Mayakovsky's works occupy a prominent place in Russian literature. His prose and plays became a notable phenomenon in poetry and drama in the first decades of the 20th century. His specific style and unusual form of constructing his poems earned him popularity and fame. And today interest in his work continues unabated.
Characteristics of futurism
Mayakovsky, whose poems are the subject of this review, entered Russian literature as the brightest and most prominent representative of the direction of futurism. The peculiarity of this movement was a break with the traditions of the classics and, in general, all previous art. This approach determined the interest of its representatives in everything new. They were looking for new forms of expressing their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Fine art, or rather the creation of bright and eye-catching posters that were supposed to draw attention to their works, acquired a large role in creativity. The poet himself also became interested in new trends, which largely determined his style. However, the originality of his style allowed him to rise above the ordinary representatives of futurism and survive his time and era, joining the ranks of the classics of Soviet poetry.
Features of the poems
Mayakovsky's works are traditionally included in the school curriculum for Russian literature. This is explained by the fact that his works and compositions very clearly characterize the trends and ideas of his time. The heyday of the poet’s work occurred in a very difficult era, when in literature and art in general there was a struggle between the most different directions. While maintaining the position of the traditional classical school, young authors actively broke with past achievements and looked for new means and forms of expression. The poet also became a supporter of innovative ideas and therefore created a special poetic form that resembled staircase rhyme. In addition, he, having some experience in writing posters, used bright catchy phrases in his writings that resembled slogans.
Poems about creativity
Mayakovsky's works, as a rule, reflect the trends and ideas of an era full of serious struggle between various artistic movements and movements. Therefore, they can be conditionally called journalistic in their focus, but in terms of content they are a most valuable source for studying the views and thoughts of not only the author himself, but also those who also belonged to the futurist camp.
Easy poems by Mayakovsky are learned simply and quickly thanks to the simplicity of rhyme construction. For example, the piece “Could You?” It is distinguished by its small volume, it is concise, laconic and at the same time in a concentrated form conveys the poet’s thoughts about his complex work. His language is very simple, accessible, and therefore is always liked by schoolchildren and teenagers. Another poem about creativity is called “An Extraordinary Adventure.” It has an unusual storyline, very good humor and is therefore very easy to remember.
Poet about contemporaries
Mayakovsky's works are devoted to a variety of topics, and one of them is an assessment of the activities of contemporary authors. In this series of works, a special place is occupied by the poem “To Sergei Yesenin,” in which the poet, in his characteristic ironic manner, outlined his attitude to his work and tragic death. This work is interesting in that it is distinguished by greater softness and some lyricism, despite the rough manner of expressing one’s feelings. It is also significant in the sense that Yesenin was the poet’s unspoken rival: both, one might say, opposed each other, but Mayakovsky appreciated the latter’s talent, and therefore it would be appropriate to offer it to schoolchildren in class.
Works as a reflection of the era
Mayakovsky, whose poems are the subject of this review, was interested in him and reacted vividly to the events taking place around him. The first decades of the 20th century were marked by a complex search for new poetic forms and subjects. The poet actively experimented with rhyme and various linguistic means. In this way, he paid tribute to an era that was characterized by very turbulent events not only in the political, but also in the cultural fields. Mayakovsky's light poems become clearer and more accessible if they are considered as a reflection of the active search for new visual means in the first half of the century.
Most famous poem
“I take it out of my wide trousers” is perhaps the poet’s most famous work. Probably every schoolchild knows his lines. The secret of the popularity of this poem is that it expresses in concentrated form the Soviet ideology of the first years of Bolshevik power. It is in this context that this essay should be understood. It is very easy and quick to remember and is still actively quoted by artists at various performances.
Plays
Mayakovsky's satirical works, along with his poetry, occupy a prominent place in Russian literature. First of all, we are talking about his works “The Bedbug” and “Bathhouse”. In these works, the poet, in his characteristic unusual form, showed the phenomena of his time. An extravagant and original plot, pretentious vocabulary, and unusual images of the main characters ensured these plays had a fairly long life. In Soviet times, for example, it was very often possible to see productions of these works with the famous artist Andrei Mironov in the title role.
The place of the poet in Russian literature
Mayakovsky's famous works ensured his popularity during his lifetime. The lightness and unusualness of the poetic forms, as well as the original way of expressing thoughts and the pretentiousness of the linguistic means immediately attracted attention to him. Currently, his works are very interesting for understanding the era of Soviet power. A striking example of this is the poem “I take it out of my wide trousers.” This essay on the Soviet passport clearly demonstrates the attitude of the new intelligentsia to the order that was established in our country after 1917. However, this does not exhaust the author’s importance for Russian literature. The fact is that he was a very multifaceted person and tried himself in a variety of genres.
An example of this is the fact that he wrote not only plays, but also poems. The most famous of them, which are still studied in school, are “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” and “Good”. In them, the author expressed his attitude to the most important events of his time in a very succinct and concise form. This is precisely what explains the interest in his work, which continues unabated to this day. His works clearly characterize the cultural life of a significant part of the intelligentsia under Soviet rule.
It is impossible to imagine the twentieth century without V. Mayakovsky. Mayakovsky was the most famous and talented futurist poet.
Addressed the genre of poems: “Cloud in Pants”, “About This”, “Okay!”, “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”, Spine Flute”, Man”, dramas: Plays "Bedbug" and "Bath".
His poems are thoroughly lyrical; in essence, they are unfolded lyres. st-i.
In the poem “ About it“he turns to a scientist who, in the distant future, will be able to resurrect people, give them a new, pure, happiness-filled life:
In lyric-epic poems " Good!" and "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"Mayakovsky embodied the thoughts of a socialist man, a hero of his era.
"A cloud in pants". The original title of the poem - "The Thirteenth Apostle" - was replaced by censorship. Each part of the poem expresses a specific idea (4). But the poem itself cannot be strictly divided into chapters in which four cries are consistently expressed (“Down with your system, love, art, religion!”). The experiences of the lyrical hero cover different spheres of life, including those where loveless love, false art, criminal power dominate, and Christian patience is preached. The movement of the lyrical plot of the poem is determined by the hero’s confession, which at times reaches high tragedy.
First part of the poem– about the poet’s tragic unrequited love. It contains jealousy and pain of unprecedented strength, the hero’s nerves rebelled: “like a sick person, a nerve jumped out of bed,” then the nerves “jumped madly, and the nerves’ legs began to give way.” The author of the poem painfully asks: “Will there be love or not? Which one is big or tiny? The chapter reflects the emotions of the lyrical hero: “Hello! Who's speaking? Mother? Mother! Your son is beautifully sick! Mother! His heart is on fire." The love of the lyrical hero of the poem, and this leads him to deny love-sweet-voiced chant, because true love is difficult, it is love-suffering.
Poetry theme The third chapter is also devoted. The lyrical hero declares his break with previous poets, with “pure poetry” .
Another “down with” the poem – “ down with your system”, your “heroes”: “iron Bismarck”, billionaire Rothschild and the idol of many generations - Napoleon.
Throughout the third chapter runs theme of the collapse of the old world. Mayakovsky sees revolution as a way to end the hated system and calls for revolution. The author of the poem sees the coming future, where there will be no loveless love, a bourgeois system and a religion of patience. And he himself sees himself as the “thirteenth apostle,” the herald of the new world.
The theme of personal, unresolved turmoil develops into a glorification of future happiness. The author is disappointed in the moral power of religion. The ending of the poem sounds not without the author's irony: the Universe does not hear the protest of the “thirteenth apostle” - it is sleeping!
The poem is characterized by hyperbolism, originality, planetary comparisons and metaphors.
Plays "Bedbug" and "Bath" were written by the poet in one breath. They reflected the difficult impressions of the discrepancy between real Soviet reality and the author's utopian ideal. Setting as his goal the agitation of his contemporary, Mayakovsky touched upon “eternal” issues. The dramaturgy of recent years stands out sharply with realistic strokes, which are combined with satirical techniques of caricature and grotesque. The central figures here are the tradesman and the bureaucrat.
The main character of the play "Bug"- holder of a union card with aristocratic manners. Mayakovsky with caustic irony ridiculed the bourgeois nature of Pierre Skripkin. The newly minted aristocrat - “a former party member, a former worker” - constantly gets into trouble. The speech of the Soviet tradesman is full of ridiculous inconsistencies. The claim to education forces him to turn to the language of civilized people, but vulgar abuse still betrays his dark interior. The highest goal for Prisypkin is bourgeois well-being. This position was deeply alien to Mayakovsky. The poet dreamed of spiritual growth and moral purification of his contemporaries. According to the author, disaster awaits those who choose the path of vulgarity and philistinism. And yet “The Bedbug” is not a forecast of the future tradesman. On the contrary, fire frees humanity from it. But Mayakovsky is far from cloudless optimism. Resurrected fifty years later, Klop-Prisypkin immediately began to spread the infection of vulgarity. The author warned his contemporaries about the danger hidden in the seemingly innocent call for a “good life.”
"Bath" WITH On the one hand, the play is called “Bathhouse” - we don’t find any bathhouse there. WITH On the one hand, it’s a drama, but on the other, “... with a circus and fireworks,” that is, it’s just a farce, and not a drama at all. On the one hand, the entire conflict in the play revolves around Chudakov’s “machine,” but on the other hand, this machine is invisible, that is, it is as if it does not exist. On the one hand, we seem to have a theater in front of us, but on the other hand, we also see a theater within a theater, so that the first theater is no longer a theater, but reality. In the entire play as a whole and in each of its individual elements we find a discrepancy between subject and meaning. The most abstract concepts here are reduced, reified, materialized, and the most concrete objects, phenomena and even people are dematerialized until they completely disappear.
The whole play as a whole is a metaphor. Lear. The core of “Bath” is a problem of time. The time machine in “Bath” is not just Chudakov’s invention, but also a metaphor for innovation and creativity itself. It is plotted against another machine - a bureaucratic one. The culmination of the opposition of the two machines is Pobedonosikov’s last monologue in Act VI. Why is it called “Bath”? Firstly, “Bath” is a metaphor for cleansing laughter. Secondly, this is a metaphor for the purification of the creative, which we arrive at as a result of artistic comprehension of reality.
36. Block, cycles, poem “Twelve”
As a poet, Blok was formed under the influence of the traditions of Russian classical literature. In his work, Alexander Blok reflected the essential features of a turning point. The reflection of the Russian revolution lies in his poems and poems.
Sizzling years! Is there thoughtlessness in you, is there hope?
The thematic range of the lyrics is wide - from the most intimate movements of the soul, from the mystery of youthful love to philosophical generalizations and the historical path of the people.
Blok's early poems made up his first book, published in 1904, " Poems about a Beautiful Lady" are multifaceted. These poems are symbolist, contrasting the mournful HERE and the beautiful THERE, the holiness of the hero's ideals, the desire for the promised land, a decisive break with the surrounding life, the cult of individualism, beauty. The plot of the cycle is the expectation of a meeting with the beloved, who will transform the world and the hero. The heroine, on the one hand, a real woman “She is slender and tall, // Always arrogant and stern.” On the other hand, before us is the heavenly, mystical image of the “Virgin,” “Majestic Eternal Wife,” “Incomprehensible.” “He” is a lover a knight, a humble monk, ready for self-denial. “She” is the ethereal focus of faith, hope and love of the lyrical hero.
The lyrical hero is shown in development
His second book, " Unexpected joy", made the poet's name popular in literary circles. Among the poems are "Stranger", "A Girl Sang in the Church Choir", "Autumn Wave".
Blok's hero becomes an inhabitant of noisy city streets, eagerly peering into life. He is alone, surrounded by drunkards, he rejects this world that horrifies his soul, like a booth, in which there is no place for anything beautiful and holy. The world poisons him, but in the midst of this drunken stupor a stranger appears, and her image awakens bright feelings; it seems she believes in beauty. Her image is surprisingly romantic and alluring, and it is clear that the poet’s faith in goodness is still alive. Vulgarity and dirt cannot tarnish the image of a stranger, reflecting Blok’s dreams of pure, selfless love. And the poem “Autumn Wave” became the first embodiment of the theme of the homeland, Russia, in Blok’s work. Nekrasov's intonations appear in the poems - love for the homeland - love-salvation, the understanding that it is impossible to imagine one's destiny in isolation from it.
After a trip to Italy in 1909, Blok wrote the cycle " Italian poems", in the spring of 1914 - cycle " Carmen". In these poems, Blok remains a subtle lyricist, praising beauty and love.
Through the deepening of social trends (the “City” cycle), religious interest (the “Snow Mask” cycle), comprehension of the “terrible world”, awareness of the tragedy of modern man (the play “Rose and Cross”), Blok came to the idea of the inevitability of “retribution” (the “Rose and Cross” cycle). Yambs"; poem "Retribution"). Hatred of the “well-fed” world, of the ugly, inhuman features of life (the “Terrible World” cycle, 1909-16) is persistently and strongly expressed in Blok’s work.
Love lyrics Blok is romantic, she carries within herself, along with delight and rapture, a fatal and tragic beginning (sections of the cycle “Snow Mask”, “Faina”, “Retribution”, 1908-13, “Carmen”, 1914).
Theme of the poet and poetry. The idea of the poet's freedom, his independence from public opinion, superiority over the crowd runs through all the early poems on the topic of creativity. poems “To Friends” and “Poets. “To the Muse” creativity is not a reward, but hard work, which often brings disappointment and dissatisfaction rather than laurels and joy. Inspiration is sent by God, but any gift must be paid for, and the poet pays with personal happiness and peace, comfort and well-being.
Blok considers the main theme of his work theme of the Motherland. From the first poems about Russia (“Autumn Wave”, “Autumn Love”, “Russia”) a two-faced image of the country appears - poor, pious and at the same time free, wild, banditry. During this period, the poet created cycles of poems “Motherland” and “On the Kulikovo Field”. The ambivalent attitude towards Russia is especially vividly embodied in the poem “To sin shamelessly, uncontrollably...”. Blok paints a realistic picture of contemporary Russia.
And under the lamp by the icon
Drink tea while clicking the bill,
Then salivate the coupons,
The pot-bellied one opened the chest of drawers...
But the work ends with the words:
Yes, and so, my Russia,
You are dearer to me from all over the world.
The poet took a slightly different perspective in his cycle “On the Kulikovo Field.”
The revolution of 1917 was reflected in the largest post-October poem " Twelve"(1918). It reflected both real events and the poet's views on history, the essence of civilization and culture.
The very beginning of the poem sets the reader up for struggle; Two worlds stand in sharp contrast - the old and the new, just born:
Black evening.
White snow.
Wind, wind!
The man is not standing on his feet.
Human passions and the raging elements act in unison, destroying everything that has become obsolete, personifying the old way of life. As attributes of the old way of life - bourgeois, lady, and priest:
There's a lady in karakul
Turned up to another...
- We cried and cried... -
Slipped
And - bam - stretched out!
And behind them, shaking off the fragments of a lost society, come twelve people. Who are they - builders of the future or cruel destroyers, murderers?
Blok used many symbols in his poem: names, numbers, colors.
The leitmotif of the poem appears from the first bars: in the gap and opposition of “white” and “black”. Black color is of a vague, dark origin. White color symbolizes purity, spirituality, it is the color of the future.
The image of Christ is also symbolic in the poem. Jesus Christ is the messenger of new human relationships, an exponent of holiness and purifying suffering. For Blok, his “twelve” are real heroes, since they are the executors of a great mission, carrying out a holy cause - a revolution. As a symbolist and mystic, the author expresses the holiness of the revolution religiously. Emphasizing the holiness of the revolution, Blok places the invisible walking Christ before these “twelve”.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky is a truly outstanding personality. A talented poet, playwright, screenwriter and actor. One of the brightest and most odious figures of his time.
Born on July 19, 1893 in the Georgian village of Bagdati. There were five children in the family: two daughters and three sons, but of all the boys, only Vladimir survived. The boy studied at a local gymnasium, and then at a school in Moscow, where he moved with his mother and sister. By that time, my father was no longer alive: he died of blood poisoning.
During the revolution, difficult times came for the family, there was not enough money, and there was nothing to pay for Volodya’s education. He did not finish his studies, and later joined the Social Democratic Party. Mayakovsky was arrested more than once for his political beliefs and participation in mass riots. It was in prison that the first lines of the great poet were born.
In 1911, the young man decided to continue his studies at the art school, however, his teachers did not appreciate his work: they were too original. During his studies, Mayakovsky became close to the futurists, whose work was close to him, and in 1912 he published his first poem, “Night.”
In 1915, one of the most famous poems, “A Cloud in Pants,” was written, which he first read at a reception at Lily Brik’s house. This woman became his main love and his curse. All his life he loved and hated her, they broke up and renewed their relationship countless times. The poem dedicated to her, “Lilichka,” is one of the most powerful and touching declarations of love in modern literature. In addition to Lily, there were many other women in the poet’s life, but not one of them was able to touch those strings of the soul that Lilichka so skillfully played with.
In general, Mayakovsky’s love lyrics were not attractive; his main attention was occupied by politics and satire on topical topics. The poem “The Sitting Ones” is perhaps one of the most striking demonstrations of Mayakovsky’s satirical talent. What is important is that the plot of the poem is relevant to this day. In addition, he writes many scripts for films and stars in them himself. The most famous film that has survived to this day is “The Young Lady and the Hooligan.”
The theme of revolution occupies a huge place in the poet’s creative heritage. The poet was enthusiastic about what was happening, although at that time he was having a very difficult time financially. At this time he wrote “Mystery-bouffe”. Almost until his death, Mayakovsky glorified Soviet power, and on its 10th anniversary he wrote the poem “Good.”
(Painting by Vladimir Mayakovsky "Roulette")
With his works glorifying the revolution and Comrade Lenin, Mayakovsky tours quite a bit throughout Europe and America. He draws satirical and propaganda posters, works for several publishing houses, including ROSTA Satire Windows. In 1923, he and several associates created the creative studio LEF. Two famous plays by the author, “The Bedbug” and “Bathhouse,” were published one after another in 1928 and 1929.
Mayakovsky's calling card was the unusual style he invented and the poetic meter in the form of a ladder, as well as many neologisms. He is also credited with the glory of the first advertiser in the USSR, because he was at the origins of this trend, creating masterpiece posters calling for the purchase of this or that product. Each drawing was accompanied by simple but sonorous verses.
(G. Egoshin "V. Mayakovsky")
Children's poems occupy a large place in the poet's lyrics. Big Uncle Mayakovsky, as he called himself, writes surprisingly touching lines for the younger generation and personally speaks with them to young listeners. Every Soviet and then Russian schoolchild knew the poem “Who to Be” or “What is Good and What is Bad” by heart. Many critics noted the author’s amazing artistic style and his ability to simply and clearly express far from childish thoughts in a language accessible to children.
However, like many poets of the 20th century, Mayakovsky did not hide the fact that he was disappointed in his chosen direction. Towards the end of his life he moved away from the circle of futurists. The new government led by Stalin did not inspire his creativity, and he was subjected to increasingly harsh censorship and criticism over and over again. His exhibition “20 Years of Work” was ignored by politicians and even friends and colleagues. This noticeably crippled Mayakovsky, and the subsequent failure of his plays only worsened the situation. Failures on the love front, in creative activity, refusal to travel abroad - all this affected the emotional state of the writer.
On April 14, 1930, the poet shot himself in his room, contrary to the lines he once wrote: “And I won’t go out into the air, and I won’t drink poison, and I won’t be able to pull the trigger above my temple...”
But still. The street has sunk in like a syphilitic nose. The river is voluptuousness spread into drool. Throwing away the laundry to the last leaf, the gardens fell apart obscenely in June.
Could you? . I immediately smeared the map of everyday life by splashing paint from a glass; I showed the slanting cheekbones of the ocean on a dish of jelly.
Bathhouse. To the right is a table, to the left is a table. Drawings hanging from everywhere and scattered everywhere. In the middle, Comrade Foskin seals the air with a blowtorch. Chudakov moves from lamp to lamp, revising the drawing.
To you! . You, who live behind the orgy orgy, have a bathroom and a warm closet! Aren’t you ashamed to read about those presented to George from newspaper columns?
Bribe takers. Door. On the door - “It is impossible without a report.” Under Marx, seated in a chair, with a high salary, tall and sleek, sits a vested, responsible man.
Attentive attitude towards bribe takers. Is it really possible for poets to write about bribes? Dear ones, we don’t have time. Can not be so. You who take bribes, at least for this reason, don’t, don’t take bribes.
In a loud voice . Dear comrades and descendants! Rummaging through today's petrified shit, studying the darkness of our days, you may ask about me.
Naval Love. A torpedo boat, playing, rushes across the seas with a destroyer. As if a sedge clings to honey, a destroyer clings to a destroyer.
That's how I became a dog. Well, this is completely unbearable! All bitten by malice. I’m not as angry as you could be: like a dog, the face of the moon is bare-headed - I would take it and howl everything.
Hymn to health. Among the thin-legged, liquid with blood, laboring to turn the neck of a bull, for a well-fed feast of the corpulent health of people from meat, I loudly cry out!
Giveaway.
Giveaway. Whether I entangle a woman in a touching novel, or just look at a passerby - everyone is cautiously holding their pocket.
To all . No. It is not true. No! And you? Darling, for what, for what?! Okay - I went, I gave flowers, I didn’t steal silver spoons from the box!
Jacket veil. I will sew myself black pants from the velvet of my voice. A yellow jacket from three arshins of sunset. Along the Nevsky Prospect, along its polished stripes, I walk with the steps of Don Juan and a veil.
Lilichka! . Instead of a letter, the tobacco air has eaten away. The room is a chapter in Kruchenykhov’s hell. Remember - behind this window, for the first time, I stroked your hands in a frenzy.
I love . Usually, love is given to anyone born, but between services, income and other things, the soil of the heart becomes hardened from day to day.
Mom and the evening killed by the Germans. White mothers frantically stretched out along the black streets, as if staring at a coffin. They cried while screaming about the beaten enemy: “Oh, close, close your eyes, newspapers!
Scum. Hunger is approaching the tonsils... Only, as if at a feast, a gang of bribe-takers walks around, their wallets stretched wide.
Tired of it. Didn't stay at home. Annensky, Tyutchev, Fet. Again, driven by longing for people, I go to cinemas, taverns, and cafes.
Here! . In an hour from here, your flabby fat will flow out into a clean alley, and I have opened so many verses of boxes for you, I am the priceless words of a spendthrift and a spender.
An extraordinary adventure that happened with Vladimir Mayakovsky at the dacha. Pushkino. Shark Mountain, Rumyantsev's dacha, 27 versts along the Yaroslavl railway. dor. At one hundred and forty suns, the sunset was blazing, summer was rolling into July, it was hot, the heat was floating - it was at the dacha.
unfinished Loves? does not love? I break my hands and scatter my fingers, having broken them, so they tear them with a wish and send out the corollas of oncoming daisies throughout May
They don't understand anything. He went to the hairdresser and said calmly: “Please, comb my ears.” The smooth hairdresser immediately became pine-like, his face stretched out like a pear.
Night . The crimson and white were discarded and crumpled, ducats were thrown into the green by the handful, and burning yellow cards were distributed to the black palms of the crowded windows.
A cloud in pants . Tetraptych (introduction) Your thought, dreaming on a softened brain, like an overweight lackey on a greasy couch, I will tease about the bloody flap of your heart: I will mock you to your heart’s content, impudent and caustic.
Ode to the Revolution. To you, booed, ridiculed by the batteries, to you, ulcerated by the slander of bayonets, I enthusiastically raise a solemn “O” over the abuse of the recited ode!
From fatigue. Earth! Let me heal your balding head with the rags of my lips stained with foreign gold. With the smoke of hair over the fires of eyes made of tin, let me wrap the sunken breasts of the swamps.
Parisian. Do you imagine Parisian women with their necks crushed by pearls and diamonds... Stop imagining! Life is tougher - my Parisian looks different.
A letter to Molchanov’s beloved, abandoned by him, as reported in No. 219 of Komsomolskaya Pravda in a verse called “Date.” I heard that Molchanov abandoned you, as if he did this, seeing that you didn’t have a “fine” jacket for the fall.
Letter to Comrade Kostrov from Paris about the essence of love. Forgive me, Comrade Kostrov, with the inherent spaciousness of my soul, that I will squander part of the stanzas allotted for Paris on lyrics.
Listen! . Listen! After all, if the stars light up, does that mean someone needs it? So, does anyone want them to exist? So, someone calls these spittoons a pearl?
Order for the army of art. The rigmarole of the old men of the brigade is the same gimmick. Comrades! To the barricades! - barricades of hearts and souls.
Those who sat down for a meeting. As soon as the night turns into dawn, I see every day: who is in charge, who is in whom, who is in charge, who is in the clearing, the people disperse into institutions.
Sorry . me, Comrade Kostrov, with the inherent spaciousness of my soul, that I will squander part of the stanzas allotted for Paris on lyrics.
Russia. Here I come, an overseas ostrich, in the feathers of stanzas, meters and rhymes. I try to hide my head, stupid, in the ringing plumage there is an explosion.
For myself, my beloved. Four. Heavy as a blow. “What is Caesar's is Caesar's, God's is God's.” Where should someone like me go? Where is my lair prepared?
The secret of youth. No, not those “youth” who, huddled in a lawn and in a boat, begin to rinse their throats with vodka amid the squealing and hubbub. No, not those “youth” who, on good spring nights, with their clothes crooked in fashion, sweep the boulevards with bell-bottoms.
Sergei Yesenin. You have gone, as they say, to another world. Emptiness... Fly, crashing into the stars. No advance for you, no beer. Sobriety. No, Yesenin, this is not a joke.
The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Once upon a time there lived a cadet. The cadet was wearing a red cap. Apart from this cap that the cadet got, there was not a damn thing red about him.
Violin and a little nervously. The violin jerked, begging, and suddenly burst into tears so childishly that the drum could not stand it: “Okay, okay, okay!”
