Great Regulars: In [Boris] Pasternak's "eternal childhood",

[Anna] Akhmatova tells us, he observes with silence and care, "tiptoeing over pine needles,/So as not to startle the light sleep of space". Her final lines remind us just how many lives Pasternak touched: though only a small notice of his death appeared in the Literary Gazette in 1960, admirers posted handwritten notices with the date and time of his funeral throughout Moscow's subway system. As a result, thousands flocked to the small village of Peredelkino to attend the services, and to honour him "for filling the world"--as Anna Akhmatova did--"with a new sound".

[by Anna Akhmatova
translated by Stanley Kunitz]

Boris Pasternak

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: "Boris Pasternak"

~~~~~~~~~~~