Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet

Great Russian Women
Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet

Bella Akhmadulina (Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina) is a famous Russian poet, translator, esseist. She was born in Moscow on April 10, 1937.
First marriage - Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1954); second - Youri Nagibin (1960).
Since 1974 she has been married to famous Russian artist Boris Messerer.
Bella Akhmadulina's poetry was first published in 1954. In 1960 she graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute.

The Photograph

Smiling nervously but brightly,

conscious of her youth and fame,

she set the way that she was asked

to indifferently - or playing games.

Under heaven's dome's eternal childhood

April nineteen hundred twelve

has promised her in

Ospedaletti only prosperity and sun

She looks out from a lacy nimbus,

er hands folded in her lap.

The shadow of her future torments

lies locked inside her photo's trap.

Coalesced with that sweet April -

read Aprille - wet and warm,

like amber that has petrified,

she will abide unharmed.

When the age comes to its end

some late-arriving sleuth will find

that tender, craggy profile preserved

forever in a clot of light.

How calm, facete the well-dressed lady

in whose clear-cut tone and look

the signs of talent show as easy

as the title of a book.

Who asked her for a present of

this dolefule commentary framed

on paper without a pencil mark,

this forehead, and this fringe of bangs?

What's in her portrait for herself?

She gives a shrug: please yourselves!

And paints a picture - Ospedaletti,

April nineteen hundred twelve.

How fresh, still early here on earth!

O morrow, let her have more time!

Wait until she's done, signs

"Anna Akhmatova" on the last line.

Bella Akhmadulna translated into the Russian language poetry of poets from France, Italy, Chekhia, Poland, Jugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia and many other.
Bella Akhmadulina is Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Literature (1977)

Laureate of the following Prizes:

• State Prize Laureate (1989)
• "Nosside" (Italy, 1992)
• "Independent" (Triumph, 1993)
• Pushkin" (Germany, 1994) In 1984 Bella was honoured with the Order of "Friendship of Peoples" (1984)

Bella Akhmadulina's poetry books:

• "Struna" ('String'), Moscow - 1962
• "Oznob" ('Fever'), Frankfurt - 1968
• "Uroki Muzyki" ('Lessons of Muzic') - 1969
• "Stikhi" ('Verses') - 1975
• "Svecha" ('Candle') - 1977
• "Sny o Gruzii" ('Dreams of Georgia') - 1978-1979
• "Metell" ('Snow-Storm') - 1977
• "Taina" ('Secret') - 1983
• "Sad" ('The Garden') - 1987
• "Stikhotvorenie" ('A Verse') - 1988
• "Izbrannoye" ('Selections') - 1988
• "Stikhi" ('Verses') - 1988
• "Poberezhye" ('A Coast') - 1991
• "Larets i Kliutch" ('Casket and Key') - 1994
• "Shum Tishiny" ('A Noise of Silence'), Jerusalem - 1995
• "Gryada Kamnei" ('A Ridge of Stones') - 1995
• "Samye Moi Stikhi" ('Very Mine Verses') - 1995
• "Zvuk Ukazuyushchiy" ('A Guiding Sound') - 1995
• "Odnazhdy v Dekabre" ('Sometime in December') - 1996

FONTE (imagem incluída): The Russian Women Network

- http://famous.russian-women.net/