BRODSKY, JOSEPH

BRODSKY, JOSEPH (Yosif Brodski; 1940–1996), Soviet Russian poet and translator. Although he was widely regarded as one of the most promising Soviet poets, none of Brodsky's original verse had been allowed to appear in the U.S.S.R. as late as 1970. He was known there only as a translator from several languages, including English, Spanish, and Polish, and as the author of poems printed in the illegal, mimeographed literary journal Sintaksis (1958–60). In February 1964, Brodsky was tried as a "social parasite" (tuneyadets) who changed jobs too frequently, and was sentenced to forced labor in the far north. His trial had pronounced antisemitic overtones. Jewish witnesses for the defense, such as the scholars Y.G. Etkind and V.G. Admoni , were ridiculed for their "strange-sounding" names; and the intercession of such distinguished older writers as Kornei Chukovksi, samuel marshak , and Anna Akhmatova also failed to help Brodsky. He was later arrested and released several times. Brodsky's verse is traditional, though with occasional traces of symbolist and surrealist influence. Isaak i Avraam, one of his long narrative poems, is based on biblical motifs, while Yevreyskoye kladbishche okolo Leningrada ("The Jewish Cemetery near Leningrad") is one of the most remarkable poems on a Jewish theme ever written by a Soviet author. (Maurice Friedberg) A new collection of Brodsky's poetry, Ostanovka v pustyne ("Halt in the Wilderness"), which appeared in Russian in New York (1970), confirmed his reputation as the most talented Russian poet of the 1960s and a daring innovator in Russian syntax. In 1972, Brodsky was forced to leave Russia and immigrated to the United States, where he became the University of Michigan's poet-in-residence. Brodsky received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1987, and in May 1991 was named the fifth U.S. poet laureate. His collected poems appeared in English in 2000. His essays were collected in Less than One (1986) and On Grief and Reason (1995). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Stukov, in: Y. Brodski, Stikhotvoreniya i poemy (1965), 5–15; J. Brodski, Elegy to John Donne and Other Poems (tr. by N. Bethell, 1967), contains in the introduction part of the transcript of Brodsky's trial; the entire transcript appeared in The New Leader, Aug. 31, 1964; S. Volkov, Conversations with Joseph Brodsky (1997).