Winner of the 2018 Cliff Becker Prize in Translation
The Joyous Science
The Joyous Science offers a comprehensive introduction to Russian poet Maxim Amelin. The poems span Amelin’s long career and cover his many thematic concerns. A loving collector of neologisms and a devoted student of Revolutionary word-smithing (à la Mayakovsky), Amelin keeps his poetry in suspension through a tension of opposites. He writes of bodily pleasures while musing on the body’s resurrection. He is critical of Russia but loves its language. Riddles, odes, and elegies appear alongside a long poem, “The Joyous Science.” This 20-page mock epic chronicles the exploits—both real and imagined—of Jacob Bruce, an astronomer, alchemist, and military strategist to Peter the Great. Amelin is a unique force in contemporary Russian poetry.
About The Author:
Poet, critic, editor, and translator, Maxim Amelin is among the last generation of Russian poets to grow up in the Soviet Union, or as the poet Aleksei Tsvetkov wrote in Poetry Magazine: “those in the thirty- to forty-year-old range… the children of perestroika—or one should say the orphans, since their alleged mother went missing long ago” (February 2008). The recipient of numerous national awards, including the Moscow Reckoning Award, the Anti-Booker, the Novyi Mir Prize, and the Bunin Prize, his work has been translated into over a dozen languages. In 2013 Amelin won the prestigious Solzhenitsyn Prize for his contributions to Russian poetry. The author of three books of poetry, including Cold Odes (Холодные оды, 1996), Dubia (1999), and The Horse of the Gorgon (Конь Горгоны, 2003), he recently published his collected poetry and prose, Bent Speech (Гнутая речь, 2011). An accomplished translator of Pindar, Catullus, Homer, and various contemporary poets, he currently lives in Moscow. He serves as editor-in-chief at OGI, a leading publisher of contemporary literature, and is a member of the Russian PEN-Club. He was born in Kursk. Read Annie and Derek’s interview with Maxim here.
The Joyous Science cover was designed by Robin Vuchnich.
READ OUR TRANSLATIONS IN:
World Literature Today (2017) BONUS: listen to Maxim and Derek read the poems!
International Poetry Review Vol. XLI, No. 1 (Fall 2016) (PRINT)
Cardinal Points 6 (Fall 2016) (PRINT)
Two Lines 24 (Winter 2016) (PRINT)
Circumference Magazine (Summer 2016)
The Brooklyn Rail (April 2016) BONUS: This is The Joyous Science, the centerpiece of the book!
Waxwing (Issue VIII, Spring 2016)
Atlanta Review 22.2 (Spring/Summer 2015) (PRINT)
Lunch Ticket (Winter/Spring 2015)
Jacket2 (2014)
Gobshite Quarterly (Summer/Fall 2014) (PRINT)
Reunion: The Dallas Review Volume 4 (2014) (PRINT)
Asymptote (March 2014) Bonus: Hear Maxim read his poems!
Cerise Press (Summer 2013)
Чтения/Readings No. 18 (Spring 2012) (PRINT)
“Translators Derek Mong and Anne O. Fisher do not disappoint us in The Joyous Science, Selected Poems, by Maxim Amelin. These translations published by White Pine Press in 2018 introduce the English-speaking world to a poet of baroque temperament refined by classical studies. The poems are jam-packed with classical references in a gorgeous display of formal pyrotechnics.”
—Elias Siqueiros in Empty Mirror
“Mong and Fisher have succeeded in finding a distinctive voice in English for Amelin, a poet steeped in the philosophical traditions and poetic culture of Russia. There is poetry in Mong and Fisher’s translation, wrought in judicious and playful word choice, internal rhyme, and with a sensitive ear for song, sense, and soulfulness. There are even places where these translations equal or, perhaps, surpass the original in their crispness and linguistic innovation, making this collection not only a remarkable accomplishment of poetic translation but truly a pleasure to read.”
—Cliff Becker Prize judges Diana Thow, Anthony Anemone, and Joanna Trzeciak Huss
“Maxim Amelin's poems come to me with everything I need in certain moments, and nothing I do not: they bring God without consolation, history without meaning, irony without bitterness. Amelin is a poet who knows when to observe, when to question, when simply to delight in a fortuitous turn of phrase, and The Joyous Science offers us a modern Baroque, perfectly poised between music and wit, in translations that truly make English the poet's native language. An excellent book.”
“There is visceral excitement upon welcoming a new poet into one’s personal canon—it’s like collecting a little bit of immortal light—and Russian poet Maxim Amelin certainly deserves this... The translations into English collected here have been a decade-long labor of love by Derek Mong and Anne O. Fisher. Their exquisite care with these gems has not gone unnoticed... This is a volume to treasure.”
Dubia (1999), Amelin’s second book
Конь Горгоны (The Horse of the Gorgon, 2003), Amelin’s third book
Гнутая речь (Bent Speech, 2011), a collection of Amelin’s poems, essays, criticism, and translations
Веселая наука (The Joyous Science, 2018) Amelin’s epic poem about Yakov Bruce, in a beautiful illustrated hardback volume