Skip to content
Who's in the Video
Yuli Gugolev was born in 1964 in Moscow. He is a translator and the author of two books of poetry: Polnoe. Sobranie sochineniy [Complete Works] (Moscow: OGI, 2000) and Komandirovochnye[…]
Sign up for Smart Faster newsletter
The most counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

Love, death, hunger..are there any others?

Question: What themes do you explore in your poetry?

 

Yuli Gugolev: Just because it’s necessary to answer something, love, death, hunger. Do we have any other themes? No. In fact, for me, it’s absolutely impossible to make this self-analysis and to think, “Okay. Well, and what kind of themes we are working on? This is that one. This is that one.” No. Maybe, it is not my duty, at all. So if you ask someone who-- if you ask literary critics, maybe, he will analyze to take this poetry or someone else poetry brick by brick apart. And to think, “Here it is, theme of love. Here it is, theme of death.” For me, it’s impossible. Sorry.

 

Recorded on: March 4, 2008

 


Related