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summary

Boris Pasternak is best known in the West for his epic novel Doctor Zhivago, whereas in Russia he is most celebrated as a poet. The two poetry collections offered here in translation are chronological and thematic bookends, and they capture Pasternak’s abiding and powerful vision of life: his sense of its beauty and terror, its precariousness for the individual, and its persistence in time—that vitality of being with which he is on familiar and familial terms.

In the early work My Sister Life, which commemorates the year 1917, Pasternak, then in his late twenties, found his poetic voice. The book would go on to become one of the most influential collections of Rus­sian poetry of the twentieth century. “The Poems of Yury Zhivago” are a part of the poet’s famous novel, Dr. Zhivago, whose title might be rendered in English as “Doctor Life.” These later lyrics are a kind of summing up that reflect, from the perspective of age and approaching death, upon the accumulated experience of a contemplative life amid turbulent and terrifying times.

Falen’s fresh new translations of these poems capture their expres­sion of the beauty and the joy, the terror and the pain, of what it is to be alive . . . and to die.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. v-viii
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  1. Translator’s Note
  2. p. ix
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  1. My Sister Life
  1. In Memory of the Demon
  2. pp. 7-8
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  1. Isn’t It Time for Birds to Sing
  1. About These Verses
  2. pp. 11-12
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  1. Anguish
  2. p. 13
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  1. My Sister Life
  2. p. 14
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  1. Weeping Garden
  2. p. 15
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  1. Mirror
  2. pp. 16-17
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  1. Girl
  2. p. 18
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  1. Hey, You the Wind Is Trying Out
  2. p. 19
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  1. Rain
  2. p. 20
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  1. The Book of the Steppe
  1. Before All This There Was Winter
  2. pp. 23-24
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  1. From Superstition
  2. p. 25
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  1. Don’t Touch
  2. p. 26
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  1. How Well You Played That Role
  2. p. 27
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  1. Balashov
  2. pp. 28-29
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  1. Imitators
  2. p. 30
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  1. Model
  2. p. 31
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  1. Diversions for the Beloved
  1. Asway on a Sweet-Scented Branchlet
  2. p. 35
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  1. Crossing the Oars
  2. p. 36
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  1. Spring Rain
  2. p. 37
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  1. Sentries’ Whistles
  2. p. 39
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  1. Summer Stars
  2. p. 40
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  1. English Lessons
  2. p. 41
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  1. Studies in Philosophy
  1. Definition of Poetry
  2. p. 45
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  1. Definition of the Soul
  2. p. 46
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  1. Diseases of Earth
  2. p. 47
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  1. Definition of Creativity
  2. p. 48
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  1. Our Thunderstorm
  2. p. 49
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  1. The Substitute
  2. p. 51
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  1. Some Songs in Letters, So She Won’t Be Bored
  1. Sparrow Hills
  2. p. 55
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  1. Mein Liebchen, Was Willst Du Noch Mehr?
  2. pp. 56-57
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  1. The Station “Decay”
  2. p. 58
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  1. Romanovka
  1. The Steppe
  2. pp. 62-64
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  1. A Stifling Night
  2. p. 65
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  1. A Still More Stifling Dawn
  2. p. 66
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  1. An Effort to Untie the Soul
  1. Moochkap
  2. p. 71
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  1. The Flies of the Moochkap Tearoom
  2. pp. 72-73
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  1. Bleak Your Welcome
  2. p. 74
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  1. The Effort to Untie My Soul
  2. p. 76
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  1. The Return
  1. How Soporific Living Is
  2. pp. 79-83
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  1. Back Home Again
  2. p. 84
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  1. To Helen
  1. To Helen
  2. pp. 87-88
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  1. In Their Way
  2. p. 89
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  1. Summer
  2. pp. 90-91
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  1. A Storm Instantaneous Forever
  2. p. 92
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  1. Afterword
  1. Beloved, Beware
  2. pp. 95-96
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  1. Let’s Scatter Words
  2. pp. 97-98
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  1. So It Was
  2. pp. 99-100
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  1. To Love—To Walk
  2. pp. 101-102
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  1. Afterword
  2. p. 103
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  1. The End
  2. p. 104
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  1. The Poems of Yury Zhivago
  1. Hamlet
  2. p. 109
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  1. March
  2. p. 110
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  1. In Holy Week
  2. pp. 111-113
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  1. White Night
  2. pp. 114-115
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  1. Spring Roads in Flood
  2. pp. 116-117
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  1. Explanation
  2. pp. 118-119
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  1. Summer in Town
  2. pp. 120-121
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  1. Wind
  2. p. 122
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  1. Hops
  2. p. 123
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  1. Indian Summer
  2. p. 124
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  1. The Wedding Party
  2. pp. 125-126
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  1. Autumn
  2. pp. 127-128
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  1. Fairy Tale
  2. pp. 129-132
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  1. August
  2. pp. 133-134
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  1. Winter Night
  2. pp. 135-136
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  1. Parting
  2. pp. 137-138
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  1. Meeting
  2. pp. 139-140
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  1. Christmas Star
  2. pp. 141-144
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  1. Daybreak
  2. pp. 145-146
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  1. Miracle
  2. pp. 147-148
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  1. Earth
  2. pp. 149-150
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  1. Evil Days
  2. pp. 151-152
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  1. Mary Magdalene I
  2. pp. 153-154
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  1. Mary Magdalene II
  2. pp. 155-156
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  1. Garden of Gethsemane
  2. p. 157
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  1. One Late Poem
  1. To Be Acclaimed
  2. pp. 163-164
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