Preface
Bibliographic Note
Introduction. “Speaking in Voices”: On Maria Stepanova’s Literary
Creation, by Irina Shevelenko
Part I: The Here-World
A Gypski, a Polsk I, a Jewski, a Russki
The North of sleep. Head’s in a pillow cradle
Ahoy! Beyond the azure’s tempest
Adieu, until one branched floor higher
For you, but the voice of the straitened Muse
The Bride
The Pilot
The morning sun arises in the morning
As Danaë, prone in the incarce-chamber
It is certainly time to stop
Even bluer than the toilet tiles
(a birthday on the train)
(half an hour on foot)
July 3rd, 2004
The Women’s Locker Room at “Planet Fitness”
Sarah on the Barricades
The Desire to Be a Rib
Bus Stop: Israelitischer Friedhof
Zoo, Woman, Monkey
Part II: Displaced Person
And a vo-vo-voice arose
In the festive sky, impassivable, tinfurled
Saturday and Sunday burn like stars
In every little park, in every little square
Mom-pop didn’t know him
Mama, what janitor
A train rides down entire Russia
Ordnance was weeping in the open
The A went past, Tram-Traum
Well I don’t sing Kupitye papirosn
The light swells and pulses at the garden gate
In the village, in the field, in the forest
A deer, a deer stood in that place
The last songs are assembling
My dear, my little Liberty
There he lies in his new bed, a band of paper round his head
Don’t wait for us, my darling
Don’t strain your sight
Four Operas
In Unheard-of Simplicity
Displaced Person
Part III: Spolia
Spolia
War of the Beasts and the Animals
Today Before Yesterday (excerpt)
After the Dead Water
Intending to Live
At the Door of a Notnew Age
Part IV: Over Venerable Graves
The Maximum Cost of Living (Marina Tsvetaeva)
Conversations in the Realm of the Dead (Lyubov Shaporina)
What Alice Found There (Alisa Poret)
The Last Hero (Susan Sontag)
From That Side: Notes on Sebald
Over Venerable Graves
Notes
Maria Stepanova is the author of over ten poetry collections as
well as three books of essays and the documentary novel In Memory
of Memory. She is the recipient of several Russian and
international literary awards.
Irina Shevelenko is professor of Russian in the Department of
German, Nordic, and Slavic at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison.
With translations by: Alexandra Berlina, Sasha Dugdale, Sibelan
Forrester, Amelia Glaser, Zachary Murphy King, Dmitry Manin,
Ainsley Morse, Eugene Ostashevsky, Andrew Reynolds, and Maria
Vassileva.
2021 is the year of Stepanova.
*The Guardian*
Stepanova's voice is a multipotent anthology of epic, lyric, and
pure spell. She turns myth back into memory, heroes into humans,
and her country’s rush from one catastrophe to another into
language. No translator who reads Stepanova's work thinks, ‘I can
do this.’ This is a book prepared by people who believed in a
poetic miracle and this miracle happened—to the English language
above all.
*Valzhyna Mort, author of Music for the Dead and
Resurrected*
A volume of Maria Stepanova’s work in English translation is long
overdue, but this one, rendered by a dream team of the best
translators and poets working today, has been worth the wait. The
Voice Over offers a worthy tribute to Stepanova’s multiple
achievements: a rich selection of texts from Stepanova’s poetry and
translations of Stepanova’s essays, both illuminated by Irina
Shevelenko’s expert introduction and commentary, framing
Stepanova’s writing with sophistication and insight.
*Kevin M. F. Platt, founder of Your Language My Ear translation
symposium*
Maria Stepanova is among the most visible figures in post-Soviet
culture.
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
[Stepanova's] work is defined by fluent phrases expressing complex
thoughts, the fusing of different styles, a carefree command of all
possible metrical feet, and a great sense of empathy.
*Poetry International*
Stepanova’s brilliance is matched only by her legendary difficulty.
Rather than write in free verse, she sticks to the metric
strictures of classic syllabotonic Russian poetry and fills
traditional forms with a dizzying mix of references and registers,
drawing on everything from Slavic folklore to social media.
*Poetry Magazine*
Stepanova is finally receiving the attention she deserves in the
Anglophone world. Subtle and erudite in its treatment of politics
and history, her work is a much-needed antidote to the crude
depictions of Russia that have filled the English-language media in
recent years.
*Harper's Magazine*
Each book [The Voice Over, In Memory of Memory, and War of the
Beasts and the Animals] casts light on the others, revealing
overlapping themes. Their simultaneous appearance gives
English-speaking readers a singular opportunity to become familiar
with a major Russian poet and thinker.
*Times Literary Supplement*
This ambitious collection provides English-language readers with a
systematic introduction to the work of one of Russia’s most
important contemporary poets . . . [The] explicit discussion of
translation strategies within the volume will give readers a great
deal to think about and highlights current trends and points of
debate in literary translation. The translations included in this
volume are of very high quality and might together make a wonderful
primer for a course in literary translation.
*World Literature Today*
An exceptional introduction to [Stepanova's] work, the product of
intensive collaboration, creative endeavour, and serious
scholarship . . . essential reading for anybody interested in
poetry today and in contemporary Russian culture.
*Translation and Literature*
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