“Monkey’s Excuse” is a collection of short stories and parables by Nina Kossman, bilingual author of eight books of poetry and prose, compiler of the anthology “Gods and Mortals” (Oxford University Press), artist, and translator of Tsvetaeva’s poems into English. “Nina Kossman is a natural at all sub-genres of short prose: а diary entry, a [...]
«Царица иудейская» — тонкая и глубокая интеллектуальная проза высокого художественного уровня. ... Замысел и структура романа свидетельствуют о том, что он не просто ладно скроен и крепко сшит, но, что он написан с поистине «нобелевским» размахом. ... Автору удаётся выявить тонкие особенности двусторонней коммуникации единичного и общего, документального и мифологического, исторического и личного...” (из рецензии [...]
"The sea is a postcard," writes Nina Kossman. There is both something elemental in this vision and -- iron-tough. Kossman's poetics are very much in conversation with Tsvetaeva's dictum "To live as I write: tersely." ...We need, Kossman tells us, to "learn to see / without eyes," perhaps because we must "get used to death [...]
"Direct, strong, audible translations . . . I hear Tsvetaeva's voice, more of it, and in a new pitch, which makes something clear in her poems that I had only guessed at before." --W. S. Merwin. Buy now on Amazon
all poems are © copyright 1985-2003 Nina Kossman SHAPE OF A WHISPER The shape of a whisper? What else do these bones promise? Lying in wait of some body's love, stretching thin arms, twitching thin nose, witholding kisses with a halting hum, why, they are growing instant shadows! They are developing twisty leaves! Here, in [...]
"Vivid picture of life behind the Iron Curtain." --Booklist "Young readers will identify readily with the impetuous Nina."--Kirkus "13 short pieces...pungently convey the effects of growing up under a totalitarian regime."--Publishers Weekly
"Gods And Mortals is a fascinating collection of poems that brings together the classic and the contemporary, the 'old' and the 'new', in unexpected and startling ways. Nina Kossman has brought together a richly imaginative gathering of memorable work." --Joyce Carol Oates
"Direct, strong, audible translations . . . I hear Tsvetaeva's voice, more of it, and in a new pitch, which makes something clear in her poems that I had only guessed at before." --W. S. Merwin. [The poems in this volume] focus on the richest and most eventful years of Tsvetayeva's life. ... [Tsvetayeva] presents [...]
"Перебои" (Художественная литература, 1990) _____________________________________ "...если вы порой вслушиваетесь в перебои собственного сердца и ощущаете в них аритмию своей и общей жизни как философию Природы, как один из шумов человеческого бытия, "Перебои" Нины Косман сделаются вашим "лекарством" ... ибо в этой небольшой книжке — "Каждый миг — размером в стих/ Многоголосен и лекарственен./Мигни — и [...]
"Intensely eloquent translations which capture the doom-eager splendor of a superbly gifted poet." - Harold Bloom "Direct, strong, audible translations . . . I hear Tsvetaeva's voice, more of it, and in a new pitch, which makes something clear in her poems that I had only guessed at before." - W. S. Merwin.
