Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

A Hero of Our Time  by Mikhail Lermontov
ISBN 1 84391 106 X
Hesperus´ edition of this dark, byronic Russian novel, which caused quite a stir when it was first published in 1840, begins with an foreword by Doris Lessing. She rightly points out the literary importance and quality of the work, stating that it is not just a portrait of a dubious Russian hero but of other generations, ‘other countries and even other times.’ On the whole I found her foreword disappointing. I cannot quite see the point of recommending psychiatric treatment to Byron and Lermontov’s hero Pechorin and find her finishing statement ‘We do have to admit that there are women who cannot resist the emotional brigand’ unnecessary in this context. The real beauty of this edition lies in the new translation by Hugh Aplin. He manages to retain the rich and exotic flavour of the original, especially in the descriptions of the mountainous Caucasian landscape: ‘Below us lay the Koyshaur Valley, traversed by the Aragva and another little river as by two silver threads, a bluish mist was slipping down it, fleeing into the neighbouring ravines from the warm rays of morning.…’ Aplin provides an introduction that is by far more interesting and profound than Lessing´s contribution, giving the reader an insight into the challenges of literary translation, especially when preceded by a highly regarded version, in this case Vladimir Nabokov’s from the 1950s. My advice is to skip Lessing’s foreword, which incidentally contains spoilers, and read the translator’s introduction and notes and maybe skim the foreword after finishing the novel. The edition also includes two lesser known pieces, A Caucasian and Ashik–Kerib – A Turkish Tale.  (AL)

Poems of Solitude  by Emily Brontë                                            ISBN 1 84391 103 5
From a Russian hero that in his cruelty and ambiguity reminded me at times of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights to a selection of Emily Brontë’s poetry, which in my opinion is still not appreciated enough. Since the Brontë sisters’ first published book of poetry famously only shifted two copies in 1846 the focus has been on their novels and their upbringing in an isolated Yorkshire village on the edge of the bleak Yorkshire Moors. There have been several scholarly, comprehensive editions of Emily Brontë’s poetry, such as the 1941 Hatfield edition or the more recent Penguin edition, edited by Janet Gezari, which I’d like to recommend to anyone who is captured by these strong, scenic and at times spiritual poems. The Hesperus edition, however, is the one you can carry with you and possibly read in the open, given that the poet was often inspired by solitary walks over the moors. It is a slim and pretty volume, comprising most of her better known poems, arranged in assumed chronological order, with an intelligent foreword by Helen Dunmore, in which she explains the unusual circumstances in which Emily Brontë lived and wrote and makes an attempt at describing the complexity of her character.  (AL)
               Hesperus Press Ltd, London               £7.99 each