Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky (; 27 May 1989) was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He was predeceased by his son, film director and screenwriter

Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...

Biography

Family

Tarkovsky was born on 25 June N.S. 1907 in Yelisavetgrad, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire. His father was Aleksander Tarkovsky. and his mother was Maria Danilovna Rachkovskaya. Aleksander Tarkovsky was arrested in connection with an assassination attempt on the Governor-General of Kharkov; he was taken into custody while still a student.

Youth

Arseny attended the Elisavetgrad gymnasium and studied at the music school of Gustav Neuhaus, the father of the famous musician Heinrich Neuhaus. Even as a child, together with his father and brother, he attended poetry evenings of visiting celebrities: Igor Severyanin, Konstantin Balmont, Fedor Sologub In 1921, Tarkovsky and his friends published a poem which contained an

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

about

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

. They were arrested, and sent to Nikolayev for execution. Tarkovsky was the only one that managed to escape.

Career

By 1924 Tarkovsky moved to Moscow, and from 1924 to 1925 he worked for a newspaper for railroad workers called ''Gudok'', where he managed an editorial section written in verse. In 1925–1929 he studied literature at a

university college In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...

:ru:Высшие государственные литературные курсы in Moscow. At that time he translated poetry from Azerbaijanian, Georgian, Armenian and Arabic. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he volunteered as a war-correspondent at the army newspaper ''Boevaya Trevoga'' (War Alarm). He was wounded in action in 1943. The leg wound he received caused

gas gangrene Gas gangrene (also known as clostridial myonecrosis) is a bacterial infection that produces tissue gas in gangrene. This deadly form of gangrene usually is caused by '' Clostridium perfringens'' bacteria. About 1,000 cases of gas gangrene are r ...

, and Tarkovsky had to undergo six gradual amputations. Arseny Tarkovsky was mainly known as a translator of Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri, Nizami, Magtymguly, Kemine, Sayat-Nova, Vazha-Pshavela,

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukra ...

, Mollanepes, Grigol Orbeliani and many other poets. His first collection of poetry, ''Before snow'', was published in 1962.

Death

He lived mostly in Moscow and Peredelkino and died on 27 May 1989, in Moscow. In 1989 he was posthumously awarded the

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize () was one of the Soviet Union’s highest civilian honours, awarded from its establishment in September 1966 until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It recognised outstanding contributions in the fields of science, mathem ...

Books

* ''Перед снегом'' – ''Before snow'' (1962); * ''Земле земное'' – ''To Earth Its Own'' (1966); * ''Вестник'' – ''Messenger'' (1969); * ''Стихотворения'' – ''Poems'' (1974); * ''Зимний день'' – ''Winter Day'' (1980); * ''Избранное'' – ''Selected works'' (1982); * ''Стихи разных лет'' – ''Poems of different years'' (1983)compilation of early verse; * ''От юности до старости'' – ''From Youth to Old Age'' (1987); * ''Благословенный свет'' – ''The Blessed Light'' (1993).