Above the Barriers (Russian: Poverkh baryerov) was published in late 1916 or early 1917 by the Centrifuge publishing house in Moscow. It was Pasternak’s second collection, following the largely ignored A Twin in the Clouds (1914), and it shows a poet in rapid development — moving away from the Futurist group aesthetic toward a personal voice that is recognizably Pasternak’s, though not yet the fully achieved Pasternak of My Sister, Life.
The collection’s title suggests its ambition: Pasternak wants to write poetry that transcends categories, that rises above the “barriers” of literary schools, political allegiances, and conventional form. The poems are technically accomplished but sometimes overwrought — the young Pasternak had not yet learned the art of restraint that would distinguish his mature work. The imagery is dense, the syntax complex, the associations rapid and sometimes opaque.
Pasternak later disowned much of the collection, revising many of the poems substantially for later printings and dropping others entirely. His dissatisfaction was characteristically severe — the poems are better than he allowed — but his self-criticism drove the development that produced My Sister, Life just months later.
Collecting Above the Barriers
First edition (Tsentrifuga, Moscow, 1917): Softcover, small print run.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $3,000–$8,000
- Very good: $1,000–$3,000
- Revised editions (1929, 1930s): $200–$600