ON THE BORDER OF SNOW AND MELT

Selected Poems of Georgy Ivanov

On The Border of Snow and Melt – Selected Poems of Georgy Ivanov, translated, edited and annotated by Jerome Katsell and Stanislav Shvabrin, a new bilingual Russian/English collection of over 500 pages. A taste of what you can expect from this very fine yet largely unknown poet, at least with respect to English-language readers:

Mirrors reflect each other,
Mutually distorting their reflections.

I believe not in the invincibility of evil,
But only in the unavoidability of defeat.

Not in the music that burned my life,
But in the ash left from the burning.

—Georgy Ivanov (translated by Jerome Katsell and Stanislav Shvabrin)

“This poem is characteristic of Ivanov’s vintage lyricism. Somber and precise in its expressiveness, it draws an ironic line under a lifelong search for the means of expression uniquely suitable to the task of creating a fitting monument to the poet’s many disappointments, be they subjective, intimate, or philosophical. Paradoxically, perhaps, what may be taken for this poem’s bitterness, thanks to the degree of its distillation, becomes its redeeming factor, giving us a taste—or rather a foretaste—of the genuineness of Ivanov’s lyricism. More is offered below.”

—Stanislav Shvabrin