On January 17th—just as the country was getting ready to celebrate MLK and his legacy—a swarm of Russian poetry fans hosted a celebratory (and yet very uncommon) evening of its own. The twofold event, which combined the Compass Translation Award ceremony and the launch of the long awaited 4th volume of Cardinal Points journal, an event occasioned under the auspices of the the StoSvet literary project as well as the Mad Hat Press and the Russian-American Cultural Center.
Set in Manhattan‘s venerable Poets House, the event commenced by honoring two major literary figures that both passed away in recent months: George Kline and Nina Cassian. Hailed as one with an “impeccable ear for translating Russian poetry,” particularly that of Joseph Brodsky, Kline’s multi-decade work made Russian poets better known to the English reader.
He was remembered by Larisa Shmailo, as well as by Irina Mashinski, the event’s main organizer. Furthermore, Nina Cassian, a Romanian poet and translator, who lived in New York City since the late years of the Ceaușescu regime, was honored by her husband, Maurice Edwards, who read two of her recent poems.
Irina Mashinski noted that Kline had a long association with Cardinal Points, both as author and as one of the judges for the Compass Translation Award. For four consecutive years, the Compass Award has been dedicated to translations of some of the best Russian poets, namely Nikolai Gumilev, Marina Tsvetaeva, Maria Petrovykh, and Arseny Tarkovsky.
In fact, Arseniy Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky was the designated Compass Poet of the Year in 2014. Tarkovsky (1907-1989) led a life that touched nearly all key historical contours of the last century, and still, his own life (in terms of its poetic manifestation) was largely independent of the powers surrounding him. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons his poetry remains popular and starkly relevant today.
Compass received nearly a hundred submissions of Tarkovsky translations, including iterations of such famous poems as “Свидания” and “Вот и лето прошло.” During the ceremony, Compass organizers gave out awards to the five winning translations, whose authors came from different professional backgrounds and, indeed, generations. The recipient of the 2nd prize, Nora Krouk, is currently in her nineties, while one of the Honorable Mention recipients, Misha Semenov, represents a college generation. Tarkovsky’s poem “В последний месяц осени, на склоне” took the grand 1st prize, with Laurence Bogoslaw as the winner.
This multifaceted verse-abundant evening concluded quite predictably—with the poetry recital! Various authors of Cardinal Points came to the podium and read their poems and translations, presenting the audience with a diverse range of genres and voices. A very appropriate ending to an event all too uncommon.