Life without : selected poetry & prose, 1992-2003 / Tatiana Shcherbina ; translated by Sasha Dugdale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shcherbina, Tatʹi︠a︡na.

Contributor:

Dugdale, Sasha.

Language:

English

Russian

Subjects (All):

Shcherbina, Tatʹi︠a︡na--Translations into English.

Shcherbina, Tatʹi︠a︡na.

Shcherbina, Tatʹi͡ana.

Physical Description:

139 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

[Russian-English bilingual edition].

Place of Publication:

Highgreen, Tarset, Northumberland : Bloodaxe Books, 2004.

Language Note:

Poetry in parallel Russian text with English translation; prose in English translation.

Summary:

Tatiana Shcherbina has been described as 'one of the most significant figures in contemporary Russian poetry' (Kommersant'). In her recent work the elegant and ironic narrator meditates on love, disappointment and loss against the backdrop of Russia's social collapse. Sometimes her poems take the form of overtly political statements ('Dictatorship, democracy'), sometimes new capitalist Russia is reflected merely in the emotional plane -- in a poem on lost love she claims she has paid the highest rate: cash. Whilst her themes are timeless, Shcherbina's settings are distinctly contemporary. She writes about sitting at a computer gazing into the Microsoft Windows; her poems are full of supermarkets, printing cartridges, TV, the environment; she considers applying make-up, drinking alone, falling asleep to the sounds of films in the next room. Tatiana Shcherbina is one of a generation of Russians who are able to travel frequently in Europe. She has lived in France -- and sometimes writes in French -- and her Russian poetry is filled with an awareness of other 'European' culture. She has even been criticised for a supposedly anti-Russian stance, yet she understands absolutely what is happening in Russia and is in no way an outsider. Shcherbina's stance is also that of a woman challenging Russia's patriarchal and chauvinist society. However, her poetry is not primarily political, but literary, and she shows great versatility in different forms and genres. Her playfully meditative essays form the perfect counterpoint to her sophisticated and self-aware poetry.

Contents:

Life without you 19

To Apollo 21

'They say if something's eating you...' 23

'Apart from love...' 25

'The whole town is lit by my desire...' 27

'I know so much about love and almost nothing...' 29

Spring Conscription 31

'Won't I ever see you again...' 33

'As a tigress stalks its cage...' 35

Marathon 37

Pearl 39

Vicious Circle 41

'They've turned off all the hot water...' 43

Viral infection: Lovelessness 45

'I could have been as happy as a dog...' 47

Christmas Eve 49

'How can life, for such a prolonged period...' 51

'Farewell, farewell to poetry...' 53

Flu 55

'If you put on that thing called a fur coat...' 57

'What's left of the goat? Its horns...' 59

'The helplessness of a bee left without a hive...' 61

'How is it the dream doesn't dry up, crinkle in suffering?' 63

'Receiver, why are you wailing like a siren?' 65

'I'm missing something. What it is I don't know...' 67

Ru.net 69

The Source of the Volga 71

Edges/Lines 73

'Summer ends at night, so as not to be seen...' 75

'However many teardrops the rain may let fall...' 77

'Dictatorship, democracy...' 79

Bed 81

'Silence is like the dark, a drug...' 83

Glasses 85

'Is every passed day a plus or a minus?' 87

'If all is past and gone, what remains to be done...' 89

'I'd like to free myself from the chainmail, the armour...' 91

'If you want enough you get, but later than you needed...' 93

Woman 95

'Why have you both left me, Dad, Mum?' 97

A Recent History of Moscow 101

Craze 107

From The World of Perceptible Things in Pictures

Wayfarer 109

The World 110

State and Country 111

Outward and Inward Feelings 113

The Providence of God 114

A Game of Chance 115

Temperance 116

Water Birds 118

Carriages 119

Trade 120

City 121

Home 122

A Warm Room to Sleep in 123

The Family Unit 125

Medicine 126

God 128

August 130

From The Transparent World

Light 133

Transparency 135

Why I don't live in Paris 138.

Notes:

Edition statement from cover.

Contains:

Shcherbina, Tatʹi︠a︡na. Works. Selections. English & Russian. 2004

ISBN:

1852246421

OCLC:

52946550