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|  | | Poems You Have Never Met
As I make my way through various on-line and brick-and-mortar book stores, I am increasingly convinced that Russian literature is woefully under-represented. One can always find War and Peace or Crime and Punishment, but to think that is all there is to it?! In all fairness, it would take a separate store chain or a huge server bank to accommodate all the works that would provide a reasonably comprehensive picture of Russian literature. However, I can’t help feeling disheartened when seeing, how much precious shelf space is dedicated to the mediocre romance novels and how little – to the works by Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Tyutchev, to say nothing of Nikolai Gogol, Sergei Yesenin, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetayeva, Igor Severyanin, Alexander Blok, Alexei Tolstoy (yes, there was more than one famous Tolstoy in Russian literature) and many others. There is an entire population of poems and stories you have in all likelihood never met.
THE LAST LOVE
by Fyodor Tutchev
How can the twilight passion be described?
It’s ever so reverend and tender.
Shine brightly, my farewell sun-setting light –
The light of evening love, of dying splendor.
/o>
Night shadows have encompassed half the sky,
But embers in the west are still aglow.
Please wait, my daylight, do not say good-bye,
Please stay, enchantment, do not rush to go.
While blood is growing thinner in my veins,
The love will not diminish in my heart.
You are my evening love, my twilight chains –
| |  | | Stories for Anastasia
Welcome to our household! Who needs psychological thrillers and explosive blockbusters? Take a couple of book-crazy, martial arts-trained technology geeks, add a few homeless animals, mix thoroughly in one very old house - and you have a recipe for an exciting life. Enjoy!
| |  | | Ukrainian Vignettes
Ukrainian Vignettes is a series of essays by Maria K. about a growing up in Soviet Ukraine spanning a period of time from 1970's to present. A vivid picture of life in a world most Americans have never even glimpsed.
This book takes its inspiration from the StoryCorps project, whose amazing and incredibly touching stories can be regularly heard on NPR. As we listened to the StoryCorps interview, Gerry and I have frequently speculated who we would select for a story booth chat, given an opportunity. While my choices ranged from completely unrealisic (a hetera from Ancient Greece, Isaac Azimov, Elton John) to somewhat more traditional, although still unrealisic (my late grandfather), one of Gerry's top-of-the-list candidates was...me.
"Why me? I am just a person. I haven't really done or seen much, |
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