Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva

Tender collection with searing prose fragments from her letters.The introduction, too, is quite enlightening.A great way to learn about a poet who doesn't have enough exposure in the Anglophone world.

Of the great Russian poets under Stalin, Marina Tsvetaeva seems to have been the youngest, boldest, and most nimble. This fine collection is a treasure.

The language and sensitivity to this excellent poet's writing is remarkable. The book reveals the exraordinary life of a poet whose contribution to the world would otherwise be lost to English language readers.

This slim and lovely volume, not much thicker than a pamphlet, includes some of the best translations of Marina Tsvetaeva I have ever seen. Her poems, written early and late, finally get their due. Also included are an introduction by Stephanie Sandler and two fine essays by the co-translator, Ilya Kaminsky. But there's a surprise: tucked away in the back of the the book is a CD of most of the poems, beautifully read in Russian by Polina Barskova and Valzhyna Mort, poets themselves: see especially Barskova's  This Lamentable City: Poems of Polina Barskova (English and Russian Edition) (2010 Subscription Series) (Tupelo Press Poetry in Translation)  (translated by Kaminsky) and Mort's  Factory of Tears (Lannan Literary Selections) (Byelorussian Edition) . The only quarrel then might be that a bilingual format might have been preferable.Tsvetaeva's collected works run to hundreds of pages. (Another great translator is Angela Livingstone: see her  The Ratcatcher (European Poetry Classics)  and  Phaedra: with New Year's Letter and Other Long Poems  (which also includes the whole of the "New Year's Letter" to Rilke--passages from which figure in the volume at hand). I guess I could be greedy and ask for more, but Dark Elderberry Branch has its own sharp integrity and I most urgently recommend it.

Don't expect the usual unbearable verse translation from this book. Finally, the editors who picked texts that make sense in English! Reading this book you will meet Tsvetaeva's brilliant mind - her prosaic formulations are as stunning as her poems.

Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva is a little gem of a book. The translations - or 'readings', rather - feel natural, translucent, light. Essentially a distilled Tsvetaeva, it mixes prose snippets and poems. Valentine and Kaminsky have done a sterling job....more, please!