Lev Vladimirovich Ginzburg (1921–1980) — a classic of artistic translation, publicist; author of the books "Otherworldly Meetings", "Abyss".
In Ginzburg's translations, we know the folk German ballads, the poems "Reineke Fuchs" and "Parzifal", the works of wandering schoolboys — vagabonds (it was Ginzburg who authored the lines "In the French side / on a foreign planet / I am to learn / at the university"); he gifted us translations of Goethe, Schiller, Heine, the classics of the 20th century — Hans Enzensberger and Peter Weiss, whose play "Marat/Sade" was staged by Yuri Lyubimov at the Taganka Theatre.

"Only my heart was broken" — a line from a poem by Heine, which Lev Ginzburg took as the title of his memoirs. This novel-essay is full of complex echoes and sharp shifts in perspective.
Ginzburg transports us from the 13th century to the 20th century and back; he tells about the destinies of medieval poets, about a translation seminar in the 1970s, about his father – a Moscow lawyer who helped people in the 1930s; he recalls meetings with composer Carl Orff ("Carmina Burana"), about his wife Bube (Bibisa Dik-Kirkilo), reflects on the history of the 20th century. And of course — about the work of a translator.

"Speaking of myself, indulging in, at times heart-wrenching, personal memories, I sought to reveal the mysterious connection of times that frightened me, the similarity of many destinies, the unified dependence of people on circumstances and whims of Time…"