Про это = Pro Eto - That’s What

Vladimir Mayakovsky was one of the towering literary figures of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia, speaking as much to the working man (he often employed the rough talk of the streets and revolutionary rhetoric in his poetry) as to other poets (his creative fascination with sound and form, linguistic metamorphosis and variation made him a sort of 'poet's poet', the doyen, if not the envy, of his contemporaries, Pasternak among them). His poetry, influenced by Whitman and Verhaeren and strangely akin to modern rock poetry in its erotic thrust, bluesy complaints and cries of pain, not to mention its sardonic humour, is at once aggressive, mocking and tender, and often fantastic or grotesque. Pro Eto - That's What is a long love poem detailing the pain and suffering inflicted on the poet by his lover and her final rejection of him. But as well as being an agonising parable of separation and betrayal, it is also a political work, highly critical of Lenin's reforms of Soviet Socialism. The publication of That's What is something of a landmark for not only is this the first time that this seminal work has appeared in its entirety in translation, but it is illustrated with the 11 inspired photomontages that Alexander Rodchenko designed to interleave and illuminate the text, illustrations which inaugurate a world of new possibilities in combining verbal and visual forms of expression and which are reproduced in colour (as originally conceived) for the first time. Vladimir Mayakovsky was one of the towering literary figures of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia, speaking as much to the working man as to other poets. His fascination with sound and form, linguistic metamorphosis and variation made him a sort of'poet's poet', the doyen, if not the envy, of his contemporaries, (Pasternak among them). His poetry is strangely akin to modern rock poetry in its erotic thrust, bluesy complaints and cries of pain, not to mention its sardonic humour. It is often aggressive, mocking and yet tender, and can be fantastic or grotesque.That's What is a long love poem detailing the pain and suffering inflicted on the poet by his lover Maria and her final rejection of him. But as well as being an agonising parable of separation and betrayal, it is also a political work, highly critical of Lenin's reforms of Soviet Socialism. The publication of That's What is something of a landmark as this the first time that this seminal work has appeared in its entirety in translation. Included also are the 12 inspired photomontages that Rodchenko designed to interleave and illuminate the text, illustrations which inaugurate a world of new possibilities in combining verbal and visual forms of expression and which are reproduced in colour for the first time.'Arc have produced a handsome Russian-English edition of this personal epic of the early years of the Revolution, first published in the LEF journal (Left Front of the Arts) in 1923. George Hyde adds a lively note on'Translating Mayakovsky's That's What'. His co-translator, Larisa Gureyeva, is the granddaughter of V.M. Molotov-Skryabin, co-signatory of the notorious pact with Germany of 1939. Hyde writes of the'permissive'1920s in the early Soviet Union. Following the recent splendid exhibition of Rodchenko and Popova at the Tate Modern, there are increasing signs of a growing interest in the early, tumultuous years of the Russian Revolution.'The Spokesman Vladimir Mayakovsky was born in Georgia in 1893, but moved with his family to Moscow after his father's sudden death. By the time he was 20, he was a well-known literary figure, having toured Russia in the winter of 1913-14 with the Futurists (with whom he had identified). He made several trips abroad during the 1920s, including a long visit to America in 1925. A prolific writer, he still remains a popular poet among present-day Russian readers. He died in 1930 by his own hand, killing himself playing Russian roulette with a single bullet. Aleksander Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor and photographer and one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution.This book is also available as an ebook: buy it from Amazon here. "Nearly eight decades after his death, the poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky still remains one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His long poem, Pro Eto, written in 1923, is a largely autobiographical work in which love, passion and politics intertwine, presented here in a powerful new translation. This bilingual volume also contains Alexander Rodchenko's extraordinary photomontages, reproduced in colour for the first time in a British edition, which run throughout the text and illuminate Mayakovsky's narrative." --Book Jacket Aggressive, mocking, tender, full of anguish and anger yet also grimly humorous, 'Pro Eto That's What' is part love poem, part political diatribe and the most autobiographical of Mayakovsky's works. This new translation, complete with the extraordinary photomontages that Alexander Rodchenko created for this work, confirms Mayakovsky, 70 years after his death, as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. Vladimir Mayakovsky was one of the towering literary figures of pre- and post revolutionary Russia, speaking as much to the working man as to other poets. Part love poem, part political diatribe and the most autobiographical of Mayakovsky's works, this title confirms Mayakovsky as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. Vladimir Mayakovsky ; [photomontages By] Alexander Rodchenko ; Translated By Larisa Gureyeva & George Hyde ; Introduced By John Wakeman.