Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky[2] (/ˈbrɒdski/; Russian: 2 Career and family Ио́сиф Алекса́ндрович Бро́дский, IPA: [ɪˈosʲɪf ɐlʲɪˈk- sandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈbrotskʲɪj]; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. 2.1 Early career Born in Leningrad in 1940, Brodsky ran afoul of Soviet authorities and was expelled (“strongly advised” to emi- So long had life together been, that once grate) from the Soviet Union in 1972, settling in America the snow began to fall, it seemed unending; with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters. He that, lest the flakes should make her eyelids wince, taught thereafter at universities including those at Yale, I’d shield them with my hand, and they, pretending Cambridge and Michigan. not to believe that cherishing of eyes, would beat against my palm like butterflies. Brodsky was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature “for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity”.[3] He was appointed United “ States Poet Laureate in 1991.[4] ” from “Six Years Later”," Trans. Richard Wilbur In 1955, Brodsky began writing his own poetry and pro- 1 Early years ducing literary translations. He circulated them in se- cret, and some were published by the underground jour- Brodsky was born into a Jewish family in Leningrad. His nal Sintaksis (Syntaxis). His writings were apolitical.[7] father, Aleksandr Brodsky, was a professional photogra- By 1958 he was already well known in literary circles pher in the Soviet Navy and his mother, Maria Volpert for his poems “The Jewish cemetery near Leningrad” and Brodsky, was a professional interpreter whose work of- “Pilgrims”.[9] Asked when he first felt called to poetry, he ten helped to support the family. They lived in commu- recollected, “In 1959, in Yakutsk, when walking in that nal apartments, in poverty, marginalized by their Jewish terrible city, I went into a bookstore. I snagged a copy status.[5] In early childhood Brodsky survived the Siege of poems by Baratynsky. I had nothing to read. So I of Leningrad where he and his parents nearly died of read that book and finally understood what I had to do starvation; one aunt did die of hunger.[6] He later suf- in life. Or got very excited, at least. So in a way, Evgeny fered from various health problems caused by the siege. Abramovich Baratynsky is sort of responsible.” His friend Brodsky commented that many of his teachers were anti- Ludmila Shtern recalled working with Brodsky on an ir- Semitic and that he felt like a dissident from an early age. rigation project in his “Geological Period” (working as a He noted “I began to despise Lenin, even when I was geologist’s assistant): “We bounced around the Leningrad in the first grade, not so much because of his political Province examining kilometers of canals, checking their philosophy or practice...but because of his omnipresent embankments, which looked terrible. They were falling images.”[7] down, coming apart, had all sorts of strange things grow- As a young student Brodsky was “an unruly child” known ing in them...It was during these trips, however, that I for his misbehavior during classes.[8] At fifteen, Brodsky was privileged to hear the poems “The Hills” and “You left school and tried to enter the School of Submariners Will Gallop in the Dark”. Brodsky read them aloud to me between two train cars as we were going towards without success. He went on to work as a milling machine [9] operator.[5] Later, having decided to become a physician, Tikhvin.” he worked at the morgue at the Kresty Prison , cutting and In 1960, the young Brodsky met Anna Akhmatova, one sewing bodies.[5] He subsequently held a variety of jobs in of the leading poets of the silver age.[5] she encouraged hospitals, in a ship’s boiler room, and on geological expe- his work, and would go on to become his mentor.[10] In ditions. At the same time, Brodsky engaged in a program 1962, in Leningrad, Anna Akhmatova introduced him to of self-education. He learned Polish so he could translate the artist Marina Basmanova, a young painter from an es- the works of Polish poets such as Czesław Miłosz, and tablished artistic family who was drawing Akhmatova’s English so that he could translate John Donne. On the portrait. The two started a relationship; however, Brod- way, he acquired a deep interest in classical philosophy, sky’s then close friend and fellow poet Dmitri Bobyshev religion, mythology, and English and American poetry.[7] was in love with Basmanova. Bobyshev began to pursue 1 2 2 CAREER AND FAMILY the girl and immediately Brodsky began to be pursued by making him a symbol of artistic resistance in a totalitarian the authorities; Bobyshev was widely held responsible for society, much like his mentor Akhmatova. [6] denouncing him. Brodsky dedicated much love poetry Since the stern art of poetry calls for words, I, morose, to Marina Basmanova: deaf, and balding ambassador of a more or less I was only that which insignificant nation that’s stuck in this super you touched with your palm power, wishing to spare my old brain, over which, in the deaf, raven-black put on clothes – all by myself – and head for the main night, you bent your head... street: for the evening paper. I was practically blind. “ You, appearing, then hiding, [1] ” taught me to see. from “The End of a Beautiful Era” (Leningrad 1969) 1. ^ Cite error: The named reference New was invoked His son Andrei was born on the 8 October 1967, and but never defined (see the help page). Basmanova broke off the relationship. Andrei was reg- istered under Basmanova’s surname because Brodsky did 2.2 Denunciation not want his son to suffer from political attacks that he endured.[16] Marina Basmanova was threatened by the Soviet authorities which prevented her from marrying In 1963, Brodsky’s poetry was denounced by a Leningrad Brodsky or joining him when he was exiled from the newspaper as “pornographic and anti-Soviet". His papers country.[6][17] After the birth of their son, Brodsky con- were confiscated, he was interrogated, twice put in a men- tinued to dedicate love poetry to Basmanova.[6] In 1989, tal institution[11] and then arrested. He was charged with Brodsky wrote his last poem to “M.B.,” describing him- social parasitism[12] by the Soviet authorities in a trial in self remembering their life in Leningrad: 1964, finding that his series of odd jobs and role as a poet were not a sufficient contribution to society.[5] [13] Your voice, your body, your name They called him “a pseudo-poet in velveteen trousers” mean nothing to me now. No one destroyed them. who failed to fulfill his “constitutional duty to work hon- It’s just that, in order to forget one life, a person needs to estly for the good of the motherland”.[11] The trial judge live asked “Who has recognized you as a poet? Who has en- at least one other life. And I have served that portion.[1] rolled you in the ranks of poets?" — “No one,” Brod- sky replied, “Who enrolled me in the ranks of the human 1. ^ Keith Gessen, “Joseph Brodsky and the fortunes race?"[7][14] Brodsky was not yet 24. of misfortune”, The New Yorker, May 23, 2011. For his “parasitism” Brodsky was sentenced to five years Brodsky returned to Leningrad in December 1965 and hard labor and served 18 months on a farm in the vil- continued to write over the next seven years, many of lage of Norenskaya, in the Archangelsk region, 350 miles his works being translated into German, French and En- from Leningrad. He rented his own small cottage, and glish and published abroad. Verses and Poems was pub- though it was without plumbing or central heating, hav- lished by Inter-Language Literary Associates in Wash- ing one’s own, private space was taken to be a great lux- Elegy to John Donne and Other Poems [6] ington in 1965, ury at the time. Basmanova, Bobyshev and Brodsky’s was published in London in 1967 by Longmans Green, mother, among others, visited. He wrote on his type- and A Stop in the Desert was issued in 1970 by Chekhov writer, chopped wood, hauled manure and at night read Publishing in New York. Only four of his poems were his anthologies of English and American poetry, includ- published in Leningrad anthologies in 1966 and 1967, ing a lot of W. H. Auden and Robert Frost. Brodsky’s most of his work appearing outside the Soviet Union or close friend and biographer Lev Loseff writes that while circulated in secret (samizdat) until 1987. Persecuted confinement in the mental hospital and the trial were mis- for his poetry and his Jewish heritage, he was denied erable experiences, the 18 months in the Arctic were permission to travel. In 1972, while Brodsky was be- among the best times of Brodsky’s life. Brodsky’s men- ing considered for exile, the authorities consulted men- tor, Anna Akhmatova, laughed at the KGB’s shortsight- tal health expert Andrei Snezhnevsky, a key proponent edness. “What a biography they’re fashioning for our red- of the notorious pseudo-medical diagnosis of “paranoid haired friend!” she said. “It’s as if he’d hired them to do [18] [15] reformist delusion”. This political tool allowed the it on purpose.” state to lock up dissenters in psychiatric institutions in- Brodsky’s sentence was commuted in 1965 after protests definitely. Without examining him personally, Snezh- by prominent Soviet and foreign cultural figures, includ- nevsky diagnosed Brodsky as having "sluggishly pro- ing Evgeny Evtushenko, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Jean- gressing schizophrenia", concluding that he was “not a Paul Sartre as well as Akhmatova [5] [10] Brodsky became valuable person at all and may be let go”.[18] In 1971, a cause célèbre in the West also when a secret transcrip- Brodsky was twice invited to emigrate to Israel.