![](https://tbilisilitfest.ge/images/VERA PAVLOVA.jpg)
Poet.
American poet of Russian origin. She first published her poems at the age of twenty-four, in the literary monthly “Yunost’” (“Youth”). Pavlova became a celebrity after no fewer than seventy-two poems of hers were published in a two-page centerfold of the “Segodnia” (“Today”) daily, a unique event in the annals of Russian literature, giving rise to the rumor that she was a literary hoax. Since then, her works have appeared in many newspapers and in most of the major magazines in Russia.
To date, Pavlova has published eighteen collections of poetry in Russian, of which “Vezdes’” (“Here and Everywhere”), 2003, “Ruchnaya Klad’” (“Hand-Carried Luggage”), 2006, and “Pis’ma v sosedneyu komnatu” (“Letters to the Room Next Door”), 2006, were voted The Best Book of the Year. The latter of these collections is a unique project in book printing: it consists of 1001 poems written out in Pavlova’s hand and illustrated with drawings done by her daughter when the girl was four years old. As of now, Pavlova’s poems have been translated into twenty-two languages. Vera Pavlova’s participation in Tbilisi International Literature Festival is supported by U.S. Embassy in Georgia.
* * *
Wrinkles around the mouth
put it in parenthesis.
Wrinkles in the corners of the eyes
put them in quotation marks.
Wrinkles across the forehead
cross[ed] out the writing on it.
Wrinkles across the neck...
and the bridal veil of gray hair.
* * *
Why is the word YES so brief?
It should be
the longest,
the hardest,
so that you could not decide in an instant to say it,
so that upon reflection you could stop
in the middle of saying it…
translated by Steven Seymour