“I Looked into Other Ages...”: E.M. Shapiro — A Poet, Translator, Librarian

Abstract

The article reveals the main milestones of the life and work of Ella Moiseyevna Shapiro (1938—2017), a remarkable woman who had three main professional passions in her life — poetry, translation work, and library. Basing on generalization and systematization of E.M. Shapiro’s creative work, the authors of the article give the opportunity to acquaint with her brilliant translations into Russian of the works by H. Longfellow, L. Labe, M. Desbordes-Valmore, L. de Lisle, G. de Nerval and many other poets from different countries and eras. In addition, due to her extensive knowledge in the field of library science, bibliography and informatics, working in the Russian State Library, E.M. Shapiro wrote numerous reviews of foreign materials on the development of art and culture, which are now available to readers of the main library of the country. The depth of her creativity is revealed in her poetic opuses, which, after the first opportunity to see them, extend the poetic space of cultural life, contributing to inclusion of the works of the poetess in research practices. Among these works, there are poems, full of philosophical understanding of the world, high lyricism, sense of belonging to the world, a wonderful children’s series, and the main book is the poetry collection “Strange Roaming”. The poetic transcriptions of psalms, made equirhythmically (i.e. they can be set to music), are unique. Due to this study, the poetry of E.M. Shapiro, little known during her lifetime, becomes an important part of the Russian and world cultural heritage.