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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 49 - K.D. Balmont "Sonnets of Sun, Honey, & Moon"
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Here I “interview” a poet I’ve been reading and researching for decades. Poet K. D. Balmont, a guiding light and major force in the Russian Symbolist movement, offered an encyclopedic view of his intercultural, nature-mystical development in a climactic book of 255 lyrical treasures: Sonnets of Sun, Honey, and Moon: A Song of Worlds (1917). I’ve translated these into verbal artworks in English by keeping his intricate patterns of subtle, firm rhythm and elegant rhyme. But – what may surprise you – I also offer 255 “reply” poems of my own in Balmontian form. In the total book – 510 achievements of wordsong craft – you’ll hear my dialogue with a creator whose personality motivated endlessly new experiences of global travel and nature observations made with devoted precision, all embodied in lyrical beauty. It is the self-portrait of a spiritual master in dialogue with a younger poet who regards him as friend and mentor in thought and art.
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