Journey to Armenia

‘At once a travel narrative, an allegorical journey, a withering comment on State-Building, a humanist philosophy of life, a preparation for death and a prophecy of resurrection (both for Armenia and for himself), this breathtaking, elliptical prose first appeared in the Soviet magazine Zvezda in 1933. Journey was the last piece Mandelstam saw published, and it takes its place among the outstanding masterpieces of twentieth century literature’ — Bruce Chatwin This edition also includes the companion-piece, ‘Conversation about Dante’, ‘Osip Mandelstam’s astonishing fantasia on poetic creation’ (Seamus Heaney).