PERSE ST-JOHN (1887-1975) Anabasis; translated by Georgi Adamovich and Georgi Ivanov. Paris: Izd-vo J.E. Povolotsky, 1926.

64 p.; 23.5x18.5 cm. Edition - 1,000 numbered copies. This book is number 6. In the publisher’s ornamented cover by B. Grosser. In publisher’s ornamented cover by B. Grosser. Publisher’s dustjacket in protective tracing paper. Very good condition. Minor soiling and foxing, tears and loss of small fragments of tracing paper. The first Russian edition of the author’s poems. The only edition of this translation. Saint-John Perse (Alexis Léger, 1887-1975) was a French poet and diplomat, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1960). The epic poem Anabasis was written while the author was on a five-year diplomatic assignment in China. From the preface: «In translating ‘Anabasis’, we have above all endeavoured to transmit with literal accuracy of the French text. <...> In Anabasis, the prose lines and pages are interspersed with correct Alexandrian verse and lines where the rhythmic structure is clearly heard. We have tried to preserve this in the Russian translation.