Information about Readings
from Larissa Miller’s New Book in London.
Enigma of Translation: Question without Answer
On 25 November 2008, in Pushkin House in London there was a Reading from Larissa Miller’s bilingual book of poetry “Guests of Eternity” published a month before by ARC Publications in the “Visible Poets” series (see Note by Series Editor Jean Boase-Beier). The book has been translated by a well-known English poet and translator Richard McKane, who also wrote the Preface. The Introduction was written by Sasha Dugdale.
The dedication reads: “In memoriam Arseny Tarkovsky”.
At the beginning of 2008 the translation of the book received Britain’s Poetry Book Society Recommendation (see the Selection Review by Ruth Fainlight).
On December 3 Larissa Miller was interviewed and recorded some poems at the BBC Russian Service, for the program of Seva Novgorodtsev “BibiSeva” (broadcast the same day) and for the 25-minute literary program of Natalia Rubinstein “Larissa Miller. Poems and about poems” (broadcast first on 8 December and then repeated 4 times).
On December 5 there was another Reading from Larissa Miller’s new book in London: “Bluechrome Poets + Larissa Miller”.
In more detail:
The Reading on 25 November was attended by about 60 people packed in the small auditorium at Pushkin House. Each poem was first read in English (by Richard McKane and actress Margaret Robinson) and then in Russian (by Larissa Miller). Three poems were accompanied by the recordings of the songs to the same words (composer, guitar: Michael Prihod’ko, singer, flute: Galina Pukhova).
The following poems from the book were recited at the reading:
And instead of grace – a hint at grace...
Pan is lead by passion, more frightening...
Come here. Come here...
Tormented by a concept that’s unclear...
Love to the grave / Life to the grave...
Between the cloud and the pit...
We are guests of eternity...
You are thrown into abyss – you are born...
Do these days, broad and lofty...
Teach me simplicity...
First they rounded them up, then came killing...
The snow sparkled even in the black years...
The whip and the honey-cake. The whip...
What do you pay to stay here...
Look my darling / The cradle is hanging over abyss...
What is there overhead in the pale blue distance... – SONG
BREAK
Where are you from? / Like everybody from Mama...
We live our life, not knowing...
Do you not feel pain, feel pain...
I write poems, what’s more in Russian...
It was on the very last day of creation...
They waited for light, waited for summer...
English lesson...
My life is curiouser and curiouser...
The heavens are playing with the earth...
They were singing ‘Yesterday’, singing it on the long waves...
The clouds fly across the sky to God knows where... – SONG
The Evening was concluded by a recent poem not included in the book:
Poor angel, my poor angel... – SONG
A great surprise of this evening, for Larissa and for me in any case, was a hearty response to the poems (i.e. to their translations) from the English-language public constituting half of the audience. We both estimate Richard McKane’s translations very highly. But the point is that in translation there is practically inevitable lack of rhyme, of internal alliterations, of “sounding” lines which Larissa Miller’s poetry is very rich in. Sasha Dugdale writes in the Introduction to Guests of Eternity: “Her poems have an exceptionally strong lyrical and sonorous quality and a musicality which is hard to reproduce in English” and “Miller’s poetry might well be described as ‘poetry without words’... Clearly her own preference is now for ‘wordless’ poetry, poetry which barely breaks the silence”. Everyone who can read these poems in Russian will understand what Sasha Dugdale means. But this bewitching “songlike nature” has not been reproduced, cannot be reproduced in translation. And the translation of this “poetry without words” is surely made with words. So for us it was quite unexpected to observe strong emotional reaction of the English-speaking listeners who don’t understand Russian at all.
And this strange phenomenon occurred invariably during all our 2 weeks stay in England. At the Reading on 5 December most of the 30 participants in the former Trinity United Reform Church (London, Camden Town) were poets who also read their poems as part of the “Poems from the floor” program. The English translations of Larissa Miller’s poems were read by Richard McKane and Angela Jarman (ARC Publications’ Director of Development), Larissa read the Russian originals, there were no songs this time. And again it was a great surprise to us to see a sincere and strong emotional reaction to Larissa Miller’s poems from this quite specific audience, generated exclusively by Richard McKane’s translations.
The question arises: Why? What produces this effect? At the moment it is a question without an answer for me and for Larissa Miller as well.
Boris Altshuler
Moscow, December 2008