Such a beautiful post. This is a heart wrenching read but uplifting too. And your experience with AK is a bit like mine with opera. When I first discovered it (I didn't come from a musical family) I always knew it would be important to me, but sensed it couldn't happen while I was so young. That was true. But I wrongly thought that I needed to know more about music in order to "get" opera. In fact, and your essay helps me to see this, it was life that I needed to know more about in order to appreciate the true beauty of the form.
Such a beautiful post. This is a heart wrenching read but uplifting too. And your experience with AK is a bit like mine with opera. When I first discovered it (I didn't come from a musical family) I always knew it would be important to me, but sensed it couldn't happen while I was so young. That was true. But I wrongly thought that I needed to know more about music in order to "get" opera. In fact, and your essay helps me to see this, it was life that I needed to know more about in order to appreciate the true beauty of the form.
Zina, apologies for taking a few days to get to this after you referred me to it. So glad you did! So many things occurred to me to say about it as I read that for the sake of brevity, I need to reduce them to this: how fully human this essay is, vulnerable and sharing and wide in its references, infused with the love of books and reading and relationship, in such delicate, fluid writing, it was an easy and touching pleasure. I can't not read you now! (Aha, that was the plan. ;)
Zina, Would you be interested in coming on my podcast to talk about poetry, what you are learning, and a favorite poem off yours to illustrate? I will be posting my poems in a linked podcast.
Zina, the first set dates to 2014, 2023 and somewhere in between, respectively. They may have been too strong for you and your current situation. Whatever that is. I apologize. The first in a time of grieving, and I think I may have shared it already. The second was actually written for a competition to write a poem in honor of The poem's title is the same as one of his works.The last is a piece just done for fun to see how tightly I could express the meaning of the gifts and the fruits of the spirit. I have now read about the gifts in more detail, and I realize I didn't actually get them right, so I may need to revise.
These were gems to me because I remember the old versions and these have been substantially improved. I was deeply moved :-).
I first heard these versions yesterday. I came upon them by accident and don't even remember making the recordings. I apologize if they were too much for you, so I hope you went into the second set which is lovelier, certainly more serene.
The thing that struck me the most about the poems when read was the element of alliteration and internal rhyme that seems to me more sophisticated than I have usually achieved.
Zina, I found some gems I thought I’d share. For those who love poetry, and for people who struggle, grieve, or seek peace. I am typing this on my phone so I don't know how this will go.
I think I will have to copy and paste so I will put them in my podcasts also. Pardon me.
AK is my all-time favorite book. I’ve read it in both the original Russian and in two (or maybe three?) English translations (my favorite many times over), and every time I return to it, I find something new to delight me and make me fall in love with Tolstoy all over again. AK has become a touchstone for all the highs and lows in my life, and I return to it not only for that sense of wonder I discovered within its pages the first time I read it as a very young woman, early on in college, but also for the reminder of all I have enjoyed and endured thus far. It is a source of encouragement and gratitude I depend on when life knocks me around a bit--a gift from Leo Tolstoy I will never be able to thank him enough for, and the embodiment of all I cherish most about literature.
Zina, I was deeply moved by this essay, so calm, almost tranquil, while talking about deep pain. I can't read tragedies right now--I identify too strongly--just as I can't read horror stories. They take up residence in my skull and haunt me.
I am so sorry you have had such pain. But I am grateful your husband is there with you. Our hearts are fragile fluttering things, easily crushed but capable of great and generous love. I am with you in spirit-- I have not written that part of my life yet.
This is wonderful! I’d read your comment in The Books That Made Us about your threshold goal, and I loved the way you worded it. Because this year I am reading fewer books too. And I am very committed to not surpassing my goal!
I love this story about Anna Karenina too. It did not take me 30 years to read the book but it took what felt like an eternity.
And then after 30 years you can read a different translation:). I first read AK in my early twenties for pretty much the same reason and rereading now I’m struck by the exploration of marriage in the same way.
Beautiful Zina! What a testament to your marriage. Thank you for sharing such a deep layer of yourself that is helpful and inspiring to me at this point of my life.
Such a beautiful post. This is a heart wrenching read but uplifting too. And your experience with AK is a bit like mine with opera. When I first discovered it (I didn't come from a musical family) I always knew it would be important to me, but sensed it couldn't happen while I was so young. That was true. But I wrongly thought that I needed to know more about music in order to "get" opera. In fact, and your essay helps me to see this, it was life that I needed to know more about in order to appreciate the true beauty of the form.
Such a beautiful post. This is a heart wrenching read but uplifting too. And your experience with AK is a bit like mine with opera. When I first discovered it (I didn't come from a musical family) I always knew it would be important to me, but sensed it couldn't happen while I was so young. That was true. But I wrongly thought that I needed to know more about music in order to "get" opera. In fact, and your essay helps me to see this, it was life that I needed to know more about in order to appreciate the true beauty of the form.
Zina, apologies for taking a few days to get to this after you referred me to it. So glad you did! So many things occurred to me to say about it as I read that for the sake of brevity, I need to reduce them to this: how fully human this essay is, vulnerable and sharing and wide in its references, infused with the love of books and reading and relationship, in such delicate, fluid writing, it was an easy and touching pleasure. I can't not read you now! (Aha, that was the plan. ;)
Zina, Would you be interested in coming on my podcast to talk about poetry, what you are learning, and a favorite poem off yours to illustrate? I will be posting my poems in a linked podcast.
Can you guess the second poem's honoree
Zina, the first set dates to 2014, 2023 and somewhere in between, respectively. They may have been too strong for you and your current situation. Whatever that is. I apologize. The first in a time of grieving, and I think I may have shared it already. The second was actually written for a competition to write a poem in honor of The poem's title is the same as one of his works.The last is a piece just done for fun to see how tightly I could express the meaning of the gifts and the fruits of the spirit. I have now read about the gifts in more detail, and I realize I didn't actually get them right, so I may need to revise.
These were gems to me because I remember the old versions and these have been substantially improved. I was deeply moved :-).
I first heard these versions yesterday. I came upon them by accident and don't even remember making the recordings. I apologize if they were too much for you, so I hope you went into the second set which is lovelier, certainly more serene.
The thing that struck me the most about the poems when read was the element of alliteration and internal rhyme that seems to me more sophisticated than I have usually achieved.
Next one coming
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/htfm8dvraq9odwk7nhhx9/Poems-2.m4a?rlkey=78mtbgp42or63gavt8q64i345&dl=0
If that doesn't work try this:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fv0e6eu6daoxkgre51jia/Poems-1.m4a?rlkey=8brfy79bj9udmbl09i1q4q1sp&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fv0e6eu6daoxkgre51jia/Poems-1.m4a?rlkey=8brfy79bj9udmbl09i1q4q1sp&dl=0
Zina, I found some gems I thought I’d share. For those who love poetry, and for people who struggle, grieve, or seek peace. I am typing this on my phone so I don't know how this will go.
I think I will have to copy and paste so I will put them in my podcasts also. Pardon me.
AK is my all-time favorite book. I’ve read it in both the original Russian and in two (or maybe three?) English translations (my favorite many times over), and every time I return to it, I find something new to delight me and make me fall in love with Tolstoy all over again. AK has become a touchstone for all the highs and lows in my life, and I return to it not only for that sense of wonder I discovered within its pages the first time I read it as a very young woman, early on in college, but also for the reminder of all I have enjoyed and endured thus far. It is a source of encouragement and gratitude I depend on when life knocks me around a bit--a gift from Leo Tolstoy I will never be able to thank him enough for, and the embodiment of all I cherish most about literature.
Zina, I was deeply moved by this essay, so calm, almost tranquil, while talking about deep pain. I can't read tragedies right now--I identify too strongly--just as I can't read horror stories. They take up residence in my skull and haunt me.
I am so sorry you have had such pain. But I am grateful your husband is there with you. Our hearts are fragile fluttering things, easily crushed but capable of great and generous love. I am with you in spirit-- I have not written that part of my life yet.
This is wonderful! I’d read your comment in The Books That Made Us about your threshold goal, and I loved the way you worded it. Because this year I am reading fewer books too. And I am very committed to not surpassing my goal!
I love this story about Anna Karenina too. It did not take me 30 years to read the book but it took what felt like an eternity.
Lovely post, thank you! 🫶🏽🥰
And then after 30 years you can read a different translation:). I first read AK in my early twenties for pretty much the same reason and rereading now I’m struck by the exploration of marriage in the same way.
Beautiful Zina! What a testament to your marriage. Thank you for sharing such a deep layer of yourself that is helpful and inspiring to me at this point of my life.
This is beautiful, Zina. Thank you for sharing it.