Vera Nikolaevna Markova (1907–1995) is primarily known as a philologist and Japanologist, a researcher of Japanese literature, and an outstanding translator from Japanese (Sei Shonagon, Matsuo Basho, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, and others) and English (Emily Dickinson). However, throughout her life, Vera Markova wrote poetry, which she never published. Her first publications appeared in "Novy Mir" at the twilight of the Soviet era, in 1989, when she was eighty-two years old. Her first and only lifetime collection, "The Moon Rises Twice," was published in 1992, when she was eighty-five.

Markova's poems were written apart from contemporary Soviet poetry. They speak a different language, belonging to a parallel, hidden, and profound stratum of 20th-century Russian literary history, which continues to be uncovered today. The influence of her translation work on her own poetry can be described as liberating: translations expanded both the range of intonations and the horizons of her vision.

Introduction by Olga Sedakova. Afterword by Olga Ball-Gertman.

The book includes selected translations of Emily Dickinson and Basho, the author's autobiography, and memories about her.

"Vera Markova (by her own admission) wrote without thinking about publication. She did not want it. Probably, she did not share her poems with many: even in samizdat lists, these poems were unknown. Now, this vast secluded world can be revealed to the reader. (...) It is a completely different world, a completely different verse, a different concentration, a different experience." — Olga Sedakova