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It is 1918 in Moscow. The communist revolution is in full swing. Food is scarce, living conditions harsh. Two women meet on the stage of an empty theater. One is the now famous twenty-six-year-old poet Maria Tsvetaeva, the other the twenty-four-year-old actress Sonia Holliday (Sonechka). The Story of Sonechka, written almost twenty years later, is a vivid account, at once comic and tragic, of their love for each other. A previously untranslated masterpiece (Dmitry Bikov calls it “one of the five best books in world literature”), it stands as a testament to the artistry with which Tsvetaeva wrote prose; the vicissitudes of her life, love, and work; and the intense dynamics of Moscow culture in the wake of the Revolution. It also constitutes an exceedingly rare and early example of queer prose literature originally written in Russian.
— Alexandra Smith, University of Edinburgh
“The Story of Sonechka is a rare, warming bonfire drawn from Marina’s Tsvetaeva’s carefully salvaged private reserve of contemporary notebooks, wonderfully rekindled by her hand in 1937--in the poverty of her French exile. Here we find the smoke and the sparkle of a few exceptional months in Revolutionary Moscow. Told with intimacy and searing tenderness, this is Tsvetaeva’s tribute to the life-changing power of youthful friendships. It is Tsvetaeva at her fiery, elegiac best—and, finally, in an admirable English translation that offers even the pleasure of reading it aloud--with all Tsvetaeva’s eccentric punctuation preserved. It has the power to direct your own reading voice to echo hers--in its emotional catches and firm assertions alike.”
— Mary Jane White, MFA Iowa, NEA Fellow in both poetry and translation.
“With The Story of Sonechka C.D.C. Reeve and I.B. Fishbeyn offer an unabridged translation into English of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva’s 1937 memoir about her brief relationship in 1918–1919 with actress Sofia Holliday. This volume includes Tsvetaeva’s 'story,' abundantly footnoted, Reeve’s introductory musings on Tsvetaeva’s writing as influenced by her love affairs, and a translation of the writer’s 1940 'Autobiography.' In their rendering of the 'story' itself, the translators valiantly took on Tsvetaeva’s highly nuanced, often idiosyncratic prose, selections of her enigmatic poetry, and multiple quotations from other writers’ works woven into the text. A labor of love, C.D.C. Reeve’s and I.B. Fishbeyn’s volume will serve specialists as well as readers new to the legacy of the renowned and tragic Russian poet.”
— Diane Nemec Ignashev, Carleton College
“The Story of Sonechka is fascinating in several different respects, not only for us “Lovers of Tsvetaeva” to whom the translation is dedicated. The translation is indeed a most welcome and wonderful event and testifies to impressive work on the part of the translators. It reads very well, even when translating how Tsvetaeva in the manner of her poetic writing explores word stems, connotations, and associations while hearing and bringing out unexpected meanings that sometimes are very hard to grasp.”
— The Russian Review, Tora Lane
Inessa Fishbeyn is an independent writer and translator of Russian literature, born and educated in Kazan, Russia.
David Reeve is DKE Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he specializes in ancient Greek philosophy and has translated many of the works of Plato and Aristotle and written books, commentaries, and essays on them.
Introduction
A Note on the Text
The Story of Sonechka
Autobiography
People and Significant Places in The Story of Sonechka