{"product_id":"apollo-in-the-grass-book-aleksandr-kushner-9780374105730","title":"Apollo in the Grass","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe more softly the word is pronounced\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe more ardent, the more miraculous.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe less it dreams of becoming a song\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThat much nearer it draws to music.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e-from \"Apollo in the Grass\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For the Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, the poems of Aleksandr Kushner were essential: \"Kushner is one of the best Russian lyric poets of the twentieth century, and his name is destined to rank with those close to the heart of everyone whose mother tongue is Russian.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eApollo in the Grass\u003c\/i\u003e is the first collection in English translation of Kushner's post-Soviet poems, and also includes certain earlier ones that could not be published during the Soviet era.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Kushner speaks to us from a place where the mythic and the historic coexist with the everyday, where Odysseus is one of us, and the \"stern voice\" of history can transform any public square into a harrowing schoolroom. This layering of times and events is also embodied in Kushner's distinctive poetic voice. Echoes of earlier Russian poets and styles enrich and complicate an idiom that is utterly natural and contemporary.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Now, as in the Soviet era, Kushner's work is especially cherished for its exemplary stoic integrity. But these lyrical poems are also pieces of exquisite chamber music, songs where poetry dazzles but \"greatness is . . . sooner scaled to the heart \/ Than to anything very enormous.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49643954405649,"sku":"GOR013706475","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50349137920273,"sku":"CIN0374105731VG","price":5.07,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51274242228497,"sku":"CIN0374105731G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374105731.jpg?v=1751445590","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/apollo-in-the-grass-book-aleksandr-kushner-9780374105730","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}