Nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature, winner of a
number of international literary prizes, and translated into over twenty
languages, Gennady Aygi is regarded as one of the most important Russian
poets of the second half of the 20th century. He is a poet of the
country and stands totally against the classical tradition of Russian
poetry from Pushkin to Brodsky.--Poetry London Newsletter
Gennady Aygi is considered to be a major and original voice in
contemporary poetry. Aygi's poetry is a curious hybrid, influenced by
Russian Symbolism and Futurism, European Modernism, and his Chuvash
culture with its ancient pagan religion.--Journal of European Studies
Peter France's scrupulous versions are faithful not simply to the often
ambiguous sense of the originals, but also to the typographical minutiae
... which spell out the exclamations, questionings, pauses,
vulnerabilities and praises of this most remarkable poet.--Times
Literary Supplement
These variations on folkloric themes are born out of the Chuvash and
Turkic motifs that Aygi grew up with, and which Aygi and France have
collected in their work on Chuvash poetry. A Turkic language, Chuvash is
spoken by about a million and a half people in and around
Chuvashia--formerly an autonomous republic of the USSR--located 500
miles east of Moscow. Now in his 60s, Aygi continues to be celebrated as
the Chuvash national poet, and as a major poet of the Russian language.
13.
The birch's rustle - like a whispered goodbye,
and above it
a solitary swift--
like falling scissors.
Gennady Aygi and Peter France have collaborated on numerous books,
including Gennady Aygi: Selected Poems 1954-94 (translated by Peter
France), and An Anthology of Chuvash Poetry (compiled by Gennady Aygi
and translated by Peter France).
