Synopsis
Vladimir Mayakovsky was one of the towering literary figures of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia, speaking as much to the working man (he often employed the rough talk of the streets and revolutionary rhetoric in his poetry) as to other poets (his creative fascination with sound and form, linguistic metamorphosis and variation made him a sort of 'poet's poet', the doyen, if not the envy, of his contemporaries, Pasternak among them). His poetry, influenced by Whitman and Verhaeren and strangely akin to modern rock poetry in its erotic thrust, bluesy complaints and cries of pain, not to mention its sardonic humour, is at once aggressive, mocking and tender, and often fantastic or grotesque. Pro Eto - That's What is a long love poem detailing the pain and suffering inflicted on the poet by his lover and her final rejection of him. But as well as being an agonising parable of separation and betrayal, it is also a political work, highly critical of Lenin's reforms of Soviet Socialism. The publication of That's What is something of a landmark for not only is this the first time that this seminal work has appeared in its entirety in translation, but it is illustrated with the 11 inspired photomontages that Alexander Rodchenko designed to interleave and illuminate the text, illustrations which inaugurate a world of new possibilities in combining verbal and visual forms of expression and which are reproduced in colour (as originally conceived) for the first time.
About the Author
VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY was born in April 1893 in Georgia, but moved with his family to Moscow in 1906 after the premature death of his father. In Moscow, he became involved in the activities of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (the Bolsheviks) and was imprisoned on three occasion for subversive political activities, although he avoided transportation because he was so young. In 1911, he joined the Moscow Art School where he became acquainted with members of the Russian Futurist movement - it was in the Futurist publication, 'A Slap in the Face of Public Taste' (1912), that his first poems were published - although he was expelled from the Art School in 1914 because of his political activities. His reputation as a poet, both in Russia and abroad, was established in the period leading up to the Russian Revolution, with his first major poem, 'A Cloud in Trousers', appearing in 1915, the same year in which he fell in love with his publisher's wife, Lily Brik. Rejected as a volunteer at the beginning of the First World War, Mayakovsky worked at the Petrograd Military Automobile School as a draughtsman, and was in Petrograd to witness the October Revolution. Moving back to Moscow, he worked for the Russian State Telegraph Agency (ROSTA), creating satirical Agitprop posters, and in 1919, he published his first full collection, Collected Works 1909-1919. Mayakovsky's popularity grew rapidly, both at home and abroad and, as one of the few Soviet writers allowed to travel freely, he visited Latvia, Britain, Germany, the USA, Mexico and Cuba, as well as travelling extensively in the Soviet Union itself. His influence on perceptions of poetry in early 20th century culture is hard to over-estimate. Towards the end of the 1920s, Mayakovsky became increasingly disillusioned with Stalin's leadership of the Soviet Union, as his satirical plays 'The Bedbug' (1929) and 'The Bathhouse' (1930) attest, and in April 1930, he shot himself. GEORGE HYDE (co-translator) was born in Scotland in 1941, son of an Army officer, and read English at Cambridge under the direction of F. R. Leavis, whose work on Tolstoy inspired him to learn Russian. Graduate work at Essex University with Donald Davie, who designed pioneering courses in comparative literature and literary translation, led to a teaching post at the University of East Anglia, where he helped Max Sebald set up the British Centre for Literary Translation. This was followed by a professorship at Kyoto Women's University, Japan, where he introduced comparative literature and culture courses. George Hyde also taught for four years at Polish universities in British Council funded posts during and after the communist period, and developed an interest in Polish theatre. Publications include a study of the Russian heritage of Vladimir Nabokov, two books on D. H. Lawrence, and literary translation from Russian and Polish, as well as numerous essays in the field of Modernism. While in Japan, George Hyde published a number of essays on the neglected Norwich writer George Borrow, which will form the basis of a monograph. In retirement, he is learning Greek and Japanese and has taken up the saxophone, and spends as much time as possible in his flat in Hania, Crete. LARISA MOLOTOVA-KOROLEVA, pen-name LARISA GUREYEVA (co-translator), was born in May 1950 in Moscow, the granddaughter of Vyacheslav M. Molotov-Skryabin, Prime Minister of the Soviet Union from 1930-1939, then Foreign Secretary from 1939-1949 and 1953-1956. She began studying English at the age of eight, and graduated in English Philology and Literature at Moscow State University, before writing a postgraduate dissertation on Jane Austen and Iris Murdoch. Her published work includes poetry ('The Stone Garden', Moscow, 2001) and numerous translations of poetry, fiction, history and memoires. Her translation of 'Love Story' (Moscow, 1990) went through three editions. At the time of publication, she is involved in a new publishing project, 'Dolinskaya Storona', which deals with the history of Vyatka (formerly Kirov), the Russian region close to the Urals. She is specialising in research on several dynasties of 18th and 19th century merchant families there. Since 1979 she has been a member of the Moscow Writers' Committee, and she has been vice-chairperson of its poetry section since 1994. In February 1991, and again in April 1994, she visited the British Centre for Literary Translation (Norwich) as a recipient of bursaries. Larisa Gureyeva's other interests include modern art (especially the Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, and the Symbolists) and music. She is married to Sergei Korolev, a prominent heart surgeon. JOHN WAKEMAN (introducer) has published two poetry collections, 'A Sea Family: New and Selected Poems' (Bradshaw Books, 2005) and 'A Room for Doubt', and his poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. He co-founded, and for twelve years co-edited, the UK poetry magazine 'The Rialto'. Moving to Ireland, he founded 'The Shop - A Magazine of Poetry' which he now co-edits with his wife Hilary. He has edited major reference books on contemporary world literature and on world film directors, and has also published stories, essays and reviews and given radio talks on the BBC and RTE.
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