Philip McDonagh
Gondla, or The Salvation of the Wolves
ISBN:
9781851321261
9781851321469 limited edition
Gondla is rich in Irish themes. The play’s visionary poet-king is based on a legend re-told by Lady Gregory. The events of 1916 are in the background. The style of the play and its legendary setting are strongly influenced by W.B. Yeats.
Nikolay Gumilyov was executed by the Bolshevik regime in 1921, one year after the production of Gondla. Gondla can be read as the testament of an extraordinary group of writers: Gumilyov, his estranged wife Akhmatova, and their dear friend Osip Mandelstam. It is also an allegory of the state of Europe in the 20th century.
The present translation of Gumilyov’s play is by the poet Philip McDonagh, a former ambassador of Ireland to the Russian Federation.