What do you think?
Rate this book
Anna Akhmatova: A Poetic Pilgrimage
This striking biography, the first ever written about the great Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), illuminates Akhmatova's dramatic personal and professional struggles. From the isolation of the twenty-five years she was banned from publishing her work, and the sorrow of her tragic losses--her first husband executed by Stalin, her second dead in the work camps, and her son imprisoned for fourteen years--to her final years of triumph receiving public acclaim as the country's foremost woman poet, this compelling, authoritative account traces the relationship between her writings and her life. Haight provides elegant translations and detailed analyses of Akhmatova's finest works, including "Requiem" and "Poem without a Hero," revealing the brilliance of this now highly praised poet.
- GenresBiography
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 28, 1976
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 22, 2024
Consider yourself lucky if once in your life you get to meet someone capable of understanding you as well as Amanda Haight managed to understand Anna Akhmatova. It's unbelievable, really, especially when you think that they belonged to different generations, different cultures and literally different worlds.
In a way, it's what's not in this book that makes it so valuable.
- author's "I": no first impressions, no meeting's descriptions, no "her voice trembled when she talked about it". You see the author in the Preface and afterwards you only see Akhmatova not through the author's eyes but as if it was a documentary.
- what-ifs: there are no questions whether or not Akhmatova could do something differently about any aspect of her life, only descriptions of what she did, what were the known reasons for her actions and what were the consequences.
- "foreign eye": that's perhaps the greatest and most unexpected achievement. There's zero of that zoo-like intonations ("now children, look at this animal in the cage, it's a lion!") that often happens involuntarily when people talk about other cultures. No stereotyping, no cliches, no detours explaining how Soviet life worked at the time.
- sentiment or judgement: it's not an essay on whether Akhmatova or anyone around her was a good person, no attempts to manipulate the reader into crying or rage, no ideology, no capitalism vs socialism or anything, no assumptions what she might have felt but chose not to disclose.
It makes it a fulfillment of Akhmatova's dream: to have her story preserved not as a gossip or inspiration or a part of a "big reveal" but as a biography of a poet, the one where she got to have her say but also verified with other people who were present at the time. Clear, open, laconic, unpretentious, confident, self-sufficient, never scandalous or explosive, always focused on the poetry. Worthy of her poems.
I don't really know what I think about the poems translations because on the one hand, they're totally correct in terms of meaning, nothing added, nothing removed. But on the other, most of the time they're devoid of the rhythm, the sound, the rhymes, of all what's made them to stay with us. Because that's the thing about her poetry: it's extremely easy to read and remember because of how it sounds, it's like music in a sense. In the translation it becomes heavy and filled with pathos but in the original it never feels this way, it's meaningful, deep, cruel but light, weightless almost. Plus the language differences do their part, the things like the meaning of the choice of order of words in Russian which English just doesn't support. But that's almost always the case of poetry. It's not to be translated, not really.
However, the interpretations of the poems presented are very good. Well-written, supported with clear arguments and not that many assumptions, always able to grasp the essence, a pure joy to read.
In a way, it's what's not in this book that makes it so valuable.
- author's "I": no first impressions, no meeting's descriptions, no "her voice trembled when she talked about it". You see the author in the Preface and afterwards you only see Akhmatova not through the author's eyes but as if it was a documentary.
- what-ifs: there are no questions whether or not Akhmatova could do something differently about any aspect of her life, only descriptions of what she did, what were the known reasons for her actions and what were the consequences.
- "foreign eye": that's perhaps the greatest and most unexpected achievement. There's zero of that zoo-like intonations ("now children, look at this animal in the cage, it's a lion!") that often happens involuntarily when people talk about other cultures. No stereotyping, no cliches, no detours explaining how Soviet life worked at the time.
- sentiment or judgement: it's not an essay on whether Akhmatova or anyone around her was a good person, no attempts to manipulate the reader into crying or rage, no ideology, no capitalism vs socialism or anything, no assumptions what she might have felt but chose not to disclose.
It makes it a fulfillment of Akhmatova's dream: to have her story preserved not as a gossip or inspiration or a part of a "big reveal" but as a biography of a poet, the one where she got to have her say but also verified with other people who were present at the time. Clear, open, laconic, unpretentious, confident, self-sufficient, never scandalous or explosive, always focused on the poetry. Worthy of her poems.
I don't really know what I think about the poems translations because on the one hand, they're totally correct in terms of meaning, nothing added, nothing removed. But on the other, most of the time they're devoid of the rhythm, the sound, the rhymes, of all what's made them to stay with us. Because that's the thing about her poetry: it's extremely easy to read and remember because of how it sounds, it's like music in a sense. In the translation it becomes heavy and filled with pathos but in the original it never feels this way, it's meaningful, deep, cruel but light, weightless almost. Plus the language differences do their part, the things like the meaning of the choice of order of words in Russian which English just doesn't support. But that's almost always the case of poetry. It's not to be translated, not really.
However, the interpretations of the poems presented are very good. Well-written, supported with clear arguments and not that many assumptions, always able to grasp the essence, a pure joy to read.
February 23, 2019
Amanda Haight wrote near the end of this book: "She traced the path of her own suffering without melodrama and without self pity ... Art was the mirror that made sense out of an otherwise senseless existence, the link between worlds that could reveal the greater purpose underlying apparent chaos, making it possible to bear life's suffering." pp. 194-195.
These two quotes are good summaries of and tributes to a remarkable woman during a horrendous time in history. Anna Akhmatova could still love and write through it all.
Amanda Haight's insights into this woman are deep, personal and eloquent treating the poet with great sensitivity and dignity. Reading Akhmatova's collected works drew me to want to know more about her, and I am not sure I could have found a better book than this one. Anna Akhmatova's life certainly was a heroic pilgrimage through the worst of hell and then quiet survival, even though one of her most compelling poems is "Poem Without a Hero". One can almost understand the devastation of this poem during the Terror, as many Russians called it, when many of the heroes were either imprisoned or killed. Yet, this book witnesses to the victory of a poet able to keep her integrity during tremendous pressures not to. Beautiful book!
These two quotes are good summaries of and tributes to a remarkable woman during a horrendous time in history. Anna Akhmatova could still love and write through it all.
Amanda Haight's insights into this woman are deep, personal and eloquent treating the poet with great sensitivity and dignity. Reading Akhmatova's collected works drew me to want to know more about her, and I am not sure I could have found a better book than this one. Anna Akhmatova's life certainly was a heroic pilgrimage through the worst of hell and then quiet survival, even though one of her most compelling poems is "Poem Without a Hero". One can almost understand the devastation of this poem during the Terror, as many Russians called it, when many of the heroes were either imprisoned or killed. Yet, this book witnesses to the victory of a poet able to keep her integrity during tremendous pressures not to. Beautiful book!
July 17, 2020
Great short book about Akhmatova's life. I knew basic facts about her (death of her husband, arrest of her son, meeting with Isaiah Berlin, trouble with the powers-that-be) but was not aware that she had such difficulties in her personal relationships and drew a better understanding of her poetry by knowing more about her life. The excerpts of her poems are beautifully translated. If you want to know more about Akhmatova, this book is a great place to start.
November 24, 2022
An essential resource for understanding the True Twentieth Century. Beginning from the perspective of a thesis has done nothing to hinder the care and love of Akhmatova and her world shining through. Much of value has been written and unearthed since the writing of this work. One is amiss tin paying attention to recent studies and ignoring the work of Ms. Haight.
September 13, 2023
of course it is great but i just get so bored reading biographies
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews