This includes famous Russian poet Elena Taneva, born in 1946 before leaving us in 2011.
Arriving in Kuala Lumpur in 2002 for the World Poetry Readings, she fell in love with Malaysia and its kind and sympathetic people.
Her artistic and emotional manner of performance captivated the hearts of many poetry lovers here. She called her trip "a gift of fate".
Elena Kirillovna Sevryukova-Taneva, better known by the stage name Elena Taneva, was born in the small town of Bolgrad, in the Odessa region, to a large Bulgarian family.
A medical school graduate, she travelled all over the Soviet Union with her husband, who was a military officer, before settling in Moscow in 1980.
Her poems can be called songs, for she sang many of them, quite in the performing traditions of Russian and Malay folklore.
The public highly appreciated her work, the main theme of which is love for people.
She was a prize-winner of the Moskovsky Komsomolets poetry competition (1998, 1999) and the Russian Cultural Foundation (2001).
She represented Russia at the International Poetry Festival in Kuala Lumpur in 2002.
In total, representatives of 18 countries took part in the festival, but Elena enjoyed the greatest success.
She was shown on television, the press wrote a lot about her, and the audience literally carried her in their arms.
She read poetry wherever there were those who wanted to listen.
When we visited Templer Park, a group of local guys, who had never seen a Russian, asked her to recite her poems, and she agreed.
Then at Pasar Seni, I introduced her to artist Aris Aziz, who could not come to the opening of the festival.
Elena immediately decided to recite poetry to him with a big crowd looking on.
She was interested in everything in Kuala Lumpur.
Elena was also impressed when visiting Universiti Malaya, where she first saw the wayang kulit show performed by Emeritus Professor Dr Hashim Yaacob.
She made the trip to Kampung Kuantan in Kuala Selangor to see the famous fireflies.
"Night! The trees are strewn with fireflies — like a scattering of stars blinking at us. Clip, clip! Kunang Kunang!" she recalls.
"Complete silence. Only a light splash of water and a quiet whisper, not hiding delight. Here you have to catch and remember every moment."
This is how a book of poems called The Wind of Bunga Raya was born — a declaration of love for Malaysia, a kind of poetic diary about what she saw and after meetings with writers Kemala, Abdul Ghafar Ibrahim, Siti Zainon Ismail, Hamdan Yahya and others.
The poet was overwhelmed with joy, and a desire to tell her relatives and friends about Malaysia.
I am sure that through Elena's poems, many Russians got acquainted with the poetic image of Malaysia and wanted to see the country with their own eyes.
The poet's love for Malaysia was immense.
According to her son, Oleg, she often performed in Moscow in Malay dresses bought in Kuala Lumpur and was buried wearing one.
"Oh, Elena! How early she left us!" famous Malaysian poet Siti Zainon exclaimed, upon learning of her death.
"Her book, The Wind of Bunga Raya, conveyed everything surprisingly accurately.
"She is not with us anymore, but her poetry is eternal."
Poet Ghafar noted that "her poetry will always remind us of herself and Russia, serve as a bridge to our hearts and the hearts of all her fans in the world".
Kemala said: "We have lost in her face a real poet who won us over with her sincere and enthusiastic manner of performance."
She has gone, but she will always be alive through her poems, which have found a way to the hearts of her admirers in Russia and Malaysia.
The writer, writing from Russia, was a former lecturer of Universiti Malaya
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times