Author's website Alexander Korotko

The manuscript of selected poems of the Jewish theme “The City of Red Brides” added to the list of poetry collections of Alexander Korotko translated into English. This book is special – there are concentrated the deepest and the most important for the author examples of poetry of different years, the run of time and the formation of the poet with a Jewish soul, faith and awareness of his place and mission in this world are visible.Voluntarily or involuntarily, the author mentally looks back into the past – his and his ancient people, and in these retrospective pictures draws poetic power, wisdom and the need to tell about the main thing. Returning to childhood, Alexander Korotko avoids specifics; these verses are not so much biographical as they are filled with memories at the level of sensations, with sketchy details, sincerity and immediacy of images-generalization.According to the author (already traditionally involved in editing translations), Michael Pursglove managed to convey the spirit of Jewish poetry. The translator, thanks to his professionalism and, of course, spirituality, was able to express his own respectful and good attitude to the Jewish faith and talent of the poet Korotko.In the collection “The City of Red Brides”, rhymed things are adjacent to the avant-garde short line, there is also genre diversity, and the manuscript is surprisingly complete in perception: early poetry smoothly flows into the lyrics, which is replaced by philosophical mature poetry, then the Holocaust cycle organically arises and the second half of the manuscript is occupied by selected chapters from the poems “Venice”, “Joseph and Jakob” and the full texts of the poems “Jerusalem”, “Abraham and Isaac”.Michael Pursglove, who translated poetry in Russian a lot, once again confirmed the idea that Alexander Korotko is his poet, they are close not only professionally, but also in their views on creativity and life’s vicissitudes.The main page illustrates the story of the translation of this manuscript by two poems, both in the original language and English.