I originally picked this book up for the Akhmatova translations, but I found the interviews highly informative. Though I am not a published poet (in spite of describing myself as the most spaced out poet on the planet in a few reviews), I have been to Ann Arbor, Michigan and New Hampshire, and I was surprised with how similar some of our experiences have been. I have been to a writing workshop, so it was possible for me to follow the process by which she has shared and refined poems before attempting to have them published. I have also been to church and taken part in discussions in that context, and was not surprised that Jane Kenyon never found the courage to submit the final poem in the book, "Woman, Why Are You Weeping?" to that process. People don't usually talk about `apathy and bafflement' while "waiting/ for the bread and wine of Holy Communion" after having been to India. (pp. 205-09).

It would be awful for me to joke about the contents of this book, but I think I found a joke by Jane Kenyon in the article, "Poetry and the Mail," originally published in "The Concord Monitor," 16 August 1993. "All poets share one thing, however--a daily dependence on the mail. `It is joy, and it is pain,' as the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova once said, though not about the mail." (p. 128). The poem itself, "Like a white stone in a deep well," (p. 16) is included in this book. Memory is mentioned in the second line, and in the final line of the poem, and must be what Anna Akhmatova was thinking about, or about "how the gods turned people/ into things, not killing their consciousness." (p. 16)

Most of the poems by Kenyon in this book show up in the Interview with Bill Moyers (1993). What I find most modern is the open discussion of depression, crept up on with a question about the melancholy of winter in the poem, "February: Thinking of Flowers." (p. 151). In a poem, "Having it Out with Melancholy," the second part starts with a list of pills that takes up three lines, and I would bet that none of them ever appeared in any book that Freud read. I like the poem "Otherwise" on pages 168-69. The last one in the Moyers interview was "Let Evening Come." (pp. 170-71). I suspect that most of the readers of this book will be serious poets. It is difficult to imagine another group who would be eager to contemplate an article like "The Physics of Long Sticks." The last paragraph of that article is devoted to the question, "Why can't people be more like dogs?" (p. 103).

Jane Kenyon's poetry reawakened my muse and my love of poetry at a time in my life when I sorely needed it. I have read everything of hers I can get my hands on, and when I found this book I was thrilled. It is like sitting down in the living room with her. I always felt so close to her, like she was my friend, and this book almost makes that impossibility possible.

Jane Kenyon is sorely missed; her volumes of published poetry are cherished members of my library. How wonderful to have now a collection of her translations and her occasional prose pieces. She was as observant and trenchant in essays about gardening or hiking as she was in her best verse; this collection is another chance to hear her voice once again. For all her fans, this volume is a must. For those who don't know her work, it might be a good introduction, and it will surely lead them to her published collections which, thankfully, remain in print. A warm tribute to a much-loved writer.

This is a marvelous book. It is extremely difficult to accurately capture the flavor of the original writing in translation, but Kunitz has done this and more - the English itself is poetry. The book is dual language, so readers of Russian can read the original next to the English. Both are excellent.

The selection is fairly representative of Akhmatova's life work, with early poems from 1909, through her affair with the poet Blok in the teens, the Terror and War, to her deathbed in 1961. I particularly enjoyed the translation of the epic "Requiem". Without a doubt, this is the best English version I have ever read. My only complaint is its berevity - at 40 poems, it merely whets the readers appetite for more - a pity, given the outstanding nature of both poet and translator.

For those who are not familiar with Anna Akhmatova, this is a gem. If you have read some of her work, this is a must-have volume. Enjoy!

This is the volume that introduced me to the works of Anna Akhmatova. After having read this in one evening, I could not sleep - I was so moved by her poetry. The translation must have captured her heart and soul because it certainly captured mine - it inspired me to get up in the middle of the night and draw pictures to go with what I had read. I understood at once the love the Russian people have for her. Since then, I have gobbled up everything translated into English that I can find, but I still think this little volume is the best of all and return to it again and again. Enjoy......

Amanda Haight produced an marvelous, analytical, informative biography of the Russian poet (not "poetess!") Anna Akhmatova. This woman's life was certainly fascinating in its own right, and Haight makes it all the more interesting because of her clear presentation, good organization, and obvious connection with her subject. The poet's life is covered from her birth to her death in the 1960s; in her long life, she saw the revolution, suffered great personal tragedy (often the product of the Stalinist regime), but kept writing through it all. This biography would be interesting to a person who had no prior knowledge of Akhmatova or a person who is familiar with her poetry and wants to know more about the writer. I have always found that Akhmatova and Wordsworth are the two poets I have the most trouble separating from the speakers of their poetry, and this biography is thus a very interesting companion to Akhmatova's work. Haight's writing and research are difficult to find fault with. I also recommend THE COMPLETE POEMS OF ANNA AKHMATOVA, edited by Roberta Reeder.

I found out about Akhmatova when I read Jane Kenyon's translations (One Hundred White Daffodils). This audio cassette is one of the best productions I've heard. The voices (Christopher Reeves is of course wonderful) are authentic and it is like seeing a play on stage. Her story is fascinating and for all her suffering, she continues to stay loyal to her love of her country and to love. Her poetry is so beautiful. You'll love this cassette & Anna.

This is the best translation of Akhmatova -- clear taut and beautiful

For the totally nonRussian speaking English speaker, this is definitely the definitive Akhmatova (...say that ten times fast...). Not only are all her poems here (over 800), but we get a host of other useful things like introductory essays, an essay by Isaiah Berlin, chronology, notes, and tons of beautiful pictures of the beautiful poet herself.

Akhmatova is one of the premier 20th century poets, and it is a shame that her reputation is still only establishing itself among English speaking countries. This volume should help in that regard. However, it must be strongly emphasized that readers who hear Akhmatova only in English are really missing most of the beauty of her poems. Russian poetry is musically beautiful, and this is NOT carried over into the Enlglish, although it must be granted that Hemschemeyer does make some pretty valiant attempts to do just this.

So the reason for the four stars is that there is no Russian in this edition. Granted, the size of it would hardly permit it. So I would ask that people complement it with an edition of Akhmatova's poems in the original, and either learn cyrillic or get someone who can read them to read them to you! You will hardly recognize them, they are so beautiful. She is a master of alliteration, assonance and rhyme... all of these being so important to her lyricism.

I actually bought this edition, and when I found there was no Russian, I returned it and got Hemschemeyer's "Selected Poems of Anna Akhmatova" instead, which only has 100+ poems but has the Russian on the opposing pages. It was sad to have to do this, but after I sat down and read through some of the poems, I realized I had made the right decision. What I miss most are the pictures...

Akhmatova was one of the few unrepentant Acemist poets to survive Russia's Bolshevik revolution and subsequant Stalinist takeover and purges. She was seen by authorities as a dangerous element, related to the pre-revolutionary order. Somehow, even as her fellow poets - including friend Osip Mandlestam and husband Nikolay Gumilov - were executed, exiled, sent to camps, or fled, she managed to survive - outliving Stalin himself. Her poems range from the early tales of love and unrequitation, to the tormented later works such as Requium - a harrowing dedication to the victoms of Stalinism. Her use of words is fantastic - the reader can truly feel her presence. This collection is very comprehensive, and well-translted from the original Russian. Definately worth the $21.

Finally, the poems of one of my favorite authors are out in one book, and what a book this is! For lovers of graceful, touching, heartfelt poetry, but also for those who are interested in that period of Russian history between the twilight of the Czars and the horror of Stalin, Akhmatova's poetry covers a very wide spectrum. She wrote of love and nature. She wrote about and for her friends. She wrote about her personal tragedies and the tragedy of her country. If you have never read Akhmatova, do yourself a favor and discover her in this magnificent translation by Judith Hemschmeyer: translating poetry is particularly tricky, but the job is superbly done here, because it feels as if the author had written her verses in English, not Russian. If you like what you have read, or if you already appreciate Akhmatova's style and are interested in more about her life, nothing better than the book by Roberta Reeder on Anna Akhmatova. Reeder has also edited this volume and her love for the work of a great poet is evident. These "Complete Poems" are truly complete and satisfiying, ordered chronologically, supported by biographical material, photographs, and an astonishing section of notes. A book for the poetry lover in us, and also a book for the student. I must also say that the translation of "Requiem," my favorite poem by Akhmatova, is one of the best I have read. My only complaint has to do with the binding: this is a paperback, and we all know what happens to paperbacks, and at 948 pages this one may break fairly soon. My advice is to buy it nonetheless, and also buy one of those plastic, self-adhesive covers on sale in most big bookstores, protect the book with it and, as an additional touch, put one more layer of the hard plastic on the spine, so it'll reinforce it better and your book will last a lot longer. At least that is what I did with my copy and after almost two years it still looks new. So, a great collection, indeed, by a great poet, and by people who truly cared about her art. Five stars is the maximum, but I would give it more.

In 1946 the Russian born British philosoper Isaiah Berlin, then a diplomat at the British Embassy in Moscow, learned that Anna Akhmatova, one of the great poets of the 20th century, was still alive and living in Leningrad. He went to see her, spending a night talking about art, poetry, philosophy, and history. The night ended when the newspaper correspondent (and Winston's son) Randolph Churchill came to Akhmatova's house and, not knowing where to find Berlin, began bellowing Berlin's name at the top of his lungs in the building's courtyard. This may not seem like a terribly important incident; in the course of a normal life such days are usually forgotten within a few weeks of their happening...but in Stalin's Soviet Union there were no normal lives. The consequences of that night are the subject of this book, a harsh unblinking look into the workings of a paranoid society and one artist's reaction to it. For Akhmatova that night was one of the greatest of her life; unlike many other pre-Revolution writers and artists she refused to leave Russia. For her contact with someone from outside the four prison walls of Soviet society was like oxygen to someone suffocating; Berlin became "the guest from the future," the unnamed character in her great work 'Poem without a hero,' the reader she would have had if she lived in a normal society. But she did not. Dalos shows how all the forces of Stalinist repression swung into action against her; how she was publicly humiliated by the Central Committee, how her son was arrested and sent to the gulag, how Mikhail Zoshchenko, the satirist and popular writer who was condemned with her, was slowly driven mad by the government's denunciation of him and his work. If anyone is interested on the effect of totalitarianism on the lives of people this is the book to read. A great tribute to a great poet.

Anna Akhmatova not only lived through some of the most exciting, dangerous, and horrific times in Russian and Soviet history, she was also blessed with an incredible lyrical gift in writing poetry. Collected here, in admirable translations and with the original Russian, are over a hundred of her finer (shorter) poems. The passion and intensity of this poet are clearly visible from the start, from her early love poems of "Tskarskoye Selo" to her later, more serious, "Requiem".

Readers who know enough Russian to read the cyrillic text will appreciate Akhmatova's musical lyricism, the alliteration and natural rhymes and cadences she is able to (so easy, seemingly!) create. The English translations naturally do not have this music, despite the very valiant attempts to recreate it by Hemschemeyer. She usually gets the cadence, rhythm and stress pretty well, but... well... it's never the same. However, since the poetry is difficult, those who have some Russian (but not perfect, like myself) will really enjoy having both languages present on opposing pages.

This is a chief complaint I have with the "Complete Poems", by the way, which have 800 poems, a lot of essays and tons of beautiful photographs, but NO RUSSIAN ORIGINALS! Argh. What is that? The translations are much less than half the worth of these poems.

One big complaint with this volume, though, is that it leaves out Akhmatova's major long poem, "Poem without a Hero". It baffles me why it wasn't included in this volume, even though it runs a bit long. They should have added it to the end. The editor's notes that a subsequent volume of "Poem without a Hero" is forthcoming on its own is small consolation...

There are short introductions (abridged from the "Complete Poems" and not terribly interesting), and some notes at the end (somewhat useful).

So, this is a great poet, and this may be one of the better editions for readers. Because of the slight complaints, it only gets four stars, but Akhmatova herself deserves all five!

One often wonders, when one hears everyone and their brothers spouting superlatives about a poet from a historically repressive country, whether the superlatives are based on the poet's actual work, or whether they're in some way based on the poet's admirable-- but irrelevant-- ability to perform within a culture that is repressive to the poet's art. In some cases, the superlatives are justified, for example Vladimir Holan's stunning book-length poem _A Night with Hamlet_, written while Holan was officially a non-person in Hungary in the sixties.

Akhmatova has been called "the greatest Russian woman poet ever, and perhaps the greatest woman poet ever." I can't help but think those lauding on these kinds of laurels are looking more at her life than her work. There are certainly flashes of great brilliance here, but to put Akhmativa's work up against that of, say, Elizabeth Bishop, Deborah Allbery, or even the underrated Dorianne Laux would quickly reveal many of its flaws.

This is not to say that Akhmatova's poetry is completely without merit, and one must be forced to consider the viability of the work of any translator who would consider "He, was it, through the packed hall/Sent you (or was it a dream?)" to be the best way to translate anything, much less poetry. And thus, perhaps, the original is far more eloquent than what we receive here. That taken into account, there is still the problem to contend with that much of Akhmatova's work is, for obvious reasons, overtly political, and makes no attempt to convey its message artistically; worse yet, a good deal of that work is imagist, impressionist. The end result is something that's thick, sludgy, and impossible to read.

However, every once in a while a good line will shine through, and occasionally we find ourselves staring at a poem that seems to exist well outside the boundaries of this particular collection:

* * *

Voronezh

And the town is frozen solid, leaded with ice.

Trees, walls, snow, seem to be under glass. Cautiously I tread on crystals. The painted sleighs can't seem to get a grip. And over the statue of Peter-in-Voronezh Are crows, and poplars, and a pale-green dome Washed-out and muddy in the sun-motes. The mighty slopes of the field of Kulikovo Tremble still with the slaughter of barbarians. And all at once the poplars, like lifted chalices, Enmesh more boisterously overhead Like thousands of wedding-guests feasting And drinking toasts to our happiness. And in the room of the banished poet Fear and the Muse take turns at the watch, And the night comes When there will be no sunrise.

* * *

Unfortunately, there's too little of this and too much of the rest. Giving the benefit of the doubt where the translation is concerned, I can still only manage ** 1/2.

Anna Akhmatova was one of the century's greatest lyric poets. D. M. Thomas has selected a fine overview of her poetic accomplishment, and translated the poems stunningly: both lyric cadences and the quality of spoken speech come through in his refashioning of the poems into English. (The Hayward/Kunitz tranlations are also fine, but for a brief introduction this is a wonderful book.)

The volume contains her "Requieum," a ten pagel lyric sequence which is my choice for the greatest poem of the twentieth century, as it combines personal lyricism, social witness, historical density, a primal narrative moment -- in poems which are stunning, one after another.

Perhaps only Yeats has rivalled Akhmatova's exploration of love in modern times, and there are many moments when her symbolism, her brevity, her song-like qualities are reminiscent of the best of Yeats.

This is a wonderful book, a fine introduction to a great, powerful, haunting poet.