Gennady Aigi (Lisin; 1934-2007)

Gennady Aigi occupied an ambivalent position in Soviet Russia. For one, his poetry was demonstrably against Socialist Realism canon and for that he was expelled from the creative writing program.  His poetry was very much like Celan's: condensed, aphoristic and opaque. However, there could not be more difference between the two men: Celan was a paramount urbanite, while Aigi was most at home in the  village (see the photo), or so he loved to pretend. For two, the most sublime of the post-War Russian poets was a Chuvash, a member of ethnic minority and as such a target of promotion in accordance to the Soviet “nationality” policies. Similarly ambivalent was his position with respect to the Nobel Prize Committee, which preferred outspoken dissident Brodsky to the quiet and withdrawn Aigi who ostensibly was nominated several times. But there was also an intrinsic shortcoming: similarly to Velimir Khlebnikov, almost every single mature poem, which Aigi wrote was perfect. But perfection (as someone French, probably Debussy or A. France said) is only a first step to viability.

Gennady Aigi is adequately translated into English, in particular, by the Russian-Polish-Irish translator Kudryavitsky who, regrettably, prohibits any reproduction of his work.