour camps under Stalin, intervened on behalf of
Brodsky. In this book, her literary secretary and friend celebrates
her work, life and courage.
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