Selected Poems (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

Someone once said that the Russians take their poets so seriously that they shoot them. Marina T. hung herself and saved the Soviets a bullet, but she was a thorn in their side nonetheless. This is one of the great Russian poets of the 20th Century and the most tragic of a tragic bunch. These poems are powerful, heartfelt, stunning, and overwhelming. Read it! Highly Recommended

Tsvetaeva is a brilliant poet, and this translation does her justice. The poems retain their depth, complexity and emotion. Highly recommended.

I’m a native Russian speaker and American poet. Marina Tsvetaeva has the compression of Dickinson with the verve of O’Hara and the torture of Celan. Translating her is not possible. But by now there are better translations out there, particularly for those reading her for the first time.

I can't find any good translations of Tsvetaeva online -- these are the best I've seen!

Tsvetaeva's life was filled with tragedy (she lived through and in Revolutionary Russia (her husband fought for the White Army) and in Czechoslovakia during the German occupation) her heart shouted for a personal love the message which rings echoing through her words as she has deep philosophical understanding and awareness of her world which she rides over like gravel in fodder for her clinging to the personal loves of her heart which reigned supreme. She spat her poverty and desperation with pride at the shallow, whoever they might be, and challenged the dignity of heaven. She was a powerful poet who believed in living each moment for what it was and holding love at an undisputable high.Some of my favorite quotes from segments of the book...Because even more than Godhimself I love his angels.From: Bent with WorryHe is the one that mixesUp the cardsAnd confuses arithmetic and weightDemands answers from the school benchWho altogether refutes KantFrom: The PoetWe entered one another's eyesAs if they were oasesAll poets are JewsEverything that I love changes from an external thing into an inward one, from the moment of my love, it stops being external (from the Introduction).I can't attest to the authenticity of the translations, as I know little Russian, Reviews seem mixed; but Feinstein, for me, makes some engrossing connections of words that must ring true to some extent.

Tsvetaeva's personal poems will touch every soul, no matter religious, or national background. Her poems exemplify resilience and strength through outstanding examples and life experiences. While many poems focus on Russia, a collection of her poems describe the simplest everyday acts. "To Kiss a Forehead" is one of the most pure, emotionally raw poems I've read. Her use of blank space creates drama and energy, even though no words of hers are printed in this space. Tsvetaeva's poems are extremely personal in the sense that she directs them to either certain locations or people. Multiple times, the title of her poem is a direct mention to who the poem is for. Other times, she leads the reader to guess who is meant to read her words. Overall, I highly recommend Tsvetaeva's work and it helped me to grow as a poet.

Marina Tsvetaeva is simply amazing. Feinstein does a superb job here translating, considering Tsvetaeva is nearly impossible to translate out of Russian.This book is cheap, wonderful and most people I know end up getting a copy from me as a gift at some time.

A contemporary of Akhmatova, Blok and Rilke, Tsvetaeva is not well known outside her native Russia. She was apparently demanding, difficult, and hard to get along with. One certainly gets a sense of this from her writing. Her poetry, given the time she wrote (the collection here spans from 1916 - 1936) is dark and melancholy, as one would expect. From this translation alone, I would consider her a second-rate poet, far behind Akhmatova. To do so, however, would be to do Tsvetaeva (and her legion of fans) a great disservice. Simply put, this translation is clunky. The images, meter, even the enjambment of the poems simply doesn't resonate. My Russian is admittedly weak; even so, comparing the original with the translations here presented a striking difference in substance.To be fair to the translator Feinstein, translation is extremely difficult, especially so with poetry. Yet it *can* be done well, capturing the flavor, emotion and (in exceptional cases) the sense of word-play that is so critical to this art form. I was disappointed, then, that in this instance, Tsvetaeva's voice was not captured as well as it deserves to be. I have not given up on this poet - but I cannot recommend this particular edition.

le livre est complétement tordu et corné, ile st très abimé

I do not read Russian so cannot comment on the accuracy of the translation. The poems look and sound rough, which reflects this author's tragic life. They were evocative of my visit to Moscow. This is a book that I shall keep and reread.

If you like this book look for another seller. This is certainly not the new book I requested.

Since I have many Penguin Classics, I can judge from this book's cover, that it is a facsimile. Poor quality of the material, obviously scanned and reprinted. Since only amazon sells it in Austria, I'll have to deal with this overpriced bad copy. Does Penguin know about this?