Book record
If there is something to desire
Vera Pavlova
Translated from Russian by Steven Seymour, Steven Seymour, Pavlova's poems are highly disciplined miniatures, exhorting us without hesitation: "Enough painldlling, heal her husband
If there is something to desire, by Vera Pavlova, is a Russian poetry collection from Russia, translated by Steven Seymour, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2010. It is a Russian collection by Vera Pavlova built from miniature intensity, eros, wit, and emotional compression. Pavlova's poems often feel like sparks caught before they cool, brief enough to turn in the hand but sharp enough to burn. I would not ask the reader to solve this book before feeling it. The better invitation is to start with the image that will not quite explain itself, then follow the pressure of cadence, silence, and address. For this library, the book matters as more than a representative entry from Russia. It gives English-language readers another route into how poetry travels: not as a tidy report from elsewhere, but as a living encounter with local weather, historical pressure, and the privacy of a voice.
- Published
- 2010
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Language
- Russian
- Country
- Russia
- ISBN
- 9780307272256