Tristia

“Thomas de Waal offers the English-reading
public a precious jewel box: the gift of an elegant,
supple translation of Osip Mandelstam’s Tristia.
The collection is vividly introduced, and
accompanied by an incredibly helpful – and
never burdensome – set of comments to delight
both those readers new to Mandelstam
and those who, like myself, have long
loved his verse. It is difficult to believe that
we had to wait over a hundred years for the
first complete English translation of a masterpiece
of twentieth century poetry which rivals that
other great product of 1922, T. S. Eliot’s
The Wasteland.”