At the Grave of Joseph Brodsky

[Konstantin Kustanovich]

What can be "undisputed" about Brodsky? His poetic fame — undisputed fame —
неоспоримая слава, hence неоспоримое надгробье.

Something like this:

Я приближаюсь к твоему
неоспоримому надгробью
и в прошлое на двадцать лет
через пролив скольжу суровый.

Konstantin Kustanovich

On 2/3/09 2:47 PM, "Vadim Besprozvany" <vbesproz at UMICH.EDU> wrote:

> Very odd. But everything in the poem (and around it) confirms that
> this is Brodsky's grave. I guess that "несомненный камень" would be
> quite unusual phrase for Motion's more or less traditional poetic
> vocabulary.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> VB
> 
>> An odd collocation.  Is there any reason to doubt that this is
>> Brodsky's grave?  How about несомненный камень?  with the line
>> reading у несомненного камня вашего
>> 
>> On Feb 3, 2009, at 3:19 PM, Vadim Besprozvany wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear SEELANGers,
>>> 
>>> I'm struggling to translate into Russian "At the Grave of Joseph
>>> Brodsky" by Andrew Motion. There is one phrase in the poem that gives
>>> me real trouble: "your undisputed stone." Here is the whole stanza:
>>> 
>>> The instant I arrive
>>> At your undisputed stone
>>> I slip back twenty years
>>> Across the tense lagoon
>>> [etc.]
>>> 
>>> Besides Russian translation of the phrase, I will really appreciate
>>> any explanations, synonymic constructions, etc. Fiction and/or
>>> non-fiction intertexts would be especially welcomed.
>>> 
>>> Thank you in advance!
>>> 
>>> Vadim Besprozvany
>>> 
>>> PS: I'm familiar with Russian translation of the poem, but my friend
>>> and colleague, who asked me to do this project, is not very happy with
>>> this variant:)
>>> 
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>> 
>> Gerald Janecek
>> gjanecek at email.uky.edu
>> Dept. of Modern & Classical Languages
>> University of Kentucky
>> Lexington, KY 40506
>> 
>> Editor, Slavic & East European Journal
>> seej at uky.edu
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
> 
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