Russian Poetry [View all]

I have struggled with understanding Russian film and the Russian mindset for years. Nothing helped. Every time I saw a film by Tarkovsky, I ended up saying, "Wow, that was.... what was it?"

Then I came upon this advice: you can never understand Russians if you don't read Russian poetry. Russians are a very literary people, addicted to poetry, and most Russians can recite long pieces of poetry by heart.

So I started with Anny Akhmatova -- WHOA!! Suddenly it felt like I'd been lifted from my comfy chair and hurled, in the middle of a cold, dark night, into the middle of some wild freezing ocean, no land in sight, no idea where I was -- confused and cold and terrified, with nothing to do except start swimming, struggling against the waves and the cold, in any direction -- yet as I was swimming, I looked up and, for the first time, truly beheld the beauty of the stars. And I was weeping.

Heck, I even wept when I read her biography.

Does anyone else read Russian poetry, or understand Russian art or literature?