PREFACE
During the academic year 1986-1987 I gave a course
on Russian émigré literature at Leiden University. Most of the students had not
read any of the work by the authors who were then discussed; even their names and the titles of their work were
unfamiliar. In the course of that same academic year the position of Russian
émigré literature changed dramatically. As a result of the liberalization of
the cultural climate in the Soviet Union, the work of many émigré
authors—strictly banned until 1986—could now for the first time be (legally)
printed and distributed, attracting attention on a scale hitherto thought
impossible. Understandably, the reading public
in the emigration had necessarily always been very limited.
What seemed
unthinkable only a few years ago has by now become almost standard procedure
and has gained such a dazzling pace that it has become difficult for us in the
West to keep up with. Soviet literary journals now devote much of their space
to reprinting the work of émigré authors and publications in book form—with
work of, among others, Remizov, Chodasevič, Georgi Ivanov, Aldanov, and
Nabokov, —have also seen the light. But in spite of all this, the work of many
émigré writers is still not available to the public, neither in Soviet nor in
Western editions. A n d among this group are truly important authors.
In 1987 Petra
Couvée, the editor of the present book, wrote her Master’s thesis on the poet
Anna Prismanova (1892-1960), wife of the poet Aleksandr Ginger (1897-1965). Her
research work brought her into contact with Anna Prismanova's son, Basile
Ginger, who still lives in Paris. Thanks also to
information provided by Mr Ginger during conversations and in letters, she was
able to reconstruct for the first time a reliable biographical picture of Anna
Prismanova. Apart from being an attempt at reconstructing the life of Anna
Prismanova, Petra Couvée’s thesis also tried to get to the heart of
Prismanova's hermetic poetry.
The present text
edition of Prismanova’s work has grown out of this thesis. It brings together
all of Prismanova’s known work: the poems from the four collections published
during Prismanova’s lifetime as well as uncollected poems from a number of
periodicals and a short story. Also included are two short stories which
were published in French under the name Anne Ginger. The text is preceded by an
introduction, in which practically all secondary literature on Prismanova has
been incorporated.
To date no substantial
publication of Prismanova’s work, or about Prismanova, has come my way, neither
from the Soviet Union nor from the West. Hence the necessity of this edition,
which for the first time makes available the complete oeuvre of a little known
but very original poet. The need is even more evident when one realizes that
the four collections of poetry, published over the years 1937-1960, have for a
long time been out of print and in second-hand shops too they are almost
impossible to find. That Anna Prismanova is not well-known as a
poet has its cause not only in the poor availability of her work—only few
libraries have all four Prismanova’s collections of verse—but is also due to
the fact that during her life she occupied an isolated position in the Russian
literary monde of Paris, which caused very few people to refer to her. This is
true both for works of literary criticism and for memoirs. Prismanova
completely missed the spectacular life of a Marina Cvetaeva, which certainly
contributed to her enormous posthumous fame, while in a sense Cvetaeva stood
just as isolated in the Parisian literary world.
Prismanova’s
poetry, with its strong voice and sometimes grotesque imagery which is not
always easily grasped, is far removed from the simple, subdued and pessimistic
tone of the poets belonging to the “Parisian Note”, such as G. Adamovič,
A. Štejger, and L. Červinskaja. Prismanova also worked independently from
great Parisian poets such as V. Chodasevič, and G. Ivanov. She was virtually
immune to outside influences. Rejecting compromise, either with herself or her
readers, she opened up her own poetic universe, which makes her one of the most
interesting poets in the emigration.
Jurij Ivask has
given a striking account of the position of Anna Prismanova and her husband Aleksandr
Ginger:
Русский Монпарнас в
Париже относился к
Александру Гингеру и
Анне Присмановой благодушно, но все
же их не
принимал всерьез.
Но в их
па тетике, смешанной с комизмом, во всех их нелепицах куда больше поэзии, чем
во многих очень „средних”, дюжинных стихах поэтов, писавших не плохо, но
очень уж аккуратно-меланхолично,
как того требовала Парижская нота.
“Pochvala
Rossijskoj Poezii”, Novyj Žurnal
162 (1986), 116.
When Prismanova died in 1960 literary émigré life,
even in Paris, had virtually bled to death. Western students of Slavic
literature showed little interest, while in the Soviet Union the emigrants were
simply ignored. In those days even the most brilliant poet wrote for a handful
of acquaintances only. With regard to this Basile Ginger wrote on December
1989, in a letter to the editor of the present collection: “Cependant, j’ai
entendu un jour ma mère dire, dans ses dernières années, que ça ne l’interessait
plus d’écrire en russe à Paris pour un petit cercle et qu’elle aimerait bien être
lue en Russie.”
Over the years
this atmosphere of emptiness and indifference has vanished to be replaced with
a more receptive climate which permits a serious reception of the work of Anna
Prismanova. I hope this edition will make its contribution, toward a better
availability and appreciation of Prismanova’s oeuvre, both in and outside the
Soviet Union.
Leiden, March 1990
Jan Paul Hinrichs
Jan Paul Hinrichs
| Eerder
gepubliceerd in Anna Prismanova, Собрание
сочинений, ed. Petra Couvée (The Hague: Leuxenhoff Publishing, 1990), pp. vii-ix
