Old Songs

Olga Sedakova is a writer of global significance. . .the publishing ofthis collection is a welcome stage in the reception of her exceptional geniusin the West. So writes Rowan Williams in his foreword to this translation of Old Songs.Born in Moscow in 1949, OlgaSedakova emerged as a leading writer of the late Soviet period. Since 2014, shehas been an outspoken critic of Russias war on Ukraine. Her writing bearswitness to the values of generosity, attention, and non-violence. The poems in OldSongs construct a world shaped by these values, forming a lyric sequenceinfused with folk wisdom and anchored in moral courage. It is a world broughtinto being by song, the kind passed down over cradles and on walks through thegarden. These poems find their way into your memory and accompany you on yourway.Sedakova is not only one ofRussias most revered contemporary poets but also a scholar and essayist. Oftencompared to figures such as Czesaw Miosz, she has,with this volume (according to Rowan Williams), succeeded in conveying thesense of a forgotten directness of perception and relationnot a lostsimplicity, exactly, but a larger and more human world. . . .