How Fire Descends : New and Selected Poems / Serhiy Zhadan ; translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps ; foreword by Ilya Kaminsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zhadan, Serhiy, author.

Contributor:

Tkacz, Virlana, translator.

Phipps, Wanda, translator.

Kaminsky, Ilya, writer of foreword.

Series:

Margellos world republic of letters book.

The Margellos World Republic of Letters Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Russian poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (132 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2023]

Summary:

A searing testament to poetry's power to define and defy injustice, from iconic writer-activist Serhiy Zhadan Since the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, the Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan has brought international attention to his country's struggle through his unflinching poetry of witness. In this searing testament to poetry's power to define and defy injustice, Zhadan honors the memory of the lost and addresses the living, inviting us to consider what language can offer to a country threatened with extinction. Young lovers, marginalized outsiders, and ordinary citizens pulse with life in a composite portrait of a people newly unified by extremity. Even in the midst of enemy fire, Zhadan's lyrical monuments beat with a subterranean thrum of hope. With a foreword by the poet Ilya Kaminsky, this selection of Zhadan's poetry, forged entirely in wartime, is an homage to the Ukrainian people, a forceful reckoning with the violence of the past and present, and an act of artistic imagination that breaks with trauma and charts a new future for Ukraine.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Book Title

Copyright

Contents

Foreword

HOW FIRE DESCENDS

New Poems (2021-2022)

When so much is taken away

Remember every building

Of all literature

They didnʼt tell you

Your attention is great

. . . speak now

Brecht

The meaning of winter changes

I donʼt know who killed you or when

From Psalms to Aviation (2021)

There were words I said

Someday theyʼll talk about this time

You will never write

When you realize

In the summertime

Tell me again

From now on thereʼs so much amazement

People are lonely

Waiting for snow

No matter how you approach this tree

There will be waters

We watch

What if we set aside

A long Sunday psalm to aviation

This is a good opportunity to be thankful

Just donʼt call it a language

It will be the same with this book

From List of Ships (2020)

Letʼs be brave this summer

Just write a few sentences

Aft er fi nding my way here

Maybe the most important thing

Between what we manage to lose

So what does this man do?

How many times have I heard poets declare their love?

This should not be voiced

Someone touches your hand

From Antenna (2018)

1. "Stories of love"

2. Tobacco Factories

3. "How are poems written?"

4. "An argument starts between them"

5. "Aft er two years of silence"

6. "Every morning"

7. "These past few weeks"

8. "They stand on the train platform"

9. "Cold morning air"

10. "And here is one more poem"

"All eternity lies ahead"

"To make it to the cold weather"

From Templars (2016)

"How did we build our homes?"

"ʻYou havenʼt shavedʼ"

"The boats are loaded with grain"

"So much light"

"Itʼs all just like it was a hundred years ago"

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-27463-7

OCLC:

1396696101