Arseny Tarkovsky

Tarkovsky was born on 25 June N.S. 1907 in Yelisavetgrad, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine). His father, Oleksandr Tarkovsky was a public figure repressed by the Soviets under a court case of "Ukrainian socialists", had been a student of the actor and playwright Ivan Karpenko-Karyi and his mother was Maria Danilovna Rachkovskaya. Oleksandr Tarkovsky a famous poet of his time, Ukrainian writer, journalist, Ukrainian-phile public figure had Polish noble origin (shliahta).

Arseniy attended the Elisavetgrad gymnasium and studied at the music school of Gustav Neuhaus, the father of the famous musician Heinrich Neuhaus. Even as a child, together with his father and brother, he attended poetry evenings of visiting celebrities: Igor Severyanin, Konstantin Balmont, Fedor Sologub[4].

In 1921, Tarkovsky and his friends published a poem which contained an acrostic about Lenin. They were arrested, and sent to Nikolayev for execution. Tarkovsky was the only one that managed to escape.^[1]

By 1924 Tarkovsky moved to Moscow, and from 1924 to 1925 he worked for a newspaper for railroad workers called Gudok, where he managed an editorial section written in verse. In 1925–1929 he studied literature at a university college^[2] in Moscow.^[1] At that time he translated poetry from Azerbaijanian, Georgian, Armenian and Arabic.

During World War II he volunteered as a war-correspondent at the army newspaper Boevaya Trevoga (War Alarm). He was wounded in action in 1943. The leg wound he received caused gas gangrene, and Tarkovsky had to undergo six gradual amputations.

Arseny Tarkovsky was mainly known as a translator of Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri, Nizami, Magtymguly, Kemine, Sayat-Nova, Vazha-Pshavela, Adam Mickiewicz, Mollanepes, Grigol Orbeliani and many other poets. His first collection of poetry, Before snow, was published in 1962.^[1]

 

He lived mostly in Moscow and Peredelkino and died on 27 May 1989, in Moscow. In 1989 he was posthumously awarded the USSR State Prize.

• Перед снегом – Before snow (1962);
• Земле земное – To Earth Its Own (1966);
• Вестник – Messenger (1969);
• Стихотворения – Poems (1974);
• Зимний день – Winter Day (1980);
• Избранное – Selected works (1982);
• Стихи разных лет – Poems of different years (1983) – compilation of early verse;
• От юности до старости – From Youth to Old Age (1987);
• Благословенный свет – The Blessed Light (1993).

• (in English) Biography
• (in English) Some poems translated to English
• (in Russian) Biography and works of Arseny Tarkovsky
• (in Russian) Another biography
• (in English) [1] A selection of three poems in English translation in Harvard Review: "Housewarming," "Dreams," and "The Azov Steppe".