Brodsky in Great Britain

[Boris Dagaev]

It is truly fascinating how desperate her love for Brodsky is. She even
invites philologists to become critics: "наиболее авторитетную оценку
английских стихов Бродского могли бы дать филологи, чей английский язык
родной, чья профессия - русская литература, а специальность - русская
поэзия." ("naibolee avtoritetnuju ocenku anglijskih stihov Brodskogo mogli
by dat' filologi, chej anglijskij jazyk rodnoj, ch'ja professija - russkaja
literatura, a special'nost' - russkaja pojezija.")

However painful it is for her to agree with Craig Raine et al, Polukhina
should have kept a wide berth of criticism. Instead, she pushes ridiculously
vacuous (supposedly uplifting?) justifications: "[Он] находился в состоянии
постоянного изумления перед английским языком. И как преданный слуга языка,
он нес свое бремя смиренно и гордо, упрямо и благородно." ("[On] nahodilsja
v sostojanii postojannogo izumlenija pered anglijskim jazykom. I kak
predannyj sluga jazyka, on nes svoe bremja smirenno i gordo, uprjamo i
blagorodno.") Had Brodsky's trademark forced humility, boundless
stubbornness and affected nobleness run a little longer, he would've become
another McGonagall. She should humbly thank God Brodsky didn't live as long.

Boris
On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 5:46 PM, Alexandra Smith <Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk>
wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> Those of you who are interested in Brodsky might be curious to read
> Valentina Polukhina's fascinating article on the reception of Brodsky in
> Great Britain. It was published in the journal on poetry "Storony sveta":
> http://www.stosvet.net/9/polukhina/
>
> All best,
> Alexandra
>
>