Ilya Kaminsky combines the arts of translation and the craft of poetry. Along with Susan Harris, edited the Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, a magnificent feat making hundreds of poems from across the globe accessible in English. The translation of poetry, in particular, is difficult: the right shade, nuance, slant of meaning needs to be captured, and subtle word and sound play is often hard to convey in the same sense as it was intended in the original tongue. Still more delicate is cultural translation, to achieve the intended effect to the new language’s target audience.

In an interview with Adam Kirsch from Poetry Magazine, titled “Various Tongues: An Exchange”, the question is raised, “Is true translation impossible?” - or, as Kirsch phrases it, “Is there a risk, when you translate the “accidents of life” into the rather featureless dialect of international poetry, of losing the very truth the poem wants to tell us?” Kaminsky, though acknowledging the shortcomings, and even the impossibility of ever fully or perfectly translating any work of poetry, replies optimistically:

“What interests me is not only the genius of the poet translated but also the genius of what is possible in English as it bends to accommodate or digest various new forms. By translating, we learn how the limits of our minds can be stretched to absorb the foreign, and how thereby we are able to make our language beautiful in a new way.”

In his anthology and the work it does for literary accessibility, translation allows us to experience and to grapple with works otherwise barred from our understanding.

He says of his own experiences writing in English (as a native speaker of Russian), in an interview with the Adirondack Review, “I chose English because no one in my family or friends knew it—no one I spoke to could read what I wrote. I myself did not know the language. It was a parallel reality, an insanely beautiful freedom. It still is.”

This sense of “insanely beautiful freedom” comes through powerfully in his collections, Dancing in Odessa and The Deaf Republic. Though Dancing in Odessa came out in 2004 (The Deaf Republic is a manuscript still in progress), I believe it merits re-introduction. Its themes of war, suffering, and raw humanity call to mind current suffering in Syria. In fact, while fielding a question on whether his subject matter in his poetry came from his own experiences with war in the Ukraine, he responded essentially with “War is war is war”. His collections transcend a specific time and place, and instead examines the emotional landscape of war and trauma, while still richly depicting life, affection, passion, and humor.

He has an ecstatic reading presence, which I was privileged enough to witness at a Cornell English Department reading: he is almost singing, joyous and poignant. The Philadelphia Enquirer writes, aptly, that Kaminsky is “a terrifyingly good poet.” Though he takes little pauses himself, his lines are striking, and resonant, creating reverberations in listeners which create an entire atmospheric change, rather than stopping for the isolated resonances of a particular work.

The high volume of poetry read when I saw him left us constantly in the wake of each previous poem, when met with the jubilation or devastation of the next. After he finished, I felt like I had been underwater, and coming out of the auditorium was like surfacing, drenched, and changed. I still have a deeply creased (and perplexingly xerox-ed) copy of his poems in my possession, Kaminsky having given each audience member a copy so that we could understand his “thick Russian accent” and singing reading style. As a poor college student, but one who was deeply moved by the poetry he read, I am so thankful to have that copy now.

You can see the reading I attended in the Cornell English Department’s recording.

(Incidentally, they do these readings every alternate Thursday, and these recordings are available online. I highly recommend everyone take advantage of these if they have the inclination.) A shorter reading, of his poem, “Author’s Prayer” is available here. It can also be read via Poetry Foundation here.