PARTISAN REVIEW
463
of the poem can be described and analyzed by the perceptive critic; it is incon–
ceivable that it ca n ever be represented in an English translation.
Clarence Brown's
Mandelstam
and
Osip Mandelstam: Selected Poems
LTanslated by Brown and W. S. Merwin, though published separately, can
be
read most profitably as companion volumes.
Mandelstam
is a labor of love and
scholarship, the fruit of a lmost two decades' devotion
LO
the subjecl. IL is, ac–
cording
LO
Brown, "an introduClion to Mandelstam, and it is not for specialists
in Russian litera LUre." This is misleading modesty; although Brown, out of
deference
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his nonspecialist readers, provides translations as well as Cyrillic
texts of the poems he analyzes and avoids detailed discussion of the metrics and
sound tex ture of the poetry, there can be no doubt that this is a serious scholar–
ly study of value
LO
specialists and nonspecialists alike.
Adhering
LO
the traditional artificial distinction between life and works,
Brown divides his book into two sections. The division, however, is not rigidly
enforced . The biographica l section focuses on Mandelstam's early years.
Brown contradicts with th e passion of a crusader the false picture of Man–
delstam as an eccentric, birdlike crea ture which has become a fIxed element og
emigre rem in iscences of th e poet. Particularly effective is the evocation of the
atmosphere of literary ferment in Russ ia in the decade preceding the revolu–
tion. The biographical account ends in the year 1928 when the last collection
of poetry published under Mandelstam's supervision appeared. Major events
of the last decade of hi s life are merely outlined; the interes ted reader will seek
ou t
Hope Against Hop e,
which is clea rly what Brown desires.
The ana lytica l section of
Mandelstam
is limited
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the poetry published
before 1928-the only works for which relatively reliable versions ex isl. (The
fascinating description of the variant readings of "A wandering fire at a terri–
ble height" illustra tes the enormous obstacles
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establishing an authoritative
edi tion of the published works, let alone the handwrillen man uscripts of the
later poems which were preserved by Mandelstam's widow and a handful of
faithful fri ends.) This second section includes a cogent exposition of Man–
dclslam's relation
LO
Acmeism and illuminating discussion of the architecLUral
and classical motifs in hi s poetry. Brown is particularly adept at demonstrat–
ing interconneCl ion s among clusters of poems, the recurrence of images and
a llusions, the frequent necess ity o f reading certain poems in connection with
their nca r relatives. He in sists on the rea lity of what he rather clumsi ly labels
the "d rift" of a cycle of poems a nd is not afraid to lay himself open to charges
of subjeClivity and impressionism . His occasionally argumentative manner of
marshaling his proofs is an incitement to the reader to do ballie with him, and
thi s, of course, is all
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the good.
In contras t
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the biography ,
Selected Poems
is wisely weighted in favor of
