Man Who Brought Brodsky into English : Conversations with George L. Kline

“A brilliant story of the three-decade-long collaboration of Joseph Brodsky and his loyal translator. Cynthia Haven draws a vivid portrait of George Kline—an intellectual, a friend, a war hero. These never-before-told stories, collected and painstakingly edited by Haven, fill in the glaring lacunae in Brodsky studies.” —Yuri Leving, author of Iosif Brodsky v Rime

Brodsky’s poetic career in the West was launched when Joseph Brodsky: Selected Poems was published in 1973. Its translator was a scholar and war hero, George L. Kline. This is the story of that friendship and collaboration, from its beginnings in 1960s Leningrad and concluding with the Nobel poet''s death in 1996.

Kline translated more of Brodsky’s poems than any other single person, with the exception of Brodsky himself. The Bryn Mawr philosophy professor and Slavic scholar was a modest and retiring man, but on occasion he could be as forthright and adamant as Brodsky himself. “Akhmatova discovered Brodsky for Russia, but I discovered him for the West,” he claimed.

Kline’s interviews with author Cynthia L. Haven before his death in 2014 include a description of his first encounter with Brodsky, the KGB interrogations triggered by their friendship, Brodsky''s emigration, and the camaraderie and conflict over translation. When Kline called Brodsky in London to congratulate him for the Nobel, the grateful poet responded, “And congratulations to you, too, George!”

“A treat for anyone who is a reader, a student, or a scholar of Joseph Brodsky’s poetry as well as Russian and American verse in general. The book makes an important contribution to the voluminous field of Brodsky studies, if for no other reason that it offers such a fitting tribute to George Kline, who played a pivotal role in establishing Brodsky as a prominent figure in the United States. … The conversations are rich in detail, from Kline’s recollections of visiting Brodsky in the Soviet Union to his work on translating his poetry to offering an insight into Brodsky’s oeuvre and worldview. … Overall the volume is a fascinating read. .... There’s no doubt that it could be used in courses on Russian poetry and translation, undergraduate and graduate alike, and will appeal to both a general and specialized readership.”

—Marat Grinberg, Associate Professor of Russian and Humanities, Reed College

“Cynthia Haven’s insightful conversations with George Kline, ‘the man who brought Brodsky into English’ with his fine translation of Brodsky’s Selected Poems in 1973, trace the remarkable friendship and collaboration of author and translator from their very first meetings in 1960s Leningrad, when Kline dared to visit the poet in his ‘room and a half’ and was shadowed and interrogated by the KGB. More important for Haven’s story, however, are the scenes of author and translator huddled over revisions for the Selected Poems in the bucolic Berkshires in the summer of 1972 as they worked out versions of ‘Elegy for John Donne’ and ‘Nunc Dimittis,’ and later their work together on such masterpieces as ‘The Butterfly.’ Cynthia Haven, the author of the marvelous Conversations with Joseph Brodsky, is the perfect interlocutor for Kline, who shares his reminiscences about how Brodsky’s poems made their clandestine way from Leningrad to the U.S.; traveling to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize ceremony; attending the poet’s final birthday party, and, most importantly, the joys and process of translating poetry.”

—Ronald Meyer, Harriman Institute, Columbia University