Olga Sedakova - a unique introduction to her oeuvre, bringing together a memoir-essay written about her work, and two poetic works: “Tristan and Isolde,” which is one of her most mysterious long poems, and “Old Songs,” a sequence of deceptively simple poems that mix folk and Biblical wisdom

Olga Sedakova, In Praise of Poetry. Trans. and Ed. by Caroline Clark, Ksenia Golubovich & Stephanie Sandler. Open Letter, 2014.

olgasedakova.com/eng/


“Olga Sedakova is one of the most respected and internationally renowned poets in Russia today.”
—Slava Yastremski

At an early age, Olga Sedakova began writing poetry and, by the 1970s, had joined up with other members of Russia’s underground “second culture” to create a vibrant literary movement—one that was at odds with the political powers that be. This conflict prevented Sedakova’s books from being published in the U.S.S.R. Instead, they were labeled as being too “esoteric,” “religious,” and “bookish.” Until 1990, the only way her collections were available in Russian were in samizdat, hand-written copies, which circulated from reader to reader, building her reputation.
In the 1990s, the situation changed dramatically, and now Sedakova has published twenty-seven volumes of verse, prose, translations, and scholarly research—although none, until now, have appeared in English translation.
In Praise of Poetry is a unique introduction to her oeuvre, bringing together a memoir-essay written about her work, and two poetic works: “Tristan and Isolde,” which is one of her most mysterious long poems, and “Old Songs,” a sequence of deceptively simple poems that mix folk and Biblical wisdom.

From the book Kliazma and Yauza

From the book The Wild Rose

From the book Tristan and Isolde

From the book Old Songs

From the book Gates. Windows. Arches

From the book Stanzas in the Manner of Alexander Pope

From the book Stellae and Inscriptions

From the book The Iambic Verses

The Chinese Travelogue

From An Unfinished Book

From the book The Evening Song

From the book Elegies

From the book The Beginning of a Book

A Journey to Tartu and Back: A Belated Chronicle

The Issue of Man in Modern Secular Culture

"Non-Mortal and Mysterious Feelings": On Pushkinʼs Christianity

"In the Vestal Abyss of a Line of Verse": On Meaning in Poetry and Meaning in Doctrine

Mediocrity as a Social Danger

The Light of Life. Some Remarks On the Russian Orthodox Perception

The Art of translation. Some remarks

The Morality of Art, or the Evils of Mediocrity

Once again about Childhood, Poetry, and Courage. Answers for Elena Stepanian

Hermes. The Invisible Aspect of Classical Literature

A Discourse on Method

Poetry and Anthropology

On the Nature of Tradition

Freedom as Eschatological Reality

Waiting for a Response

Totus Tuus

In Memory of John Paul II

Excerpts from an Interview with Valentina Polukhina (May 1994)


About the Author: Olga Sedakova wrote prolifically during the 1970s, one of the “post-Brodsky” poets. Her complex, allusive style of poetry—generally labeled as neo-modernist or meta-realism—didn’t fit the prescribed official aesthetics, so it wasn’t available until the late 1980s. She currently teaches in the department of world culture at Moscow State University.