Ukraine garden

Russian poet and writer Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (Ива́н Алексе́евич Бу́нин) was inspired by gardens, travel and the Alupka palace (designed for Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov by one of the architect team for Walter Scott's Abbotsford Edward Blore).The first Russian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, he was born in 1870 and died France in 1953 (having emigrated there shortly after the Revolution).

His visit to Alupka in the Crimea and the Vorontsov Palace in 1900 resulted in the poem Long alley leading down to the shore. This is a poem of sensual intent reminiscent of Tennyson's conflation of gardens, paths and sexual availability. But with a bitter sweet edge and a big sky. Pushkin meets Russian Symbolism.

More information here http://worontsovpalace.com.ua/ and the poem in Russian can be found here http://bunin.niv.ru/bunin/stihi/231.htm.

Hard to find a book of his poetry translated...let us know if you find one...

Poetry Garden Market 15th September London, England

...What wond’rous life in this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Ensnar’d with flow’rs, I fall on grass...

lines from the Garden by Andrew Marvell

11am-9pm at Foyles at the sylvan Southbank Centre organised by Inpress Books to mark their 10th birthday.

More information available here http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/news/were-10-come-celebrate-at-our-poetry-garden-market