Of the distinctive features of Valerie’s poetry, it is enough to name four: a forged form (with extraordinary versification diversity), crystal transparency of meaning (with dizzying depth), a precise resurrection of archaic word usage (the study of etymological dictionaries is a necessary part of the poet’s work) and extraordinary musicality. In Russian There is no parallel to Valerie in 20th century poetry. Mallarmé (whose devoted student Valerie was) has a Russian colleague - this is Innokenty Annensky, the Russian Mallarmé. Russian Valerie is either buried in the Galician fields or shot by the Bolsheviks. Translation: Alexey Kokotov