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Translated by Andrei Navrozov
‘Full of surprising, but not arbitrary, images drawn
from Pasternak’s sense of the fragmentation of modern
life, Navrozov’s translations are inventive and exact
in equal measure, the working parts of a poetry always
packed with feeling and intelligence.’ - Robert Nye, The
Times
The life of Boris Pasternak culminated in the publication
of his successful novel Doctor Zhivago, and his being
awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature, an award he did
not accept.
In this collected volume of Pasternak’s poetry Andrei
Navrozov seeks to transport the English-language reader into
the Russian poet’s mysterious lyric universe. Both inventive
and exact, the poems in Second Nature are inspired
by life and scenery from the natural world.
Unavailable for some time, Second Nature has been acclaimed
by leading Pasternak scholars and enthusiasts.
‘Navrozov successfully recreates the convoluted exuberance
of early Pasternak. [He] courageously renders Pasternak’s
heterogeneous lexical and musical mosaic . . . his compromises
to metre and orchestration are consciously made, and are
not mere mistranslation.’ - Christopher Barnes, author
of Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography (CUP)
‘It seems to me that I can hear, as I have not done
before, the voice of the poet Pasternak and really apprehend
what he is doing with thought, feeling, language. It’s
an impressive and immensely moving piece of work; the poems,
somehow, declare authenticity . . . How sad and beautiful
they are! One would need a heart of stone not be moved by
them.’ - Charles Causley
‘Andrei Navrozov is an exception among present-day young
poets. He is a true lyric poet.’ - Josephine Pasternak
‘Awe is scarcely too strong a word . . . [Navrozov’s
versions] have given me, for the first time, some notion
of what Pasternak is like in the original.’ - Roy Fuller
‘Andrei Navrozov’s versions are among the best
as far as outright poetic quality is concerned . . . These
renditions of such famous poems succeed in conveying an
impression close to that of the originals.’ - World
Literature Today
BORIS PASTERNAK (1890 - 1960), the son of a pianist
and artist, attended university in Moscow and Germany before
the turmoil of the First World War and the Russian Revolution
forced him to work within the Soviet state. He first made
his name as a poet but later worked as a translator and
writer of prose. His first work of fiction, Povest (published
by Peter Owen as The Last Summer) was published in
1934 and was followed in 1958 by Dr Zhivago. He declined
to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature the same year following
pressure from the Soviet authorities.
ANDREI NAVROZOV is an acclaimed writer, translator and poet.
He has recently completed a cultural and political portrait
of contemporary Italy, Italian Carousel: Scenes of Internal
Exile also published by Peter Owen. |
