a father who was a professor of art history at
Moscow University. Though well off as a child
and adolescent, Tsvetaeva felt alienated and
lonely. She had an especially difficult relation-
ship with her mother, who wanted her to pursue
a musical career when she much preferred
literature.
After her mother died of tuberculosis in 1906,
Tsvetaeva was able to concentrate on writing
poetry, and she published her first collection of
poems,Vechernii al’bom (Evening Album) in
1910 to much acclaim. She was beginning to
develop a reputation as an important poet when
the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917. Feel-
ing herself part of the cultural elite threatened by
the revolution, Tsvetaeva left Russia in 1922,
joining many other Russian intellectuals in exile
first in Berlin, then in Prague and Paris.
Though she married another writer, Sergei
Efron, in 1912, Tsvetaeva pursued numerous
romances with other men and women through-
out her life. She did this when separated from her
husband during the civil war that followed the
revolution as well as when they were reunited in
exile. Her lovers and would-be lovers were gen-
erally writers, painters, or actors and included
the poet and novelist Boris Pasternak, although
the romantic connection with him consisted
almost entirely of letters.
While in Prague in 1923 Tsvetaeva began an
affair with another e ́migre ́, Konstantin Rodze-
vich. Like all her affairs, it ended badly, and she
felt devastated. Soon after she became infatu-
ated with the literary critic Mark Slonim, who,
however, did not return her interest. According
to some commentators, it was one or both of
these experiences that inspired ‘‘An Attempt at
Jealousy,’’ which she wrote in Russian in
November 1924 as ‘‘Popytka revnosti’’ and
later published in her collectionPosle Rossii
(1928). The collection was translated into Eng-
lish in a 1992 edition asAfter Russia.
Although he had fought in the White Army
against the Communists in the civil war, Tsve-
taeva’s husband came to sympathize with the
Soviet Union and eventually became a Soviet
agent. After his involvement in a political assas-
sination became known, he fled France for the
Soviet Union in 1937. Tsvetaeva followed him
reluctantly in 1939, knowing that the Soviet
Union would not be a congenial place for her.
However, she was finding herself increasingly
alienated in the emigre ́community in Paris and
also had remained close to her husband despite
their political differences and her many affairs.
In 1939, both Tsvetaeva’s husband and her
daughter were arrested by the Soviet authorities.
Her husband was later executed. Tsvetaeva
meanwhile could not publish her works in the
Soviet Union and was seen as a dangerous per-
son to associate with. In her last days she was
reduced to seeking work as a dishwasher to sup-
port herself and her son.
On August 31, 1941, she committed suicide by
hanging. She died in the town of Elabuga, Russia,
to which she had been evacuated after the German
invasion of the Soviet Union earlier that summer.Poem Text
How is your life with the other one,
simpler, isn’t it? One stroke of the oar
then a long coastline, and soon
even the memory of me
will be a floating island 5
(in the sky, not on the waters):
spirits, spirits, you will be
sisters, and never lovers.
How is your life with an ordinary
woman? without godhead? 10
Now that your sovereign has
been deposed (and you have stepped down).
How is your life? Are you fussing?
flinching? How do you get up?
The tax of deathless vulgarity 15
can you cope with it, poor man?
‘Scenes and hysterics I’ve had
enough! I’ll rent my own house.’
How is your life with the other one
now, you that I chose for my own? 20More to your taste, more delicious
is it, your food? Don’t moan if you sicken.
How is your life with animage
you, who walked on Sinai?
How is your life with a stranger 25
from this world? Can you (be frank)
love her? Or do you feel shame
like Zeus’ reins on your forehead?
How is your life? Are you
healthy? How do you sing? 30
How do you deal with the pain
of an undying conscience, poor man?
How is your life with a piece of market
stuff, at a steep price.
After Carrara marble; 35
how is your life with the dust ofAnAttemptatJealousy