Marina Tsvetaeva

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (8 October 1892, Moscow – 31 August 1941, Yelabuga, Tatarstan) was a Russian poet and writer.

Quotes

• What is the main thing in love? To know and to hide. To know about the one you love and to hide that you love. At times the hiding (shame) overpowers the knowing (passion). The passion for the hidden — the passion for the revealed.
  • The House at Old Pimen, ch. 2 (1934).
• Freedom! A wanton slut on a profligate's breast!
  • You came out of a severe, well-proportioned church (1917).
• Есть книги настолько живые, но все боишься, что, пока не читал, она уже изменилась, как река — сменилась, пока жил — тоже жила, как река — шла и ушла. Никто дважды не вступал в ту же реку. А вступал ли кто дважды в ту же книгу?
  • There are books so alive that you're always afraid that while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away. No one has stepped twice into the same river. But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?
  • Pushkin and Pugachev (1937)
• Тьмы низких истин нам дороже нас возвышающий обман.
  • A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths.
  • Pushkin and Pugachev (1937).

External links

• Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941) Extensive site with translations of both poetry and prose, photographs and links. Bilingual (Russian and English).
• The World of Marina Tsvetaeva (in Russian).