I have a first-class degree in Russian Language & Literature from the University of London and have for several years specialised in translating the poetry of Arseny Tarkovsky (1907-1989). A collection of my translations of Tarkovsky's poems, entitled Life, Life has just been published by Crescent Moon; translations of individual poems have previously appeared in Chapman, Modern Poetry in Translation, poetry & audience, The Rialto, Sphinx and Stone Soup.
Where is fate - my girlfriend -
Leading? We shuffle along,
Losing the circle's edge
And stumbling over coffins.
We can't see the moon overhead,
Our crutches get stuck in the snow,
And white-eyed souls are peering at us
Along the ground.
Tell me, old woman, do you remember,
How you and I went walking
One frozen winter, at dead of night,
Beneath this same stone wall?
It was long long ago, but just as deeply,
Half aloud, a quarter audible,
The echo boomed behind our backs.
[From Life, Life: Selected Poems of Arseny Tarkovsky, Crescent Moon, 2000]
E-mail me at: Virginia.Rounding@btinternet.com