Arseny Tarkovsky

Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky (Арсений Александрович Тарковский; 25 June 1907 – 27 May 1989) was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator.

He was predeceased by his son, film director Andrei Tarkovsky.

Tarkovsky was born on 25 June N.S. 1907 in Yelisavetgrad, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine).

His father, Aleksandr Tarkovsky (in Aleksander Tarkowski), was a bank clerk, Russian revolutionary (Narodnik), and amateur actor of Polish origin and his mother was Maria Danilovna Rachkovskaya.

In 1921, Tarkovsky and his friends published a poem which contained an acrostic about Lenin.

They were arrested, and sent to Nikolayev for execution.

Tarkovsky was the only one that managed to escape.

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 Moscow.

At that time he translated poetry from Azerbaijanian, Georgian, Armenian and Arabic.

During World War II 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, 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, Mollanepes, Grigol Orbeliani and many other poets.

His first collection of poetry, Before snow, was published in 1962.

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.