Twenty-Four Poems from Marina Tsvetaeva

Tsvetaeva, Marina (1892–1941), translated by Kline, A. S. (contact-email)

Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) was a significant Russian poet whose work spans the turbulent early 20th century. She engaged with themes of love, alienation, and the struggle of the individual against society. Tsvetaeva chronicled the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Moscow famine during which her daughter Irina starved to death in a state orphanage. She left Russia in 1922 to live in increasing poverty with her family in Paris, Berlin and Prague before returning to Moscow in 1939. Tsvetaeva’s life ended in suicide in 1941, following the arrest and execution of her husband Sergei Efron for alleged espionage, and the arrest of their daughter Ariadna (Alya). She was connected to fellow poets Boris Pasternak, Osip Mandelstam, and Anna Akhmatova, although her relationship with them and the wider Soviet literary establishment was somewhat strained. Her legacy is that of one of Russia’s most intense and passionate poetic voices, albeit one that only received widespread recognition posthumously.

The selected poems of this edition explore a constellation of themes. Tsvetaeva’s work often reflects on exile (In Paris) and the deep-rooted yearning for a homeland (Homesickness), overlaid with the personal upheavals and societal pressures that shaped her era. Themes of love feature prominently (Why such tenderness?), examining its transient nature, its capacity to evoke tenderness, provoke jealousy (Attempted Jealousy), and its intersection with sorrow and loss.

Author Details

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva, born on 8 October 1892, dying on 31 August 1941, was a distinguished Russian poet.

Born in Moscow, Tsvetaeva was the daughter of Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, a professor of Fine Art, who founded the Pushkin Museum, and Maria Alexandrovna Mein, a concert pianist. Tsvetaeva grew up in a materially comfortable environment befitting her Polish aristocratic lineage. She had two half-siblings from her father’s first marriage and a full sister, Anastasia.

Tsvetaeva’s mother died from tuberculosis in 1906. During her early years, Tsvetaeva travelled abroad, learning Italian, French, and German. She abandoned her musical studies imposed by her mother to focus on poetry, studying literary history at the Sorbonne in 1908. Tsvetaeva’s first collection of poems, “Vecherny Albom,” was published in 1910 and received positive critical reception. In 1912, Tsvetaeva married the poet Sergei Efron; they had two daughters and a son.

Tsvetaeva experienced the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Moscow famine. In a tragic attempt to save her daughter Irina from starvation, Tsvetaeva placed her in a state orphanage in 1919, where she nevertheless later tragically died of hunger. Tsvetaeva and her family fled Russia in 1922, living in poverty in Paris, Berlin, and Prague before returning to Moscow in 1939. Her husband, Sergei Efron, and their daughter, Ariadna, were arrested in 1941 on espionage charges, with Efron subsequently being executed. Tsvetaeva committed suicide the same year.

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Kline, A. S.

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