Joseph Brodsky CD

1980. Bilingual. Translations read by Mark Strand.

The poems on this recording come largely from Brodsky's second major poetry collection, A Part of Speech, including Brodsky's own translation of the title poem from that volume.

Mark Strand, who remarks in his introduction that "the world seems... larger in Brodsky's poetry than in anyone else's now writing," offers a perceptive voice and pitch to his reading of the poems in English. Brodsky reads from the Russian in his mesmerizing dramatic style.

Length: 59 min.

Track List:

1. Introduction by Mark Strand
2. The Polar Explorer
3. A Season
4. Roman Elegies III

A Part of Speech
5. [I was born and grew up in the Baltic marshland]
6. [the North buckles metal, glass it won't harm]
7. [From nowhere with love the enth of Marchember sir]
8. [A list of some observations. In a corner it's warm]
9. [I recognize this wind battering the limp grass]
10. [A navy-blue dawn in a frosted pane]
11. [You've forgotten that village lost in the rows and rows]
12. [In the little town out of which death sprawled over the classroom]
13. [As for the stars, they are always on.]
14. [Near the ocean, by candlelight. Scattered farms,]
15. [The loacön of a tree, casting the mountain weight]
16. [If anything's to be praised, it's most likely how]
17. [There is always a possibility left—to let]
18. [...and when "the future" is uttered, swarms of mice]
19. [Not that I am losing my grip: I am just tired of summer]
20. Introduction to "Lullaby of Cape Cod"
21. Part 1 (English)
22. Part 2 (English)
23. Part 1 (Russian)
24. Part 2 (Russian)
25. Part 3 (English)
26. Part 4 (English)
27. Part 3 (Russian)
28. Part 4 (Russian)
29. Introduction to "Letters from the Ming Dynasty"
30. Letters from the Ming Dynasty (English)
31. Letters from the Ming Dynasty (Russian)