‘My memory brings you back to me…’: A book of reminiscences about David Samoylov

Abstract

The book of reminiscences about David Samoylov My memory brings you back to me… [Tebya mne pamyat vozvratila…], presented as a must-read collection of memories, features drama and a thrilling plot. Reading it resembles wandering around a hall of mirrors in the vain hope of finding a true image. The collection puts together texts previously scattered across various publications. They become testimonies that help reveal what Samoylov’s poems understated or omitted. A whole generation older than the popular Sixtier poets, he was in the army from the beginning till the end of the Great Patriotic War, and repeatedly and paradoxically referred to it later as his ultimate freedom experience. But he was older in his fear too. Throughout his life we see his preoccupation with the sincerity of fellowship — cherishing the kind of people one can speak their mind to freely. The extreme clarity of Samoylov’s verse is simultaneously a ciphertext of his inner life. The resulting tension between the inner and the outspoken may account for the vibrant authenticity of his verse.