American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

An Anthology of Russian Verse, 1812-1960 by Avrahm YarmolinskyReview by: D. H. StewartThe Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1963), pp. 69-70Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European LanguagesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/304797 .

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Reviews 69

Mr. Richards repeats the entirely unproved assertion of his predecessors, one categorically denied by Huxley himself, that My exerted an influence on Brave New World. It might well have been more profitable to comment on the different ways in which Zamjatin and Huxley reacted to H. G. Wells.

Some of Zamjatin's best humorous writings derive from his residence during World War I in England, where he helped construct a Russian ice- breaker. The novel Ostrovitjane, the play Ob.eestvo po&etnyx zvonarej, the tale Lovec (elovekov appear to be hilarious satiries on everything British. But Mr. Richards avoids the error of many, who often confuse the setting with the target of a satire, and properly discusses the works as directed against some of the many manifestations of Entropy.

Much remains to be done on Zamjatin. The influence on Zamjatin of Cexov, Gogol', Leskov, Priivin, Remizov, H. G. Wells, and many others has been noted but not carefully examined. Analyses of many of Zamjatin's more complex allegories are yet to be published. A study of Western and Soviet criticism of Zamjatin would reveal many interesting interpretations and misinterpretations. A British critic in 1932 could write in all seri- ousness that My was primarily a satire on America's industrial civiliza- tion, but not approved for publication by Soviet authorities because it was "not solemn enough for Russia .... " Translations of Na kuli6kax, Bloxa,,Bol'gim detjam skazki, and otherworks are needed. More of Zam- jatin's works have been translated into French, and even into Italian, than into English.

Mr. Richards has done a solid general survey of the philosophy and art of Evgenij Zamjatin. It is hoped others will be stimulated into filling the many additional gaps existing in our knowledge of this important teacher, critic, philosopher, and writer.

Christopher Collins Indiana University

Avrahm Yarmolinsky, ed. An Anthology of Russian Verse, 1812-1960 . (Anchor, A285.) Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Co. [c. 1962]. 1xii, 292, $1.45.

Mr. Yarmolinsky's anthology has been a business-like enterprise from its inception in 1921. The present volume-a revision and expansion of the 1947 Treasury... -perpetuates this characteristic. Thus it still contains the best selection of Russian poetry printed in the United States. Equally important, it is offered in an inexpensive paperback, which, one hopes, may encourage more American readers to acquaint themselves with Russian poetry-that least accessible of all elements of a different culture.

All of the poets previously represented reappear in the new volume, although a few poems are dropped (e. g., by Sologub and Bal'mont). But a dozen new poets are added, so that this collection is more ample than those published earlier. Some readers will again quarrel with the practice of representing many poets, each by a single work; yet in a general an- thology, this practice can hardly be avoided. One aim, after all, is to

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70 Slavic and East European Journal

acquaint the reader with the names of poets, as well as specific poems. Moreover, the major writers, from Puikin to Evtugenko, are abundantly represented. In addition, the new volume retains Mr. Yarmolinsky's helpful biographical notes-corrected and brought up to date.

Given the inconstant curiosity of Americans about all things Russian, we are not likely to receive from the commercial press a truly extensive survey of Russian poetry in translation-say a thousand poems instead of the fewer than four hundred in Mr. Yarmolinsky's text. Folk poetry and eighteenth century verse deserve to be better known, and we should have a clearer understanding of Kol'cov and Nekrasov, to name only two. Mr. Yarmolinsky's volume will not help here; however, his renewed effort to rmake at least the "highest quality" Russian verse current for Ameri- cans (in readable English) deserves our gratitude.

D. H. Stewart University of Michigan

Taras Shevchenko. Poems -Pogsies-Gedichte. Literary Editor George S. N. Luckyj. Art Editor Myron Levytsky. Munich: Molode Zyttia, 1961. 116 pp.

This volume consists of a selection of seventeen of Sevienko's poems (or fragments of longer poems) reproduced in the original and in English, French, and German translation. In all, there are also seventeen trans- lators represented-including Ivan Franko. Actually, only five of the se- lections achieve quadrilingual representation. One of the factors obvi-

ously governing the editor's choice was the existence of a suitable English translation, so that all the poems have a parallel text in English but only a minority have both French and German versions.

The book is illustrated with eight reproductions, in color, of Sev- cenko's drawings and paintings. Notes, understandably in a publication like this, are kept to a minimum.

There could have been, perhaps, more indication to the reader that

Dumy moji and the passage from Velykyj l'ox are not reproduced in full. The only editorial comment concerning the Ukrainian texts says that they follow the Academy edition of 1939 "with very small changes" -which is surely not enough warning. Moreover, there might have been a statement that some of these translations were made from other editions; the reader who bothers to compare the translations with the original will think, for example, that the French and German translators were a bit fanciful in their rendition of the last line of Hamalija.

But the final judgment must be that, although it is a modest volume, it is beautifully reproduced and a fine anniversary present for 9evienko.

Lawrence L. Thomas University of California, Berkeley

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