Tomas Venclova

With The Grove of the Eumenides, the Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova affirms his place as one of Europe’s greatest living poets, the heir to Akhmatova, Mandelstam and Milosz. Venclova’s masterful poetry upholds a vision of the world that enables us to endure the darkness of our time through his singular insights, ethical endurance and profound compassion. With classical grace, yet manifesting a deep commitment to remain a witness to the contemporary world, The Grove of the Eumenides is a collection of great wisdom. Venclova’s poetry addresses the desolate landscape of the aftermath of totalitarianism, as well as the ethical constants that allow for hope and perseverance. Bloodaxe published another selection of his poetry, The Junction, in 2008, bringing together new translations of his most recent work from that time as well as a selection of poems from his 1997 volume Winter Dialogue. While The Junction covered poems written while he was still in Lithuania before his forced emigration – and poems from his first decades in the US dealing with exile – The Grove of the Eumenides addresses ‘later life’ issues of democracy, memory, climate, travel, ethics and ageing. There is no overlap between the two editions.

Venclova on kääntänyt liettuaksi mm. Anna Ahmatovaa, Osip Mandelstamia, Boris Pasternakia, Joseph Brodskya, T. S. Eliotia, W. H. Audenia, Dylan Thomasia, Robert Frostia, ja Charles Baudelairea. Maanpaossa ollessaan hän jatkoi runouden kirjoittamista, ja häntä on käännetty yli 20 kielelle. Hän käsittelee teoksissaan totalitarismin kokemusta ja niitä opetuksia, joita sen synkistä historiallisista vaiheista voidaan poimia. Hänen koko elämäntyönsä korostaa, että historian tuhoavien voimien edessä yksi runouden tehtävistä on ”täyttää se äärimmilleen asti harmonialla ja järjellä, jotta se voisi vastustaa ulkomaailman yksitoikkoisuutta ja ennustettavuutta”.

Tomas Venclova föddes 1937 i staden Klaipe da vid Litauens Östersjökust. Efter avslutade studier tog han aktiv del i den sovjetiska dissidentrörelsen, vilket 1977 tvingade honom i exil. Bland hans vänner fanns Boris Pasternak, Anna Achmatova och Joseph Brodsky, vars verk han översatte till litauiska. På en inbjudan av Czes aw Mi osz kom han i slutet av 1970-talet till Berkeley i Kalifornien och några år senare började han undervisa i slavisk litteratur vid Yale, där han sedermera blev professor. Venclovas författarskap som även omfattar essäer, litteraturhistoriska verk, översättningar intar en central plats i litauisk litteratur. Han ses av många som en av de mest betydande poeterna i vår tid. Ankomst till Atlantis samlar ett drygt femtiotal dikter från 1958 till 2014 och återintroducerar Tomas Venclova på svenska. Urval, översättning, kommentarer och efterord av Alan Asaid. (poesis) är bokförlaget faethons serie med modern lyrik. Redaktör är Daniel Pedersen.

Interweaves Eastern European postwar history, dissidence, and literature to expand our understanding of the significance of this important Lithuanian writer. Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova is a book in the European tradition of works such as Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz and Aleksander Wat's classic My Century. Taking the form of an extendedinterview with Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova, the book interweaves Eastern European postwar history, dissidence, and literature. Venclova, who personally knew Akhmatova, Pasternak, Milosz, Brodsky, and many others, was also one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, one of the first human rights organizations in Eastern Europe. Magnetic North provides an in-depth account of ethical choices and artistic resistance to totalitarianism over a half century. It also details Venclova's artistic work, expanding our understanding of the significance of this writer, whose books are central to contemporary European culture. The publication of this book was supported by the Lithuanian Culture Institute. Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian poet, writer, scholar, and translator. He is Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University. Ellen Hinsey is the author of numerous works of poetry, essay, and literary translation. Her most recent book is Mastering the Past: Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe and the Rise of Illiberalism.

Interweaves Eastern European postwar history, dissidence, and literature to expand our understanding of the significance of this important Lithuanian writer. Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova is a book in the European tradition of works such as Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz and Aleksander Wat's classic My Century. Taking the form of an extendedinterview with Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova, the book interweaves Eastern European postwar history, dissidence, and literature. Venclova, who personally knew Akhmatova, Pasternak, Milosz, Brodsky, and many others, was also one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, one of the first human rights organizations in Eastern Europe. Magnetic North provides an in-depth account of ethical choices and artistic resistance to totalitarianism over a half century. It also details Venclova's artistic work, expanding our understanding of the significance of this writer, whose books are central to contemporary European culture. The publication of this book was supported by the Lithuanian Culture Institute. Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian poet, writer, scholar, and translator. He is Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University. Ellen Hinsey is the author of numerous works of poetry, essay, and literary translation. Her most recent book is Mastering the Past: Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe and the Rise of Illiberalism.

Aleksander Wat was, in many ways, the archetypal Central European intellectual of the mid-twentieth century, a man who experienced and influenced all the tumultuous political and artistic movements of his time. Yet, little has been published about him, even in his native Poland. This book is the first account of Wat's turbulent life, accompanied by a thorough analysis of his extraordinary poems and prose works in their diverse periods and genres. Tomas Venclova, himself a poet and literature scholar of international renown, has uncovered numerous new biographical details, made the surprising discovery of an unfinished novel Wat began fifty years ago, and woven together the themes of Wat's life and work. At different times a futurist, surrealist, and communist fellow traveler, Wat turned away from Communism after his imprisonment by the Soviet secret police and became a vociferous spokesman for democracy. Venclova tells Wat's story from his Polish-Jewish upbringing in the early 1900s, his participation in the literary avant-garde in the 1920s, and his work as editor of an influential Communist journal before World War II, through his emigration to the West in 1959 and his death in 1967. Venclova argues convincingly that Wat's literary achievement promoted the rejuvenation of Polish and East European letters after the Stalinist era, and his broad intellectual influence on many, including Czeslaw Milosz, helped to consolidate the moral and political opposition to totalitarian ideology that has profoundly changed political realities in the late twentieth century.

Lithuania's Tomas Venclova is one of Europe's greatest living poets. His work speaks with a moral depth exceptional in contemporary poetry. Venclova's poetry addresses the desolate landscape of the aftermath of totalitarianism, as well as the ethical constants that allow for hope and perseverance. "The Junction" brings together entirely new translations of his most recent work as well as a selection of poems from his 1997 volume "Winter Dialogue".

"Niemand kann behaupten, daß Vilnius ihm allein gehört. Die schier phantastische Verschmelzung von Sprachen, Religionen und nationalen Traditionen in einer Stadt, die politische Grenzen ignoriert, fiel Neuankömmlingen immer ins Auge, während ihre Bewohner meinten, daß es gar nicht anders sein könne." Geschichte, Geographie, persönliche Erinnerung und politische Reflexion souverän miteinander verbindend, zeichnet der litauische Lyriker und Essayist ein Bild seiner Stadt, die wie kaum eine zweite für das Gelingen und Scheitern des "europäischen Traums" stehen kann.

Best known in the U. S. as a scholar and critic, Tomas Venclova is a gifted poet whose work has remained largely unknown to an English-speaking audience. This collection of fifty-one poems is as distinctive as it is finely crafted. Also included is a foreword by Joseph Brodsky and an exchange between Venclova and Czeslaw Milosz.