Paths of the Beggar Woman
Belinda Cooke's collection of translations was published by Worple Press in 2008.
The poetry
The title of this book is an attempt to show Tsvetaeva as just one of Stalin's many victims, as well as a woman driven by a single-minded pursuit of her poetic muse. The 'Beggar woman' draws attention both to her desperate poverty and literal need to beg at times and to the various hyperbolic female selves seen in the poetry - one moment sovereign or godlike: 'What's it like living with another woman now that your queen has come down from her throne?' to one who idolises: (of Blok) 'in your sacred name / I shall kiss the evening snow' or (of Akhmatova) 'after giving you my all / I move away like a beggar woman'. The various 'paths' this 'beggar woman' was forced to pursue lends even greater weight to her poetry.