Who is Zabolotsky

Who is Nikolai Zabolotsky?

Nikolai Zabolotsky was a much admired Russian poet of the 20th century. He was prominent during the Soviet period and made his literary debut in 1929 with the publication of his first book of poetry, Scrolls. It was a remarkable collection of descriptions of urban life in Leningrad during the first years of the Soviet era. The poems created a sensation and Zabolotsky was severely criticized for his satirical view of life and pessimistic tone. As a result, many of the copies of the edition of 1,100 were confiscated and destroyed.

As the political situation steadily worsened, the authorities had enough of his strange brand of pessimism and parody and he was arrested in 1938 and sentenced to seven years in an NKVD labour camp. In 1946 he was released and allowed to return to Moscow; he continued to write poems, but now in a more classical form of nature poetry. He died in 1958.

A note about Zabolotsky's later poetry

A note about Zabolotsky's later poetry

Following Zabolotsky's expressionistic poems about Petersburg during the 1920s, he was led to a larger poetry exploring man's place in nature. An idealist at heart, his philosophical tone and ecological vision of nature is particularly relevant for us today.

Zabolotsky fell victim to the Stalinist purges and did not write any poetry until his release in 1946, whereupon he began to write with his earlier intensity. His work, from the early avant-garde pieces to the later classical lyrics, is unified: the poems add up to an epic about man's place in the scheme of creation

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Nightingale


The forest choir had just fallen silent,
A finch was about to release its voice.
In a crown of leaves a nightingale's silhouette
Alone, unceasing above, began to rejoice.

O insidious passion, the more I pursue you,
The less am I able to ridicule.
Have you the power, insignificant bird,
To be silent in this radiant cathedral?

Slant rays of light, glancing the surface
Of cool leaves, vanish in the distance.
The more fidelity from you I suffer,
The less trust I put in your allegiance.

But you, nightingale, fastened to art,
Like Antony in love with Cleopatra's fire,
Frenzied, how can you keep emotion apart,
And be captivated by love's desire?

Forsaking these evening groves, why
Are you breaking my heart?
I'm smitten by you, yet, how easy to try
To separate, to let misfortune depart.

Alas, it's obvious, this world's a creation
For beasts, parents of the desert's first symphony,
Who, hearing in a cave your exclamation,
Bellow and howl: “Antony! Antony!”

1939
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