Cynthia L. Haven. ‘The man who brought Brodsky into English:’ Conversations with George L. Kline

Abstract

The review concerns Cynthia L. Haven’s book about George Kline. The first English translator of Joseph Brodsky’s poems shares his views of the poet, his poetics, and the nuances of collaborating and communicating with Brodsky, whom he met in Leningrad in August 1967 and stayed in touch with until the poet’s last birthday. The first in the West to recognize Brodsky as a preeminent poet, Kline became Brodsky’s first translator. With his excellent command of the Russian language, Kline insisted on faithfully rendering the original’s metre and rhyme. Except for Brodsky himself, Kline produced the greatest number of Brodsky’s translations ever made by a single translator. Alongside Brodsky’s poems, Kline left brilliant translations of B. Pasternak’s, A. Akhmatova’s, M. Tsvetaeva’s, and T. Venclova’s works. In addition to an exquisitely detailed story of the relationship and collaboration between the poet and his philosopher translator, the book features a meticulous study of Brodsky’s poetics. The list of G. Kline’s published translations of Brodsky’s poetry was compiled by V. Polukhina, who also provided the book’s afterword.