The Poetry of Boris Pasternak, 1917-1959 Hardcover – January 1, 1959
by Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (Author), George Reavey (Translator)
 
"This is the most complete and perhaps the best translation we have of Pasternak's poetry to date. But it is still not wholly complete. And Mr. Reavey, although an able translator of Russian prose, has still not been able to conquer the formidable difficulties of rendering Russian poetry into English, and the specific difficulties of clarifying the obscurities of Pasternak's early and middle periods. The later period, when Pasternak was in retirement in Georgia, seem for the most part ardent nature poems, and show that same love for his fatherland's beauty characteristic of Dr. Zhivago. Perhaps the most valuable addition here is Reavey's translation of The Lofty Malady, a long poem-circa 1928- obscurely expressing Pasternak's stand against monolithic statism, and his belief in humanism and individuality. But what gives this volume its real stature is Reavey's own contribution. He knew Pasternak personally, and discusses him as a translator, and publishes for the first time in English, some of Pasternak's speeches at the Russian writers' conferences. Reavey met Pasternak through his article in a British avant-garde journal; later at writers' conferences and still later when he visited him during his period of being stationed in Russia. This is a welcome rounding out of the rather sketchy autobiographical material Pasternak has provided. One could wish this volume had a more coherent organization, both in Reavey's introductory material and in the poem sequences. But even so, it will serve as valuable source material until something more complete is available."
--From Kirkus Reviews
 
3.17