Alexander Blok (1) (1880–1921)

A slim collection of Alexander Blok’s poetry, starting with some composed at the age of 17, and ending with an excerpt from “The Twelve”, written at the age of 38 and a year after the 1917 revolution in Russia. Blok died young, at 41. There are some nice poems here, though I think as a whole they should have been selected more from his later years. I liked how this edition included both the original Russian and the English translation.

My favorite was this one, from 1902:

“You would cut the lagoon with your oar.
You and I, we would meet up at sunset.
I fell in love with the dress that you wore,
All my prior ambitions were nonsense.

Left alone we would quietly sit
And our silence seemed strangely awry.
On the shore evening candles were lit.
Someone pondered the beautiful sky.

There was never love’s ardor or bliss,
Quiet azure had trounced our passions…
We would meet in the gray evening mist,
By the shore full of ripples and rushes.

No more sorrow or love, no more yearning,
All would vanish, forgotten, repressed…
With it vanished the voice of the mourning,
Golden oar, and the white summer dress.”… (more)