Author(s): Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Poetry

This volume contains a selection of early works by Yevgeny Alexandrovich Yevtushenko who blazed a trail for a generation of Soviet poets with a confident poetic voice that moves effortlessly between social and personal themes. "Zima Junction" vividly describes his idyllic childhood in Siberia and his impressions of home after a long absence in Moscow. Private moments are captured in "Waking", on the joys of discovering the unexpected in a lover, and "Birthday", on a mother's concern for her son, while "Encounter" depicts an unexpected meeting with Hemingway in Copenhagen. "The Companion" and "Party Card" show war from a child's eye, whether playing while oblivious to German bombs falling nearby or discovering a fatally wounded soldier in the forest, while Yevtushenko's famous poem, "Babiy Yar", is an angry expose of the Nazi massacre of the Jews of Kiev.