Richard Coombes has been a classicist, a musician, an international tax specialist, and now translates Russian literature (verse, prose, and song lyrics) into English.
Richard’s recently published translations include short stories by Elena Dolgopyat and poetry by Lyudmila Knyazeva, Dmitry Vodennikov and Tatiana Voltskaya in a variety of literary journals; poetry in the bilingual World War II poetry collection ‘Frontovaya Lira’ (‘Poems from the Front’), published in Russia in late 2021; and poetry in the bilingual anthology ‘Disbelief’, published in January 2023. Richard has three full-length prose translations scheduled for publication in 2023 and 2024: “Liza’s Waterfall”, (Pavel Basinsky’s documentary-thriller “Posmotrite Na Menya”), “Someone Else’s Life” (Elena Dolgopyat’s short story collection “Chuzhaya Zhizn”), and “The Food Block” (Alexey Ivanov’s novel “Pishcheblok”).
Publications:
Transitions №7
Gennady Kanevsky. [dulce et decorum], translated by Richard Coombes