ENNUI
I received a call from a literary friend
late some evening in the ‘70s –
I forget the year and the day – to tell me
Yevtushenko would be reading his poems,
the following evening, in Lecture Room 35
at Liverpool Polytechnic.
It was confidential. If they knew,
Zionists would protest
on behalf of the refuseniks.
I thought of his ‘Babi Yar’ –
‘I see myself an ancient Israelite…
And that is why I call myself a Russian!’
Either way, I took no action.
John Huddart
January 8, 2014I had forgotten Yevtushenko, who was the darling of Life International and the colour supplements. How you wanted to love his poems which some translator had hewn out of the Russian with the thoughtfulness of a cement mixer!
The ending with its confluence of cultures and its final decisive line is one of your finest!