Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva(Russian: Мари́на Ива́новна Цвета́ева, IPA: ; 8 October [O.S. 26 September] 1892 – 31 August 1941) was a Russian and Soviet poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth-century Russian literature.[1] She lived through and wrote of the Russian Revolution of 1917and the Moscow famine that followed it. In an attempt to save her daughter Irina from starvation, she placed her in a state orphanage in 1919, where she died of hunger. Tsvetaeva left Russia in 1922 and lived with her family in increasing poverty in Paris, Berlin and Prague before returning to Moscow in 1939. Her husband Sergei Efron and her daughter Ariadna Efron (Alya) were arrested on espionage charges in 1941, and her husband was executed. Tsvetaeva committed suicide in 1941. As a lyrical poet, her passion and daring linguistic experimentation mark her as a striking chronicler of her times and the depths of the human condition.

Early years

Marina Tsvetaeva was born in Moscow, the daughter of Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, a professor of Fine Art at the University of Moscow,[1] who later founded the Alexander III Museum (known from 1937 as the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts). (The Tsvetayev family name evokes association with flowers - the Russian word цвет (tsvet) means "color" or "flower".) Tsvetaeva's mother, Maria Alexandrovna Meyn, Ivan's second wife, was a concert pianist,[1] highly literate, with German and Polish ancestry. Growing up in considerable material comfort,[2] Tsvetaeva would later come to identify herself with the Polish aristocracy.

Tsvetaeva's two half-siblings, Valeria and Andrei, were the children of Ivan's deceased first wife, Varvara Dmitrievna Ilovaiskaya, daughter of the historian Dmitry Ilovaisky. Tsvetaeva's only full sister, Anastasia, was born in 1894. The children quarrelled frequently and occasionally violently. There was considerable tension between Tsvetaeva's mother and Varvara's children, and Tsvetaeva's father maintained close contact with Varvara's family. Tsvetaeva's father was kind, but deeply wrapped up in his studies and distant from his family. He was also still deeply in love with his first wife; he would never get over her. Maria Tsvetaeva had had a love affair before her marriage, from which she never recovered. Maria Tsvetaeva disapproved of Marina's poetic inclination; she wanted her daughter to become a pianist, holding the opinion that her poetry was poor.

In 1902 Tsvetaeva's mother contracted tuberculosis. A change in climate was believed to help cure the disease, and so the family travelled abroad until shortly before her death in 1906, when Tsvetaeva was 14.[2] They lived for a while by the sea at Nervi, near Genoa. There, away from the rigid constraints of a bourgeois Muscovite life, Tsvetaeva was able for the first time to run free, climb cliffs, and vent her imagination in childhood games. There were many Russian émigré revolutionaries residing at that time in Nervi, who may have had some influence on the young Tsvetaeva.[3]

In June 1904 Tsvetaeva was sent to school in Lausanne. Changes in the Tsvetaev residence led to several changes in school, and during the course of her travels she acquired the Italian, French, and German languages. She gave up the strict musical studies that her mother had imposed and turned to poetry. She wrote "With a mother like her, I had only one choice: to become a poet".[2]

In 1908, aged 16, Tsvetaeva studied literary history at the Sorbonne.[1]During this time, a major revolutionary change was occurring within Russian poetry: the flowering of the Russian Symbolist movement, and this movement was to colour most of her later work. It was not the theory which was to attract her, but the poetry and the gravity which writers such as Andrey Bely and Aleksandr Blok were capable of generating. Her own first collection of poems, Vecherny Albom (Evening Album), self-published in 1910, promoted her considerable reputation as a poet.[2] It was well received, although her early poetry was held to be insipid compared to her later work.[1] It attracted the attention of the poet and critic Maximilian Voloshin, whom Tsvetaeva described after his death in A Living Word About a Living Man. Voloshin came to see Tsvetaeva and soon became her friend and mentor.[2]

Family and career

She began spending time at Voloshin's home in the Black Sea resort of Koktebel("Blue Height"), which was a well-known haven for writers, poets and artists.[2] She became enamoured of the work of Aleksandr Blok and Anna Akhmatova, although she never met Blok and did not meet Akhmatova until the 1940s. Describing the Koktebel community, the émigré Viktoria Schweitzer wrote: "Here inspiration was born." At Koktebel, Tsvetaeva met Sergei (Seryozha) Yakovlevich Efron, a 17-year-old cadet in the Officers' Academy. She was 19, he 18: they fell in love and were married in 1912,[1] the same year as her father's project, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, was ceremonially opened, an event attended by Tsar Nicholas II.[2] Tsvetaeva's love for Efron was intense; however, this did not preclude her from having affairs, including one with Osip Mandelstam, which she celebrated in a collection of poems called Mileposts. At around the same time, she became involved in an affair with the poet Sofia Parnok, who was 7 years older than Tsvetaeva, an affair that caused her husband great grief.[2] The two women fell deeply in love, and the relationship profoundly affected both women's writings. She deals with the ambiguous and tempestuous nature of this relationship in a cycle of poems which at times she called The Girlfriend, and at other times The Mistake.[4] Tsvetaeva and her husband spent summers in the Crimea until the revolution, and had two daughters: Ariadna, or Alya (born 1912) and Irina (born 1917).

In 1914, Efron volunteered for the front and by 1917 he was an officer stationed in Moscow with the 56th Reserve. Tsvetaeva was a close witness of the Russian Revolution, which she rejected.[1] On trains, she came into contact with ordinary Russian people and was shocked by the mood of anger and violence. She wrote in her journal: "In the air of the compartment hung only three axe-like words: bourgeois, Junkers, leeches." After the 1917 Revolution, Efron joined the White Army, and Marina returned to Moscow hoping to be reunited with her husband. She was trapped in Moscow for five years, where there was a terrible famine.[2]

She wrote six plays in verse and narrative poems. Between 1917 and 1922 she wrote the epic verse cycle Lebedinyi stan ('‘The Encampment of the Swans’') about the civil war, glorifying those who fought against the communists.[1] The cycle of poems in the style of a diary or journal begins on the day of Tsar Nicholas II's abdication in March 1917, and ends late in 1920, when the anti-communist White Army was finally defeated. The 'swans' of the title refers to the volunteers in the White Army, in which her husband was fighting as an officer. In 1922 she published a long pro-imperial verse fairy tale, Tsar-devitsa (‘'Tsar-Maiden’').[1]

The Moscow famine was to exact a toll on Tsvetaeva. With no immediate family to turn to, she had no way to support herself or her daughters. In 1919, she placed both her daughters in a state orphanage, mistakenly believing that they would be better fed there. Alya became ill, and Tsvetaeva removed her, but Irina died there of starvation in 1920.[2] The child's death caused Tsvetaeva great grief and regret. In one letter, she wrote, "God punished me." During these years, Tsvetaeva maintained a close and intense friendship with the actress Sofia Evgenievna Holliday, for whom she wrote a number of plays. Many years later, she would write the novella "Povest' o Sonechke" about her relationship with Holliday.

Exile 

In May 1922, Tsvetaeva and Ariadna left the Soviet Union and were reunited with Efron in Berlin, whom she had thought had been killed by the Bolsheviks.[5] There she published the collections Separation, Poems to Blok, and the poem The Tsar Maiden, much of her poetry appeared in Moscow and Berlin, consolidating her reputation. In August 1922, the family moved to Prague. Living in unremitting poverty, unable to afford living accommodation in Prague itself, with Efron studying politics and sociology at the Charles University and living in hostels, Tsvetaeva and Ariadna found rooms in a village outside the city. She writes "we are devoured by coal, gas, the milkman, the baker...the only meat we eat is horsemeat". When offered an opportunity to earn money by reading her poetry, she describes having to beg a simple dress from a friend to replace the one she had been living in.[6]

Tsvetaeva began a passionate affair with Konstantin Boleslavovich Rodzevitch, a former military officer, a liaison which became widely known throughout émigré circles. Efron was devastated.[7] Her break-up with Rodzevitch in 1923 was almost certainly the inspiration for her The Poem of the End and "The Poem of the Mountain".[2] At about the same time, Tsvetaeva began correspondence with poet Rainer Maria Rilke and novelist Boris Pasternak.[5] Tsvetaeva and Pasternak were not to meet for nearly twenty years, but maintained friendship until Tsvetaeva's return to USSR.

In summer 1924, Efron and Tsvetaeva left Prague for the suburbs, living for a while in Jíloviště, before moving on to Všenory, where Tsvetaeva completed "The Poem of the End", and was to conceive their son, Georgy, whom she was to later nickname 'Mur'.[6] Tsvetaeva wanted to name him Boris (after Pasternak); Efron insisted on Georgy. He was to be a most difficult child but Tsetaeva loved him obsessively. With Efron now rarely free from tuberculosis, their daughter Ariadna was relegated to the role of mother's helper and confidante, and consequently felt robbed of much of her childhood.[6] In Berlin before settling in Paris, Tsvetaeva wrote some of her greatest verse, including Remeslo ('‘Craft'’, 1923) and Posle Rossii (After Russia 1928). Reflecting a life in poverty and exiled, the work holds great nostalgia for Russia and its folk history, while experimenting with verse forms.[5]

Books of Tsvetaeva poetry in English translation

• Marina Tsvetaeva: Selected Poems, trans. Elaine Feinstein. (Oxford University Press, 1971) ISBN 0-19-211803-X
• The Ratcatcher: A lyrical satire, trans. Angela Livingstone (Northwestern University, 2000) ISBN 0-8101-1816-5
• A Captive Spirit: Selected Prose, trans. J. Marin King (Vintage Books, 1994) ISBN 0-86068-397-4
• Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922, ed. & trans. Jamey Gambrell (Yale University Press, 2011) ISBN 0-300-17959-6
• Poem of the End: Selected Narrative and Lyrical Poems , trans. Nina Kossman (Ardis / Overlook, 1998, 2004) ISBN 0-87501-176-4
• In the Inmost hour of the Soul: Poems , trans. Nina Kossman (Humana Press, 1989) ISBN 0-89603-137-3
• Black Earth, trans. Elaine Feinstein (The Delos Press and The Menard Press, 1992) ISBN I-874320-00-4 and ISBN I-874320-05-5 (signed ed.)
• Phaedra: a drama in verse; with New Year's Letter and other long poems, trans. Angela Livingstone (Angel Classics, 2012) ISBN 978-0946162819
• "Starry Sky to Starry Sky (Miles)", trans. Mary Jane White. (Holy Cow Press, 1988), ISBN 0-930100-25-5 (paper) and ISBN 0-930100-26-3 (cloth)
• "Poem of the End" in "From A Terrace In Prague, A Prague Poetry Anthology", trans. Mary Jane White, ed. Stephan Delbos (Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 2011) ISBN 978-80-7308-349-6
• "After Russia", trans. Michael Nayden (Ardis, 1992).
• "To You - in 10 Decades", trans. by Alexander Givental and Elysee Wilson-Egolf (Sumizdat 2012) ISBN 978-0-9779852-7-2
• Marina Tsvetayeva: Selected Poems, trans. David McDuff. (Bloodaxe Books, 1987) ISBN 978-1852240257

Further reading

• Schweitzer, Viktoria Tsvetaeva (1993)
• Mandelstam, Nadezhda Hope Against Hope
• Mandelstam, Nadezhda Hope Abandoned
• Pasternak, Boris An Essay in Autobiography

References

1. "Tsvetaeva, Marina Ivanovna" Who's Who in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, 1999.
2. Feinstein (1993) pix
3. Marina Tsvetaeva: The Woman, Her World, and Her Poetry (1985) Simon Karlinsky, Cambridge University Press p18 ISBN 9780521275743
4. Bisha, Robin (2002) Russian women, 1698-1917: Experience and expression, an anthology of sources. Indiana University Press p143
5. "Tsvetaeva, Marina Ivanovna" The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Edited by Dinah Birch. Oxford University Press Inc.
6. Feinstein (1993) px
7. This is well documented and supported particularly by a letter which he wrote to Voloshin on the matter.
8. Feinstein (1993) pxi
9. Tsvetaeva, Edited & annotated by Angela . Viktoria Schweitzer, London: Harvill, 1992, pp. 332, 345.
10. Cooke, Belinda. "Marina Tsvetaeva, Poet of the extreme". Retrieved 21 April 2009.
11. Feiler, Lily (1994) Marina Tsvetaeva: the double beat of Heaven and Hell. Duke University Press. p264 ISBN 978-0-8223-1482-0
12. "The Death of a Poet: The Last Days of Marina Tsvetaeva", Modern Language Review, July 2006 by Ute Stock
13. The Death of a Poet: The Last Days of Marina Tsvetaeva. By Irma Kudrova. Trans. by Mary Ann Szporluk. Woodstock, New York, and London: Overlook Duckworth. ISBN 1-58567-522-9. link to Russian language version
14. "Marina Tsvetaeva. Prediction" Russian documentary. Director Sergei Bosenko. Culture TV channel. 2012
15. Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: a history.
16. "No Love Without Poetry: The Memoirs of Marina Tsvetaeva's Daughter", published by Northwestern University Press, August 2009)
17. "No Love Without Poetry: The Memoirs of Marina Tsvetaeva's Daughter", published by Northwestern University Press, August 2009), date of death is stated in the catalogue data.
18. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (5th ed.). New York: Springer Verlag. p. 294. ISBN 3-540-00238-3.
19. Karlinsky, Simon and Appel, Alfred (1977) The Bitter air of exile: Russian writers in the West, 1922-1972 p72 University of California Press ISBN 978-0-520-02895-1
20. Brodsky review from Carcanet Press.
21. "Marina Tsvetaeva and the Poet-Pair" article 03-08-09 Poetry Foundation
22. Simon Karlinsky, Marina Tsvetaeva: The Woman, Her World, and Her Poetry, CUP Archive, 1985
23. http://www.zerkalomn.com/uploads/1/2/0/7/12072560/zerkalo_285_zvetaeva_web.pdfThe article "Marina Tsvetaeva in America" in the"Зеркало" ("Mirror") magazine, Sep/Oct 2017, MN, USA.
24. Page of Marina Tsvetaeva at Synthesis of Poetry and Music website dedicated to Russian Romance
25. Songs by Elena Frolova: Angel and lion - Tsvetaeva, Blok and Mandelshtam, 1992; My Tsvetaeva part 1 and part 2; Annunciation Day(1995 record); El sol de la tarde, 2008, Khvanyn'-Kolyvan, 2007
26. Songs by Larisa Novoseltseva: Candle Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, poetry by Akhmadulina and Tsvetaeva.

External links

• Marina Tsvetaeva - How many people fell in this abyss on YouTube. One of the most famous Tsvetaeva's poem performed by Alla Pugacheva. Another version
• Marina Tsvetaeva - My giant city is covered by the night on YouTube. Dramatic reading in English with artistic video. Includes download link.
• "Marina Tsvetaeva, Poet of the extreme" by Belinda Cooke from South magazine #31, April 2005. Republished online in the Poetry Library's Poetry Magazines site.
• A small site dedicated to Tsvetaeva
• Poetic translations into English
• Marina Tsvetaeva biography at Carcanet Press, English language publisher of Tsvetaeva's Bride of Ice and "Marina Tsvetaeva: Selected Poems", translated by Elaine Feinstein.
• Heritage of Marina Tsvetayeva, a resource in English with a more extensive version in Russian.
• Тоска по родине / Nostalgia and four more poems from the book "To You - in 10 Decades", translated by Alexander Givental and Elysee Wilson-Egolf and provided by Sumizdat, the publisher.
• "She Means It When She Rhymes: Marina Tsvetaeva: Selected Poems."Review from Thumbscrew #17, Winter 2000/1, of works translated by Elaine Feinstein.

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