Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternakwas a Soviet and Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russian, Pasternak's first book of poems, My Sister, Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language. Pasternak's translations of stage plays by Goethe, Schiller, Calderon and Shakespeare remain very popular with Russian audiences...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 February 1890
CountryRussian Federation
death art creating-life
He realised, more vividly than ever before, that art had two constant, two unending preoccupations: it is always meditating upon death and it is always thereby creating life.
artist discovery overwhelmed
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
farewell party secret
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
anticipation security
We must discover security within ourselves.
war learning two
In this era of world wars, in this atomic age, values have changed. We have learned that we are guests of existence, travelers between two stations. We must discover security within ourselves.
loyalty thinking stronger
How many things in the world deserve our loyalty? Very few indeed. I think one should be loyal to immortality, which is another word for life, a stronger word for it.
enchantment earth make-sense
She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.
inspire painful electricity
If it's so painful to love and absorb electricity, how much more painful it is to be a woman, to be the electricity, to inspire love.
inspirational circles shining
Here they are, all in one place. Circle back to them when you need some poetic shine. It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear the road to better days, but revelations, and lavishness of someone's soul inspired, and ablaze.
remember-you remembers-you despair
And remember: you must never, under any circumstances, despair. To hope and to act, these are our duties in misfortune.
country borders departure
Departure beyond the borders of my country is for me equivalent to death.
doctors dear-god stomach
That's metaphysics, my dear fellow. It's forbidden me by my doctor, my stomach won't take it.
grateful proud touched
Immensely grateful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed.
art two revelations
Art has two constant, two unending concerns: It always meditates on death and thus always creates life. All great, genuine art resembles and continues the Revelation of St John.