Reaching back as far as medieval Rus and as far forward as metrical and linguistic innovation permit, Sosnora has written with a voice unique and wideranging. Historical allusion, conscious anachronism, humor, and intensity of word play dominate by turns his range of verse.

Viktor Sosnora was born in 1936 in the Crimea. He is known as one of the most consistently experimental of Russian poets, and one of the foremost translators, into Russian, of Catullus, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, and Allen Ginsberg.

Mark Halperin teaches at Central Washington University. His latest book of poems, The Measure of Islands, was published by Wesleyan.

Dinara Georgeoliani is a linguist and Assistant Professor of Russian at Central Washington University.

Translated by: Dinara Georgeoliani, Mark Halperin