Dear Eratosphereans,


As all of you who observe or participate in our Distinguished Guest events already know, I’ve been successful in approaching and convincing celebrated poets and writers to appear and give us of their time free of charge. Thus, the DG forum has recently been graced by such renowned guests as Charles Martin, Michael Juster, Rachel Hadas, and Dorianne Laux to name a few. None of that is going to change, and I will continue to bring acclaimed Distinguished...

Today I’d like to share a translation of Tsvetaeva’s #1 of “The Disciple” cycle. This is a passionate and energetic lyric poem with quite interesting similes. Right from the start Marina describes her fervent wish to be as close to her spiritual leader as young St. John, Christ’s favorite disciple, was to Jesus. However, at the end of a poem a heretic motive appears with a bonfire prepared for her master.

There are also two other interesting things about the verse. Thus, some lines...

Natalia L. Trauberg, translator of prose and poetry (English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese - Russian).

"A translator devotes his energies to an author, as if dissolving completely in a book. Figuratively speaking, if a translator doesn't kill himself in himself, just as an icon painter kills the artist in himself, he wouldn't be able to work. Few manage doing this; when I translate something, I do more writing than translating. There are several kinds of translators....

Natalia S. Mavlevich, translator of prose and poetry (French – Russian).

“It seems to me that translation is an image thinking process. Once Averintsev* (Sergey S. Averintsev, famous Russian philologist) noticed: our profession is based on a similar triangles principle, i.e. we must provide the adequacy of associations. The most important thing in translation - its very core - is a degree of freedom and accuracy.
<…>
Present-day translators live in a world without...

It was the first poem from "The Disciple" cycle (yet it's #6 there) I decided to translate, as it caught my everything – attention, mind, imagination and breath. Marina managed to unite two things, quite difficult to be united within one place – macro- and microcosmos. As for her spiritual leader, he is addressed as You (capital letter), as if he was portrayed as God the Father. All objects given in plural are to emphasize his glory, though it is put implicitly by belittling...