Shorter Notices
The Road to the West: Soviet War Poems chosen and translated by Alan Moray Williams and Vivian de Sola Pinto. (Frederick Muller. 5-..) THIS collection of sixty Soviet war poems is interesting for the light it throws on the contemporary Russian mood. The range .t emotion rellealed here is exceedingly narrow—patriotism in i:s simplest expression of devotion to the Fatherland, its leader and its heroes ; hatred for the enemy ; love of home ; longing for revenge. There is no equivalent in English poetry today, for this is essentially popular poetry and a poem like Konstantin Simonov's " Wait for Me " is the Russian equivalent of " Tipperary." But for the spirit of these songs we must go back to the Border Ballads and the Broad- sheets printed at the time of the Civil War and the risings of 'f5 and '45. The most lyrical and poetic elements are to be found in the Cossack poems. No political action could reveal more clearly than this book the complete self-sufficiency of the Russians. There is no hint of a " common cause " or any sense of unity with any other ally against a common enemy. Russia is the theme and Russia the inspiration. It may be remarked here that the majority of poets represented are Stalin Prize winners and therefore in some way officially approved, and there must be many poets writing in Russia today whose work we have no chance yet of knowing. The trans- lators have endeavoured to stick closely to the rhymes and metres of the originals, and Mr. de Sola Pinto has performed his task skilfully, though Mr. Moray Williams too often allows himself a clumsy inversion for the sake of preserving the rhyme.
Previous page
