About

Marina Tsvetaeva (1892 [7], Moscow, Russian Empire -1941, Elabuga, USSR) – Russian poet, writer, and translator. She went into exile in 1922. In 1925 she moved with her family to Paris, where she suffered both from poverty and the oppressive atmosphere of accusations against her husband was accused for collaboration with the NKVD. She corresponded with Rainer Maria Rilke and Boris Pasternak and participated in the publication of the magazine Versty (1926 – 1928). Marina changed addresses many times. Life in the suburbs accentuated her isolation from the community of Russian emigrants. Tsvétaïéva was particularly fond of the house in Vanves, where she lived with her family from July 1934 to July 1938. She called it ‘her greatest joy’ and dedicated the first part of the poem The Singer (1935) to it:

This window – an icon
Every glance – a window,
The faces – ruins,
The arenas of history,
Chestnut trees of the past
I sing and live there.

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