Dictionary of Literary Biography - Russian Poets of the ... · 3 Dictionary of Literary Biography...

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3 Dictionary of Literary Biography Gennadii Aigi (21 August 1934 – 12 February 2006) Peter France University of Edinburgh BOOKS: Attesen iachĕpe: săvăsem (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1958); Pĕtĕm purnăşshan şĕklennĕ muzykăa (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1962); Utăm (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1964); Palărăm (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1971); Chĕrĕ tĕvĕ (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1975); Stichi 1954–1971, edited by Wolfgang Kasack (Munich: Otto Sagner, 1975); Săvăsem (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1980); Otmechennaia zima: sobranie stikhotvorenii v dukh cha- stiakh, edited by V. K. Losskaia (Paris: Syntaxis, 1982); Tetrad’ Veroniki: Pervoe polugodie docheri, ianvar’-iiul’ 1983: Stikhotvoreniia (Paris: Le Nouveau Com- merce, 1984); translated by Peter France as Veronica’s Book (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1989); Dvenadtsat’ parallelei k Igoriu Vupokhu: Stikhi 1982–1983 gg. (Paris: Dronnikov, 1984); Listki v veter prazdnika: Sneg v polden’ (Paris: Dron- nikov, 1986); Polia-dvoiniki: Stikhi (Cheboksary, 1987); Khalal: săvăsem (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1988); Blagopozhelanie: Stikhotvoreniia (Cheboksary: Chu- vashskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1988); Tri stikhotvoreniia Malevichu (Moscow: Tret’iakovskaia galeriia, 1989); Vesenniaia izmorost’: Stikhi i poemy (Cheboksary: Chu- vashskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1990); Ditia-i-roza (Paris, 1990); translated by France as Child-and-Rose (New York: New Directions, 2002); Şurkhi ĭĕpkhú (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1990); Gennadii Aigi

Transcript of Dictionary of Literary Biography - Russian Poets of the ... · 3 Dictionary of Literary Biography...

Page 1: Dictionary of Literary Biography - Russian Poets of the ... · 3 Dictionary of Literary Biography Gennadii Aigi (21 August 1934 – 12 February 2006) Peter France University of Edinburgh

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Dictionary of Literary Biography

Gennadii Aigi(21 August 1934 – 12 February 2006)

Peter FranceUniversity of Edinburgh

BOOKS: Attesen iachĕpe: săvăsem (Cheboksary:Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1958);

Pĕtĕm purnăşshan şĕklennĕ muzykăa (Cheboksary:Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1962);

Utăm (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi,1964);

Palărăm (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi,1971);

Chĕrĕ tĕvĕ (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi,1975);

Stichi 1954–1971, edited by Wolfgang Kasack(Munich: Otto Sagner, 1975);

Săvăsem (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi,1980);

Otmechennaia zima: sobranie stikhotvorenii v dukh cha-stiakh, edited by V. K. Losskaia (Paris: Syntaxis,1982);

Tetrad’ Veroniki: Pervoe polugodie docheri, ianvar’-iiul’1983: Stikhotvoreniia (Paris: Le Nouveau Com-merce, 1984); translated by Peter France asVeronica’s Book (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1989);

Dvenadtsat’ parallelei k Igoriu Vupokhu: Stikhi1982–1983 gg. (Paris: Dronnikov, 1984);

Listki v veter prazdnika: Sneg v polden’ (Paris: Dron-nikov, 1986);

Polia-dvoiniki: Stikhi (Cheboksary, 1987);Khalal: săvăsem (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke

izd-vi, 1988);Blagopozhelanie: Stikhotvoreniia (Cheboksary: Chu-

vashskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1988);Tri stikhotvoreniia Malevichu (Moscow: Tret’iakovskaia

galeriia, 1989);Vesenniaia izmorost’: Stikhi i poemy (Cheboksary: Chu-

vashskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1990);

Ditia-i-roza (Paris, 1990); translated by France asChild-and-Rose (New York: New Directions,2002);

Şurkhi ĭĕpkhú (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi,1990);

Gennadii Aigi

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Vremia ovragov: 1982–1984 (Paris: Le Nouveau Com-merce, 1990);

Zdes’: Izbrannye stikhotvoreniia 1954–1988 (Moscow:Sovremennik, 1991);

Tri stikhotvoreniia (Paris: N. Dronnikov, 1991);Teper’ vsegda snega: Stikhi raznykh let 1955/1989 (Mos-

cow: Sovetskii pisatel’, 1992);Mir Sil’vii: Stikhi (Paris, 1992); Poklon-peniiu: Tridtsat’ shest’ variatsii na temu chuvash-

skikh i tatarskikh narodnykh pesen, 1988–1991(Paris: Nikolai Dronnikov, 1992); translated byFrance as Salute to Singing: Thirty-Six Variationson Themes from Chuvash and Tatar Folk Songs,1988–1991 (Edinburgh: Akros, 1995);

Piat’ stikhotvorenii (Berlin: Shtorkvinkel’, 1993);Poeziia kak molchanie (Moscow: Gileia, 1994);Săvăsempe poėmăsem (Cheboksary: Chăvsh ASSR

kěneke izd-vi, 1994);Tri stikhotvorenii Malevichu (Paris: Dronnikov-

Konovalov, 1994);Dronnikovu: Stikhi, risunki (Paris: N. Dronnikov,

1994);Tystna, sno (N.p.: Norstedts, 1994);Okna dukha (Paris: Dronnikov-Konovalov, 1995);Pis’ma iz Berlina: Stikhotvoreniia 1958–1994 gg. (Paris:

Dronnikov-Konovalov, 1995);Rany v sugrobakh: Stikhotvoreniia (Paris: Dronnikov-

Konovalov, 1996);Khudozhnik: Stikhotvoreniia (Paris: Dronnikov-

Konovalov, 1996);Slovo vorona (Paris: Dronnikov-Konovalov, 1997);Son-i-poeziia, Razgovor na rasstoianii, Poeziia kak mol-

chanie: Esse (Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe gosu-darstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1997);

Veter po travam: Koe-chto iz rossiiskogo bel’manizma(Cheboksary: Assots. sodeistviia vuzam, 1997);

Vse–zdes’: Vstrechi s Borisom Pasternakom, 1956–1958(Kherson: Pilotnye shkoly, 1997);

Pamiati muzyki: Stikhotvoreniia: K 200-letiiu so dniarozhdeniia Frantsa Shuberta (Cheboksary:Russika, 1998);

Polia v gorode: Listy vo Frantsiiu: Stikhotvoreniia(Cheboksary: Russika, 1998);

Drug etikh let: Stikhi k 60-letiiu Igoria Vupokha(Cheboksary: Russika, 1998);

“Drug moi”: Stikhotvoreniia, posviashchennoe NikolaiuDronnikovu (Paris: Dronnikov-Konovalov, 1998);

12 stikhotvorenii (Paris: Dronnikov-Konovalov, 2000);Sneg v “starom kvartale Moskvy: Stikhotvoreniia (Paris:

Dronnikov-Konovalov, 2000);Poklon-peniiu: Sto variatsii na temu narodnykh pesen

Povolzh’ia (Moscow: OGI, 2001); translated byFrance as Salute to Singing: One Hundred Varia-

tions on Themes from Folk-Songs of the Volga Region(Brookline, Mass.: Zephyr Press, 2002);

Prodolzhenie ot”ezd: Stikhotvoreniia i poemy, 1966–1998(Moscow: OGI, 2001);

Razgovor na rasstoianii: Stat’i, esse, besedy, stikhi (St.Petersburg: Limbus Press, 2001);

Son-svet: Stikhotvoreniia (Paris: Dronnikov-Konovalov,2003);

Vse dal’she v snega (Moscow: Muzei Sidura, 2004);Polia-dvoiniki (Moscow: OGI, 2006); Zimnie kutezhi (Moscow: Gileia, 2009).Collections: Stikhi raznykh let, 1966–1986 (Paris: N.

Dronnikov, 1989);Svechi vo mgle i neskol’ko pesenok: Stikhi raznykh let,

1960–1990 (Moscow: Izdanie S. A. Nitochkin,1992);

Strana-prolog: Izbrannoe: Stikhotvoreniia 1957–1995 gg.(Paris: Dronnikov-Konovalov, 1995);

Izbrannye poemy, 1954–94 (London: Angel Books, 1997);Śyrnisen pukhkhi (Cheboksary: Chăvash kěneke izda-

tel’stvo, 2008);Stikhotvoreniia: kommentirovannoe izdanie, edited by G. M.

Natapov (Moscow: Raduga, 2008); Sobranie sochinenii v semi tomakh (Moscow: Gileia,

2009).Editions in English: Selected Poems, 1954–94, trans-

lated by Peter France (Evanston, Ill.: North-western University Press, 1997);

“Rose of Silence,” “Dream: Flight of a Dragonfly,”“Dream: Queue for Paraffin,” and “Going toSleep in Childhood,” translated by France in Inthe Grip of Strange Thoughts: Russian Poetry in aNew Era, edited by J. Kates (Brookline, Mass.:Zephyr Press, 1999), pp. 83–93;

“Winter Marked by God,” “Viola,” “KolomenskoeChurch,” “Degree: Of Stability,” “Again: Placesin the Forest,” and “Second Madrigal,” trans-lated by France in Crossing Centuries: The NewGeneration in Russian Poetry, edited by JohnHigh and others ( Jersey City: Talisman House,2000);

Poems, in Field-Russia, translated by France (NewYork: New Directions, 2007);

Poems, in Winter Revels, and Ever Further into theSnows, with Wind in the Grasses: Twenty-ThreePoems for Drawings by Diana Obinja, translatedby France (San Francisco: Rumor Books,2009).

PRODUCED SCRIPT: Alran kaĭmi, motion picture,Kazanskaia kinostudiia, 1974.

OTHER: Degré de stabilité, translated by Léon Robel(Paris: Seghers, 1976);

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Preface, Festivités d’hiver, translated by Robel (Edi-teurs francais réunis, 1978);

“Antologia ciuvascia,” edited by Aigi in I canti deipopoli del Volga (Quaderni di iranistica, uralo-altaistica e caucasologia dell’Università degli studidi Venezia), volume 23 (Rome: Arti graficheScalia editrice, 1986); translated by PeterFrance as An Anthology of Chuvash Poetry (Lon-don: Forest Books, 1991);

Poety Polshi, XV–XX vv: Perevody, edited by Aigi(Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe knizhnoe izda-tel’stvo, 1987);

Le temps des ravins, translated by Robel (Paris: LeNoveau Commerce, 1990).

TRANSLATIONS: Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Vasilii Ter-kin (Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe gosudarstven-noe izdatel’stvo, 1960);

Frantsi poechĕsem XV–XX ĕmĕrsem (Cheboksary:Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1968);

Frantsi poechĕsem (N.p.: Kommunizm suti, 1972); Vengri poechĕsem, XV–XX ĕmĕrsem (Cheboksary:

Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1974);Pol’sha poechĕsem, XIX–XX ĕmĕrsem (Cheboksary:

Chăvsh ASSR kěneke izd-vi, 1974);Vladimir Maiakovsky, Khănkăla (Cheboksary, 1979);Francis Assisi, Khĕvel lichchene khălăppana mukhtav

iurri (Cheboksary: Russika, 2000).

SELECTED PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS—UNCOLLECTED: “Manăn zavod kěneke Şinchen,”

Ialav, no. 7 (1950): 3;“Stikhi narodnogo poeta,” Literaturnaia gazeta, 17

December 1953, p. 3;“Son-i-poeziia: Razroznennye zametki,” Kovcheg, no.

4 (1979): 7–78;“Chernyi kvadrat: Russkii poeticheskii avangard,” V

mire knig, no. 1 (1989): 14–19; no. 2 (1989):28–31; no. 3 (1989): 15–19; no. 4 (1989):50–56;

“Poslednii ot”ezd,” Literaturnaia gazeta, 6 March1991, p. 12;

“Razgovor na rasstoianii: Otvety na voprosy druga,”Lik Chuvashii, no. 4 (1994): 27–37;

“Poeziia-kak-molchanie,” Druzhba narodov, no. 3(1996): 51–58.

Gennadii Aigi is one of the most importantand original Russian-language poets of the lastdecades of the twentieth century. A native of theChuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ofthe Soviet Union, Aigi suffered much from persecu-tion before he came to be hailed as the nationalpoet of his native republic on the banks of the Volga

River. Outside Chuvashia his reputation rests largelyon a coherent and challenging body of work in Rus-sian, composed over the course of more than fortyyears. Working in the creative underground, he waslargely unable to publish his Russian poems in theU.S.S.R. until the late 1980s, but from 1962 onwardhis reputation grew steadily in Eastern and WesternEurope, where his work was published and exten-sively tranlated. He is often a difficult, hermeticpoet, working in the line of the great innovators ofthe early twentieth century, notably the poet VelimirKhlebnikov and the painter Kazimir Malevich; hiswriting blends ideas from European, especiallyFrench, modernism with themes and motifs of hisnative Chuvash culture. His poetry is an absorbingand prolonged meditation on the most fundamentalquestions of human existence.

Aigi was born Gennadii (Hunnadii in Chu-vash) Nikolaevich Lisin in Shaimurzino, a large vil-lage in southern Chuvashskaia about five hundredmiles east of Moscow, on 21 August 1934. An oldfamily name, Aigi means “he himself” in Chuvash.The poet reclaimed this surname in the 1950s, firstas a pseudonym, then as his official name in 1969.His father, Nikolai Lisin, had adopted his surnameduring the Soviet process of introducing a moreextensive use of Russian among the native popula-tion. A Chuvash teacher of Russian language and lit-erature, a published poet, and translator of thefamous early-nineteenth-century Russian poet Alek-sandr Pushkin’s works, Aigi’s father was the firstintellectual in his extended family. Although a mem-ber of the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) asa child, his father fell foul of local officials of theCommunist Party and spent nine months in a laborcamp in 1934. According to Aigi in an interview in1994 for the journal Druzhba narodov (Friend of thePeople), his father was blamed for the failure of thelocal kolkhoz (collective farm). His father’s friend-ship with the Chuvash poet Vasleie Mitta contrib-uted to his difficulties, since Mitta was in disfavorwith the Chuvash Communist Party leadership. Fear-ing the inevitability of a second arrest, Lisin movedhis family from village to village throughout Chu-vashia, and each of his three children was born in adifferent town. The poet’s mother, Khevedus,daughter of Yagur, though herself an OrthodoxChristian, was closely related to some of the last Chu-vash pagan priests. She occupied a central place inAigi’s poetic world, representing for him his nativeculture in all its poverty, beauty, and integrity. Aigi’stwo younger sisters also chose artistic careers. LuizaLisina, born in 1937, became a successful artist,choosing another Chuvash family surname—Iumanka

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(oak tree)—to distinguish herself from her brother.His youngest sibling, Eva Lisina, born in 1939, followedthe example of her older brother to become a poet,prose writer, and translator.

Surrounded by great fields of fertile blackearth, ravines, and forests, the village of Shaimur-zino remained a constant landscape in the poet’simagination, as he indicated in an interview in 1985for the Yugoslav journal Knijževna rech (LiteraryTalk), later published in Russian as “Razgovor narasstoianii” (Conversation from a Distance):

Znakomias’ po mirovoi literature s “mirami-okeanami,” s “mirami-gorodami” drugikh narodov, iastaralsya, chtoby moi mir, “Les-Pole,” ne ustupal by politeraturnoi znachimosti drugim obshcheizvestnym“miram,” dazhe—po mere vozmozhnosti-priobrel bynekotoruyu obshcheznachimost’

(Becoming acquainted through world literaturewith the “ocean-worlds” and “city-worlds” of otherpeoples, my aim was that my world of “Forest-Field,”should have no less literary significance than other

well-known “worlds” and even—as far as possi-ble—that it should acquire a certain common-significance).

As Aigi observed in the introduction to his“Antologia ciuvascia” (1986; translated as An Anthol-ogy of Chuvash Poetry, 1991), ancient Chuvash culturefocused on rituals, founded on a strong sense of con-nection to the natural world of the elements, ani-mals, and plants. The old religion, with its pantheonof pagan gods, largely disappeared in the face of thestrong-armed missionary efforts of the RussianOrthodox Church and the Soviet Union’s Commu-nist Party, but the distinctive Chuvash language stillsurvived vigorously. A Turkic language spoken by allwho live in Shaimurzino, it was the language inwhich Aigi wrote until the late 1950s in Chuvashia,and in which he continued to compose occasionalpoetry and make translations. But he learned Rus-sian early, had been based in Moscow since 1953,and went over to writing poetry in Russian in 1960.

In 1940, having spent his early childhood inChuvashia, Aigi moved with his family to Karelia (nowin Finland), where his father had taken a job. Butafter the outbreak of war, his father was drafted intothe army and in 1943 died on the front. His widowreturned to Shaimurzino, where with her three chil-dren she lived through the years of hardship that fol-lowed. Aigi writes in the introduction to the Englishedition of Veronica’s Book (1989): “My generation grewup without fathers. I need only say that in my villagethere were 300 households and that more than 200husbands never came back from the war.”

In about 1946 Aigi discovered modernpoetry through the work of Vladimir Maiakovsky,who became a cult figure for him. Between 1948and 1953, while studying at the Pedagogical Insti-tute in the nearby small town of Batyrevo, hedevoted himself wholeheartedly to writing poetryin Chuvash. A chance meeting brought him intocontact with the leading Chuvash poet Peder Khu-zangai (whose son Atner is one of the leadingexperts on Aigi), and it was largely thanks to Khu-zangai that Aigi was able to go on to spend fiveyears (1953–1958) at the Gor’ky Literary Institutein Moscow. This was a crucial formative period: histeachers included the veteran formalist ViktorShklovsky and the poet Mikhail Svetlov, but aboveall he was able to acquire a wide and deep knowl-edge of European culture. Friedrich Nietzsche’swritings were a major influence, and he read theworks of modern French poets, notably CharlesBaudelaire, with such enthusiasm that he was

Cover for Aigi’s first volume of poetry in Russian, publishedin Germany in 1975 (University of

Florida Libraries)

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inspired to learn their language and eventually totranslate French poetry into Chuvash.

During his institute years, Aigi was brieflymarried to a young woman who herself became awriter. Living in Peredelkino outside Moscow, hegot to know some important writers, notably theTurkish poet Nazim Hikmet and Boris Pasternak.Aigi’s poetry is quite different from Pasternak’s,but the older poet was an inspiration to him in hisapproach to life and his vision of the possibilitiesof poetry. Both Hikmet and Pasternak encouragedAigi to write poetry in Russian; at this time he wasstill writing in Chuvash, but producing Russiantranslations of his poems that could increasinglybe seen as new creations. The first of several col-lections of his Chuvash poetry, Attesen iachĕpe (Inthe Name of the Fathers), was published inCheboksary in 1958, and officially, throughout theSoviet period, he continued to be regarded as aChuvash rather than a Russian writer.

Aigi’s collection of Chuvash poems, togetherwith his friendship with Pasternak, in 1958 led thecommittee of the Komsomol in the Gor’ky LiteraryInstitute to deprive Aigi of his Komsomol member-ship, labeling him as an “anti-Soviet element” and“Nietzschean individualist,” and to ask for his expul-sion from the Institute. He was indeed expelled, butwas able the following year to obtain his diploma,not for his own poems but for a translation into Chu-vash of Aleksandr Tvardovsky’s war poem Vassilii Ter-kin (1960). Meanwhile he had gone to work as alaborer in Siberia and then returned to Chuvashia,where he was harassed by the authorities. After com-ing back to Moscow, he found refuge from solitarypoverty in an underground circle of avant-garde art-ists, which included such figures as the composerAndrei Volkonsky and the painter Vladimir Iakovlev.He evokes the vibrant intensity of this cultural milieuin a preface written for Festivités d’hiver, the 1978French translation of “Zimnie kutezhi” (Winter Revels),in which he describes meetings in the “moskovskiepustyri” (Moscow wastelands):

Ostatki kakoi-nihud’ razvaliny sluzhili nam stolom (da,ne zabudem i nashi raspitiia, kazaishiesia togdabezgreshnymi i svetlymi). Nas, slivaias’ s siianiem dnia,okruzhala nasha nadezhda . . . Esli kto-nibud’ iz nasprinosil vyrezannuiu iz kakogo nibud’ zhurnalareproduktsiiu s kartiny Klee ili Maksa Ernsta, o koto-rykh my znali do etogo lish’ ponaslyshke, siianie dnia unadezhda prevrashchalis’ v prazdnik iskusstva.

(The remains of some ruin served as a table for us(yes, let us not forget our carousings, which seemed

then so innocent and bathed in light). Dissolving inthe shining of the day, we were surrounded by hope. . . If one of us brought a newspaper cutting of areproduction of a painting by Klee or Max Ernst, ofwhom we only knew by hearsay until then, the shin-ing of the day and the hope were transformed into acelebration of art).

The year 1960 was crucial in Aigi’s develop-ment. He had returned home to be with his mother,who was dying (she died shortly after Pasternak, whowas like a father to the young poet). By her death-bed, he wrote “Smert’” (Death), his first poemdirectly in Russian:

Ne snimaia platka s golovy,umiraet mama,ia edinstvennyi razya plachu of zhalkogo vida

ee domotkannogo plat’ia.

O, kak tikhi snegaslovno ikh vyrovnialikryl’ia vcherashnego demona,

O, kak bogaty sugroby, kak-budto pod nimi—gory iazycheskikh

zhertvoprinoshenii.

A snezhinkivse nesut i nesut na zemliu

ieroglify boga . . .

(Not taking the scarf from her head, mother is dying,and for the only timeI weep at the pitiful sight

of her home-woven dress.

Oh, how quiet the snows,as if smoothed by the wings of yesterday’s demon,

Oh, how rich the drifts, as if they concealed mountains of pagan

sacrificial offerings.

But the snowflakeskeep carrying carrying earthward

the hieroglyphs of god . . .).