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{"id":10203,"date":"2023-03-08T05:00:20","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lossi36.com\/?p=10203"},"modified":"2023-09-08T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T15:22:08","slug":"a-bleak-forecast-reviewing-to-the-ashes-by-anzhelina-polonskaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lossi36.com\/2023\/03\/08\/a-bleak-forecast-reviewing-to-the-ashes-by-anzhelina-polonskaya\/","title":{"rendered":"A bleak forecast: reviewing \u201cTo the Ashes\u201d by Anzhelina Polonskaya"},"content":{"rendered":"Russian poet Anzhelina Polonskaya\u2019s journey to poetry is unusual, which makes her most recently translated poetry volume, To the Ashes,<\/i> a true testament to the unorthodox relationship the poet has with language.<\/strong><\/p>\n Born in 1977, Polonskaya spent her youth attending a school for athletically talented children with a focus on figure skating. Later, she spent years in Latin America as a lead dancer in an ice show. Observing her home country’s militarisation before her eyes, as both an insider and outsider, shaped her staunchly anti-war vision for the future, as revealed in her poetry. Polonskaya does not use a typical rhyme meter present in much of contemporary Russian poetry. Her lyrical style is more reminiscent of the Spanish language prose she spent much time reading and studying.<\/span><\/p>\n Polonskaya and translator <\/span>Andrew Wachtel<\/b><\/a> have formed an amazing bond as a result of their years working together. Wachtel first encountered Polonskaya\u2019s work in 1999, while organizing the <\/span>Three Lands, Three Generations<\/b><\/a> poetry festival at Northwestern University, which brought poets from Poland, Russia, and Slovenia together along with translators and critics. Their previous collaboration <\/span>Paul Klee\u2019s Boat<\/span><\/i> was published by<\/span> Zephyr Press<\/b><\/a> and received the <\/span>Words on Borders Freedom Prize<\/b><\/a> in 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To the Ashes<\/span><\/i> was never published in Russia due to censorship and safety concerns, which makes Wachtel\u2019s translation the first time many of the poems in <\/span>To the Ashes <\/span><\/i>can be read. The poems are critical of Russia\u2019s militarisation, echoing the themes in <\/span>Paul Klee\u2019s Boat. <\/span><\/i>\u201cTo the Ashes\u201d discusses the climbing death toll caused by the senseless wars, with no end in sight. \u201cLillies\u201d is a poem about the silencing of everyday people in Russia, especially exiled writers. \u201cThe Berkut of Mezhigorie\u201d examines corruption in authoritarian regimes and the suppression of dissidents.<\/span><\/p>\n As experienced as Wachtel is in translating Polonskaya\u2019s work, he notes in the introduction that it is difficult to capture the elliptical sparseness of her speech: \u201cIf you are not careful, the English version will simply be flat and prosaic, because English wants more words and has trouble with too much ellipsis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The volume\u2019s namesake poem \u201cTo the Ashes\u201d contains a stanza that illustrates such complexity, and the English version illustrates how masterful Wachtel\u2019s rendition is:<\/span><\/p>\n Our dead are everywhere –<\/span><\/p>\n in the trees, blossoms and fetes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That same ash in their mouths<\/span><\/p>\n won\u2019t let them wake from death.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u0418 \u043d\u0430\u0448\u0438 \u043c\u0451\u0440\u0442\u0432\u044b\u0435 \u043f\u043e\u0432\u0441\u044e\u0434\u0443 –\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u0432 \u0434\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0432\u044c\u044f\u0445, \u0432 \u043f\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0434\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430\u0445, \u0432 \u0446\u0432\u0435\u0442\u0430\u0445.<\/span><\/p>\n \u041e\u0442 \u0441\u043c\u0435\u0440\u0442\u0438 \u043d\u0435 \u0434\u0430\u0451\u0442 \u043e\u0447\u043d\u0443\u0442\u044c\u0441\u044f<\/span><\/p>\n \u0438\u043c \u0442\u043e\u0442 \u0436\u0435 \u043f\u0435\u043f\u0435\u043b \u043d\u0430 \u0443\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0445.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Beyond the morose tone, Wachtel has perfectly captured the rhythm of the original poem. For example, while the poem\u2019s second line literally translates to \u201cin trees, in holidays, in flowers,\u201d Wachtel reassembles the sentence to \u201ctrees, blossoms and fetes,\u201d which both captures the meaning and keeps a stress loyal to the original. His rework of the words reveals just how difficult it is to direct-translate Polonskaya\u2019s colloquial constructions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTranslating Polonskaya\u2019s poetry is a bit like translating Chekov. At first glance it seems like it should not be too hard, but then it turns out to be so tricky to work with the terseness of the material that you sometimes wish there were more conventionally \u2018difficult\u2019 problems to solve,\u201d says Wachtel.<\/span><\/p>\n Polonskaya\u2019s feelings about Russia\u2019s emphasis on war can be seen in her poem \u201cStone,\u201d likely a homage to <\/span>Osip Mandelstam\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> poem of the same name:<\/span><\/p>\n Oh, fatherland,<\/span><\/p>\n why your indifference<\/span><\/p>\n to those who don\u2019t believe in blood,<\/span><\/p>\n your plains<\/span><\/p>\n silent as the tomb?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u0420\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043d\u0430,<\/span><\/p>\n \u0445\u0442\u043e \u0431\u0435\u0441\u0447\u0443\u0432\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0438\u0435 \u0442\u0432\u043e\u0451\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u0442\u043e\u043c\u0443, \u043a\u0442\u043e \u043d\u0435 \u0432\u0435\u0440\u0438\u0442 \u043a\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0438,<\/span><\/p>\n \u0447\u0442\u043e \u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0438\u043d\u0430,<\/span><\/p>\n \u043c\u043e\u043b\u0447\u0430\u0449\u0430\u044f \u0447\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437 \u043a\u0440\u0430\u0439?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Like Mandelstam, who was arrested during the 1930\u2019s repression, Polonskaya <\/span>received death threats<\/b><\/a> for her poems of political dissent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n