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The Stray Dog Cabaret
The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems | Honor Moore, Paul Schmidt, Catherine Ciepiela
4 posts | 2 read | 1 to read
Apparently the first original publication from the New York Review imprint (exclusively a reprint house until now), this collection makes an ideally readable introduction to this sometimes forbidding, internationally admired, poetic group. Fin-de-siecle concerns of love in cafs, of sun and song, flirtation and regret, give way to darker worries as the Russian Revolution runs its course: Blok and Boris Pasternak sound particularly effective in Schmidt's libretto-like, clarified versions, while Akhmatova--grown older, immersed in sorrow--proposes a toast to the terrible world we inhabit/ And to God, who never replied. Editor Catherine Ciepela offers a long and useful introduction, along with capsule biographies of Schmidt's eight poets; poet and biographer Honor Moore adds an epilogue. --Publishers Weekly.
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vivastory
The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems | Honor Moore, Paul Schmidt, Catherine Ciepiela
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Opened in St. Petersburg in 1912. the eponymous space (described as a wine cellar) quickly became a gathering place for what would become the greatest Russian artists of the time, as illustrated by this volume of poetry. As Richard Howard's blurb on the back states, “For Paul Schmidt...expression became literature insofar as it was dramatic.“ This anthology is conceived as a sort of series of performances of the 8 poets, with their works (cont)

vivastory echoing one another & in some cases directly in response to each other (memorably towards the end there is a suicide poem by Sergei Esenin, followed by Mayakovsky's poem responding to Esenin's suicide, next is Mayakovsky's suicide poem & finally Tsvetaeva's poem responding to the suicide of both poets which could be considered her own suicide poem.) If you are looking for faithful translations, this isn't the volume for you. However, if you are 13mo
vivastory looking for a volume that captures the innovativeness, vitality & lyrical richness of a group of Russian poets who were lovers, occasional enemies, friends then this is a great volume. This volume contains (as of the publication in '07) the first complete translation into English of Tsvetaeva's The Poem of the End, which I have long thought of as one of the greatest breakup poems of all-time. Worth it just for that.
13mo
BarbaraBB Great review Scott. Once again NYRB did deliver! 13mo
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vivastory @BarbaraBB It's interesting because this one is in the NYRB Classics line, but now there is a separate imprint for poetry. 13mo
BarbaraBB I didn‘t know that 13mo
vivastory @BarbaraBB Their catalog is significantly smaller than that of NYRB Classics but I have read a few of them. I read this one last summer & enjoyed it 13mo
vivastory @BarbaraBB They also have Vasko Popa in their imprint, who has long been a personal favorite 13mo
Reggie You make me sad I didn‘t try harder in college. Lol great review, Scott. 13mo
69 likes8 comments
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vivastory
The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems | Honor Moore, Paul Schmidt, Catherine Ciepiela
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Anna Akhmatova

batsy 💜 13mo
Reggie Lovely 🖤 13mo
Branwen Oh, I love this! 💕 13mo
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TrishB
The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems | Honor Moore, Paul Schmidt, Catherine Ciepiela
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#cabaret #musicalnewyear
Not read - just liked the title. There‘s a funny review on Amazon that basically challenges all the translation in the book 🤷‍♀️

Mdargusch Love the cover! 💙 5y
Cathythoughts Interesting.... 👍🏻♥️ 5y
vivastory I almost used this one. I read the review you mentioned. Pretty funny. It's basically impossible to translate poetry into another language while maintaining the original rhyme pattern. 5y
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TrishB @vivastory exactly! He sounded really peeved that reviewer though - gave me a bit of a giggle! 5y
vivastory He was! It made me laugh how he broke down each one. I spent several years reading almost nothing else but poetry & I have to say that there's a lot of people like him in the poetry world. 5y
TrishB I love poetry 💕 but translations can be clunky in prose too. 5y
Reggie I love reading reviews. If you ever want a sobfest, go read the reviews of I Love You Forever. But even on YouTube when I go listen to songs for some of these challenges some of those comments really touch and entertain me. On one of the videos for Wicked Game some guy‘s comment is ‘This song makes me think of someone who no longer thinks of me.‘ 💔😮@TrishB @vivastory 5y
TrishB @Reggie nothing like a good sob 😁💔 5y
91 likes8 comments
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eclecticreading
The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems | Honor Moore, Paul Schmidt, Catherine Ciepiela
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By Marina Tsvetaeva. Sorry for the odd angle of the photo, I‘m lying in bed and it‘s hard to juggle the phone and holding the book upright 😅📖 #currentlyreading