“There is no poet more cosmic and more personal” (Vasiliy Rozanov)
Illustrated narrative in English, with readings from Lermontov’s poetry in English and Russian
The Pushkin Club is devoting this evening’s event to a celebration of the life and work of Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov (1814-1841) and commemoration of the 180th anniversary of his death.
Petr Zabolotskiy, Portrait of the poet Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, 1837, oil on cardboard, 36 x 28 cm
Mikhail Lermontov is Russia’s greatest poet after Pushkin. The Pushkin Club commemorates the 180th anniversary of Lermontov’s death with an illustrated talk by David Brummell about the poet’s life and work. The evening will include readings of a selection of Lermontov’s best-known poems: they will be recited in Russian by Alla Gelich and in David Brummell’s English translations by Lucy Daniels and David Brummell.
Lermontov’s short life was a dramatic one, and he lived life intensely. In his illustrated talk David Brummell will seek to show how both Lermontov’s poetry and his prose were strongly influenced by his life and personal experiences.
As well as being Russia’s greatest Romantic poet, Lermontov was also a great prose-writer. It was Lermontov who producd the first example of psychological realism in the Russian novel. This was in his brilliant work, “A Hero of Our Time”. This was a major breakthrough in Russian literature, the novel of psychological realism being further developed later by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Nabokov.
Lermontov became widely known to the general public in 1837, following his writing of the poem, “The Death of a Poet”. He wrote this poem in honour of Pushkin, following Pushkin’s death in a duel in January 1837. The poem was regarded by the authorities as inflammatory, and Lermontov was exiled to the Caucasus for several months.
He was exiled to the Caucasus a second time in 1840, after himself being involved in a duel with the son of the French Ambassador.
On 15 July 1841, following a trivial incident, Lermontov fought another duel, this time with Nikolai Martynov, an old acquaintance from his Military School days. The duel took place just outside Pyatigorsk, in the Caucasus, and Lermontov – who did not himself fire – was killed on the spot.
Only 26 years’ old when he died, Lermontov had already established himself as a brilliant and gifted poet and thinker, prose writer, and playwright, the successor of Pushkin, and the founder of Russian psychological prose.
In the course of the Evening [12] of Lermontov’s poems will be read, from different periods in the poet’s life, including his early poem The Angel / Ангел (1831 - written when he was 17), The Death of a Poet / Смерть поэта (1837), A Prayer / Молитва (1839) and The Dream / Сон (1841).
Bulat Okudzhava’s poem, Take care of us poets... / Берегите нас, поэтов, берегите нас... (1960-1961), will also be read.
The poems will be read in translation by Lucy Daniels (a former Co-Chairman of the Pushkin Club) and David Brummell. Alla Gelich will recite them in the Russian original.
The text of the original poems and translations will be made available to attendees after the event. The translations are by David Brummell.
Our Guest Performers
David Brummell is a long-standing member of the Pushkin Club and a former trustee of Pushkin House (2004-2013).
Alla Gelich, our Russian reader, is also a long-standing member of the Pushkin Club, and has recited Russian poetry on numerous occasions – in Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, Holland and Germany.
Lucy Daniels, our English reader, is a former Co-Chairman of the Pushkin Club and has read English translations of Russian poems on numerous previous occasions, including at the Pushkin Club.