This blog displays my translations of Russian poetry. The project was launched about a decade ago, when I decided to update the titanic anthology of Joris and Rothenberg: Poems for the Millennium. Since then, I keep recovering disparate notes, which I will post on this site. Note: I presume that the Russian original texts posted on this site are covered by the "fair use" doctrine for they are posted exclusively for comparison with my translation for bilingual readers.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
First Conceptualist Wave: Genrikh Sapgir, Igor Kholin, Sosnora, etc.
O. Rabin, Money, 2001.
The poets of the first conceptualist wave approached a union as much as it could be done in the police state of the USSR. Its best-known poets: Genrikh Sapgir and Igor Kholin belonged to semi-formal "Lianozovo" group together with the painter Oskar Rabin (b. 1928) and, at least for some time, novelist, playwright and essayist Benedict Yerofeev who penned the greatest Russian novel of the second half of the XX century, "Moscow to Petushki." Sosnora (b. 1936) was personally and socially close to the St. Petersburg neo-classicist circle (Brodsky, A. Kushner, the Lifshitses, father and son, E. Rein) but, artistically, very different from them. The FCW poets provided an important link between the pre-war Russian avant-guard and the Second Conceptualist Wave concluding the Soviet period in Russian poetry. (Rubinstein, Parschikov, Kibirov, etc.) One of the distinguishing characteristics of the FCW poets, which joined them with pre-War Oberiuyts, was their co-mingling with contemporary (underground and semi-underground) painters, sculptors, performance organizers, etc.
G. Sapgir has been translated by already mentioned A. Kudryavitsky, who prohibits reproduction of his verse.
Г. Сапгир (1928-1999)
И. Холин (1920-1999)
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