February: Selected Poetry of Boris Pasternak

Perhaps it was the watery eyes of Omar Sharif, the beauty of Julie Christie, the fierceness of Alec Guiness, or the wounded look of Geraldine Chaplin. What it was, I was a young teenager when I was pulled into the movie version of “Doctor Zhivago,” directed by David Lean. It was one of the movies rarely made today—a big movie with dozens of characters, stories and sub-stories. It was an epic film based on an epic literary work that had only recently been published.Published in Russian in Italy and forbidden in the author’s own country.The movie pulled me to the novel by Boris Pasternak, and I read it when I was all of 14. It’s a love story, actually several love stories, set against the backdrop of World War I, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and the long Soviet night that followed. Pasternak received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958, largely on the strength of “Doctor Zhivago” and his poetry, but the Soviet regime forced him to refuse the honor.Before he was a novelist, Pasternak (1890 -1960) was a poet. In fact, his prose was not allowed to be published in Soviet Russia, but Russians knew him as a poet, perhaps the leading poet of the Silver Age, the model for poets like Marina Tsvetaeva. His poetry continues to be available; recently poet Andrey Kneller translated a number of Pasternak’s poems and assembled them as the volume “February: Poems.”A few were written in the 1910s and 1920s, but most of the poems in the collection date from the 1950s (Pasternak did not publish during the 1930s, and publication after World War II and leading up to Stalin’s death in 1953 was fraught with potential peril). They are poems of daily life and love, of the environment around the poet and the culture he lives in. But the poems are Russia, Russia as it was, is and will be. Here is the poem “Confession”:ConfessionLife has suddenly returned again,Just as once it strangely went away.On this ancient street, once more I stand,Just as then, that distant summer day.Same old people and the same old worryAnd the sunset’s fire is still warm,Just as when the evening in a hurryNailed it swiftly to the stable wall.Women in their old and cheap attireWear away their shabby shoes at night.Afterward upon the roofing ironBy the rooftops they are crucified.Here is one, so wearied and unwilling,Up the steps beginning to ascend,Rises from the basement of the building,Walks across the courtyard on a slant.And again, I’m planning my charade,And again, all’s pointless and dull.And a neighbor, passing through the gate,Disappears and leaves us all alone.The volume includes the title poem, “February,” as well as one written in 1958 entitled “Nobel Prize,” which offers a glimpse of how Pasternak privately reacted to being forced to turn it down. In all, “February” includes 29 poems, with the last several poems reflecting the poet’s interest in Christianity, which is also one of the themes of “Doctor Zhivago” and written about the same time.I like these poems that seem so Russian, or what we think of as Russian. They have a place, too, in literary history, written by a poet who physically escaped the dangers of living in a tragic country in a tragic time but was profoundly shaped by that same country and time.

I was inspired to acquaint myself with Boris Pasternak's poetry when I read in Eugenia Ginzburg's memoir of her arrest and imprisonment in one of the Siberian GULAG camps,  Journey into the Whirlwind , that she found comfort and relief in his poetry. In fact, because she had a prodigious memory Ginzburg was able to recite poetry for hours at a time allowing herself and her fellow prisoners to temporarily forget the misery of their captivity.Of the several books of Pasternik's poetry Amazon offered, I chose "February" because it contained a selection of poems written throughout his career. Unfortunately, the publication date of each poem is not identified, only the date it was written. According to the biographical sketch at the end of the book, Pasternak maintained a strictly apolitical position towards the Soviet regime, but during Stalin's rule, at considerable risk to himself he defended the independence of the artist. In keeping with his apolitical attitude, the subjects of these poems mostly concern private life, i.e. humanity, the difficult relations between man and woman, and the passing of the seasons. There are also poems about New Testament people and events. There is one poem, dated 1956, which describes the monotony and narrow-mindedness of the Soviet Union's powers-that-be.I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Russian, especially Soviet, literature and to poetry lovers generally.

I enjoyed reading the poems included in this compilation of Boris Pasternak's work encompassing many years of his writing career. It is a shame that Pasternak's own country forbid the publication of these works.There are beauty in these words. I would believe it to be challenge to translate poetry and maintain the prose and beauty. I commend Andrey Kneller on achieving just that.

Pasternak is a poet , a painter and a musician of the most dreary nature.love, pain and hurt all shine through with apathy and disgust.a must for any lovers of russian literature.

Decent, fairly literal translations. Not a lot of depth in the translations, but Pasternak's meaning does come through.

I read all the poems by Pasternak. He can be a difficult poet but once you are through reading one of his poems, you are a changed man.

Pasternak's poetry strikes home. Although best known in the West for his novel, I plan to order more of his poetry.

Excellent

Having recently read Dr. Zhivago for the second time and watched the movie for the third time! I decided to explore his poetry. The poems are wonderful, the Russian weather is actually a character in the poems.Rewards slow careful reading and re-reading arrived quickly and in perfect condition

The soul of Russia murmurs through these poems like wind whispering through a forest of birches. The magic is not just in the words themselves but in the underlying memories and dreams they evoke. The translations are wonderful. There is an occasional jarring note in awkward rhymes, though I cannot say if this just reflects the Russian original.

Very small collection and not the best of Pasternak’s poems. Get (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) Translator, Peter France collection is far better.

Collection of poetry by Boris Pasternak, author of Dr Zhivago. Inspiring.

I had forgotten how evocative poems were. Loved this book especially the shorter poems shuddered to flow much better than the longer ones.