After Lermontov

Translations for the Bicentenary

France Peter, Marsack Robyn

Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) is best known in the West today as the author of the novel "A Hero of Our Time". But at the time of his death, aged only 26, he was widely regarded as Russia's greatest living poet. He achieved almost instant fame in 1837 with 'On the Death of a Poet', his tribute to Pushkin – whose death in a duel foreshadowed Lermontov's own. Over the course of the next four years he went on to write many short poems, both lyric and satirical, and two long verse narratives. He was particularly known for his depictions of the Caucasus, where he was exiled for a time, taking part in battles such as the one described in his poem "Valerik".

Lermontov traced his ancestry to Scotland, and this book offers a Scottish perspective on the Russian poet. Most of the translators are Scottish or have Scottish connections, and some of the poems are translated into Scots. As Peter France writes in his introduction, this bicentennial volume aims to bring Lermontov's poems to a new readership by enabling them to live again' in English and in Scots.

About the Author

Peter France, Professor Emeritus at Edinburgh University, is an eminent scholar and translator of modern Russian poetry. He is joint general editor, with Stuart Gillespie of Glasgow University, of the five-volume "Oxford History of Literary Translation in English".

New Zealand-born Robyn Marsack has been Director of the Scottish Poetry Library since 2000. After moving to Scotland in 1987, she worked as a freelance editor, critic and translator, and has had a long editorial association with Carcanet Press. Her published work includes studies of Louis MacNeice and Sylvia Plath. With Andrew Johnston, she co-edited the anthology "Twenty Contemporary New Zealand Poets" (Carcanet 2009). With Iain Galbraith, she edited "Oxford Poets 2013: An Anthology". She lives in Glasgow.

Back to the list of books