Taking Pushkin across the Atlantic

Having once heard a Russian song in the middle of the Harvard Square, Julian Henry Lowenfeld – a poet and a New York lawyer – developed a love for Russian culture. This led him to mastering the language and translating Russian poetry – most notably Alexander Pushkin – into English. “My Talisman. The Life & Poetry of Alexander Pushkin” – a bilingual book containing Lowenfeld’s biography of Pushkin and musical and soulful translations of the Russian national poet – came out this year and saw Lowenfeld become the first foreigner to be awarded the prestigious Petropol literary prize. Andrei Zolotov, Jr., chief editor of RussiaProfile.org speaks to Lowenfeld about the difficulties of rendering poetry in a foreign language, on what makes Pushkin so central to so many hearts in Russia and whether he is relevant to today’s Western audience - and also how one practices law and writes poetry at the same time.