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Like a corpse on a spring-swollen stream"
The fabric of nearly all poetry is one's muse, the entity or experience that acts as a catalyst. Nevertheless, the muse is ever-evolving, as evidenced by Laird's commendable effort to capture the iconic Russian poet Anna Akhmatova's works through direct translation. On the surface, the poetry spans the spectrum of light and dark, featuring early poetry rooted in love and, later, the brutal chaos of Stalin's reign. However, digging deeper, one may surmise that the ultimate muse spearheading Akhmatova's poetry and subsequently Laird is life itself.
Some poems depict the yearning anguish in those lovers who dare to cross the line and face the possibility of unrequited love. Others reflect on a hopeful escape and peer into the future with a not-so-subtle nod to the torturous world that enveloped Akhmatova: a world of love that quickly dissipated into a world war, revolution, and Stalin's reign of terror. With her own words publicly stifled by a regime's disapproving of the arts, Akhmatova understandably experienced a major shift in the tone of her poetry.
Laird's translation relies on her strong grasp of metaphor and imagery to illuminate the inferno raging within Akhmatova's later poetry. Visceral imagery like "bushes stained blood-red" is constantly integrated with compelling parallels of the narrator being a river to bring Akhmatova's plight to life. More than that, however, Laird's work seems to take it a step further and show that even within the chaos, the poet was resolute, like an immovable tree unflinchingly eyeing the storm ravaging its world. In its own right, Laird's translation clearly demonstrates her command of figurative language, routinely delivering evocative poetry that possesses the power to peel back the layers of time and give the reader a brief glimpse into a wondrous life.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review