SOURCE: A review of The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, in Slavic Review, Vol. 52, No. 3, Fall, 1993, pp. 642-43.

In the following review, Ketchian praises that The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova is an important resource for lovers of Russian poetry, but complains that further editions need better editing to correct mistakes in translation.

Judith Hemschemeyer's handsome two-volume verse translation of Anna Akhmatova's poetry with parallel Russian texts and a substantial biographical introduction, "Masks and Mirrors" by Roberta Reeder, was a milestone in 1990 for English-speaking enthusiasts of Russian literature and for admirers of Akhmatova in particular. It drew on the texts and notes of Anna Akhmatova, Stikhotvoreniia i poemy (1976) and also A. Akhmatova, Sochineniia (Vols. 1-2. 2nd ed., 1967–1968; vol. 3, 1983). Although the first edition was labeled as complete, it is only this new expanded edition that comes closer to being complete by adding some seventy new poems, mainly from the...