ANDREI VOZNESENSKY DIES AT 77

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ANDREI VOZNESENSKY DIES AT 77 Russian / Soviet poet Andrei Voznesensky died at his dacha in the writers colony of Peredelkino on 1 June 2010. Renowned as one of the most talented and popular of the "Sixties Poets", Voznesensky was born in Moscow on 12 May 1933. At the precocious age of 14, Voznesensky dared to send some of his poetry to Boris Pasternak, who wrote back to the boy, "Your entry into literature is sudden and stormy. I am glad that I have lived to see it." Voznesensky graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute in 1957 and began publishing serious poetry in 1958. His works were characterized by an extravagance of simile and metaphor as well as a complicated rhythmic structure. His first two collections, "Parabola" and "Mosaic", published in 1960 were critically acclaimed both in the Soviet Union and abroad. But by 1963, Voznesensky had fallen out of favor with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who harangued the poet at a Party literature conference. His uneasy relationship with authorities continued throughout the years; he received numerous warnings but also the State Prize for literature in 1978. presents a bilingual edition of: GOYA by Andrei Voznesensky (1933 - 2010) ГОЙЯ Я - Гойя! Глазницы воронок мне выклевал ворог, слетая на поле нагое, Я - горе. Я - голос Войны, городов головни на снегу сорок первого года. Я - голод. Я - горло Повешенной бабы, чье тело, как колокол, било над площадью голой... Я-Гойя! О грозди Возмездья! Взвил залпом на Запад - я пепел незваного гостя! И в мемориальное небо вбил крепкие звезды - Как гвозди. Я - Гойя. GOYA I am Goya! My eyes plucked to craters by the enemy swooping low over bare ground. I am grief. I am the groan Of war, charred cities, on the snows of 'forty-one. I am hunger. I am the gullet. Of the hanged woman, whose body like a bell tolls over the naked square.... I am Goya! Oh, grapes Of Wrath! With a salvo I hurled to the West the ashes of the uninvited guests! And in the memorial sky I hammered sturdy stars Like nails. I am Goya.