Composition
Between 1985 and 1989 Joseph Brodsky writes the poem “Imagination”, in which he gives a generalized image of the era. In realizing this task, the writer turns to the poetics of postmodernism. Brodsky took with him to the USA not only the Russian language, but also a linguistic cast of reality. The Soviet mass language is not equal only to the official one, although it is highly ideologized and bureaucratic; This is also the language of everyday communication, which includes vernacular, abusive, and obscene language. Incompatible in the “state” language, all these layers are combined in Brodsky.
The main body of the poet's works is characterized by a detachment from the Soviet language. But in “Performance” he is the main character, as if he speaks for himself. The “characters” of the work are language codes, concepts, all kinds of quotations, subject to parodic and ironic recoding and theatricalization. Brodsky carries out a kind of inventory/cataloging of common phrases, clichés of the mass Soviet language, deposited in memory. As he once jokingly remarked, memory replaces our tail, which was happily lost in the process of evolution. In this case, the writer actualizes the memory that is given in language, brings “on stage” more and more new “characters” who pronounce their “replicas”, accompanies them with ironic “remarks”, plays out a whole farce-absurdist “performance”.
The montage of concepts gives an idea of the real, unadorned oral language used by the masses. His ideologization and rudeness are revealed, but also his ability to aptly reveal the essence of the phenomenon, a certain fatalistic philosophy: “They have driven the country to the brink”; “Life is completely unbearable”; “The quarrel between the effect and the cause ends with death.”
“Remarks”-comments mainly parody the codes of mass printed products: newspapers and magazines, party propaganda, art, etc. For example, Brodsky demythologizes the myth that after the shot from the cruiser “Aurora” the era of humanism began. The poet reduces the “Auror” symbolism by using the rhythm of a criminal song, which has a “chorus” in the form of a common folk ditty interspersed with obscenities, and replaces the official version with his own.
The ingenuous words of a children's poem are successively replaced by reduced adequacy. The dot-eyes are replaced by burcals, indicating malevolence; the comma does not mean the mouth, but a single convolution of the brain; the body resembles not a cucumber, but a question mark, which it forms when bending over the person being interrogated. In addition, Brodsky's little man gets clothes - this is, of course, a military uniform with dotted buttons as a sign of the militarization of the entire system. The reference to a primitivist drawing emphasizes that this is not a living person, but a simulacrum - a symbolic figure, of course extremely simplified, exaggerated, but very expressive. No matter how conventional a child’s drawing may be, we recognize it as a little man, and not a horse or an airplane. So it is in the grotesque portrait, which gives
* Period, period, comma,
* Minus, the face is crooked.
* Hands, legs, cucumber,
* So the little man came out.
Brodsky, we capture the essential features and qualities of a Soviet citizen: narrow-mindedness, the habit of living on command, the willingness to see an enemy in every dissident, eternal irritability and aggressiveness.
The poet reveals the dominance of male chauvinism in Soviet society. There are only three female lines in the text - the rest belong to men; and Brodsky’s iconic figure of a Soviet citizen is male. All “personified” characters: a tyrant, Lenin, a soldier of the honor guard, Stalin-Dzhugashvili, a Kunak friend, someone Orthodox, pioneers, pensioner executioners, a homosexual master, Garbage, a prosecutor, a great-grandson, a great-grandfather... are male. The woman in the role of the Swan appears only in ballet, on stage. They interrogate, “square the cheekbone,” rape, hide the last words, talk about politics, fight, sit, stand on the podium of the mausoleum, roll a wheelbarrow “in the depths of the Siberian ores” under the protection of their own kind in “Performance” men. Brodsky is led by a tongue that does not lie. Brodsky’s “man’s world” is synonymous with a world of totalitarian-authoritarian, ruthless, based on brute force. Even an attempt at Orthodox orientation as an element of the new state ideology is not able to hide the overwhelming aggressiveness:
* Someone Orthodox comes in and says: “Now I’m in charge.
* I have the Firebird in my soul and longing for the sovereign.
* Soon Igor will return to enjoy Yaroslavna.
* Let me cross myself, otherwise I’ll hit you in the face.”
Brodsky portrays Soviet society as closed, anti-pluralistic, and wary of the West. The hopes for a world revolution cherished here, the author of “Representation” makes clear, are not destined to come true:
* Proletarians of all countries
* march to the restaurant.
Thus, the poet also debunks the myth of Soviet society as the most advanced in the world.
Throughout the poem, polemics are carried out with the creators of realist literature, starting with Mayakovsky. By Brodsky's own admission, he learned from
“Firebird” is the title of a poem by Nikolai Rubtsov, the personification of patriarchal Russia. Somewhat unexpected among Brodsky’s works of the 1980s, “Presentation” organically fits into the context of Russian postmodern poetry, which completes the reckoning with the totalitarian system.
] [ 52a ]
"Chance, being inevitable,
benefits all work.
Leading the life I lead
I am grateful to the former snow whites
sheets of paper folded into a dudu.”
Joseph Brodsky.
Joseph Brodsky Performance Mikhail Nikolaev Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, People's Commissariat for Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs! This area is familiar to me, like the outskirts of China! This person is familiar to me! An interrogation sign instead of a body. Overcoat ellipsis. Instead of a brain there is a comma. Instead of a throat - a dark evening. Instead of a burkal there is a division sign. So a little man came out, a representative of the population. So a citizen came out, taking it out of his pants. “How much is that radio?” "Who is Savonarola?" "Probably a reduction." "Where is the toilet, excuse me?" Pushkin enters wearing a flying helmet and holding a cigarette in his slender fingers. An ambulance with a lone passenger is rushing through an open field. And the wheels cut obliquely, like the Poltava one, with the fat picked out near Gdov by the switchman’s finger, enliven the tablecloth of snow, stopping stations and forks, dousing them with the contents of an overturned bottle. Hiding in their lair, the wolves howl “I-mo”. "Life is like a lottery." "I married a Jew." "They've driven the country to the brink." "Give me a chervonets until payday." Gogol enters wearing a cap, next to him is a mezzo-soprano. In the grocery store, the cat cried; Rats roam, groceries. Hiding a hard horn in astrakhan fur, someone in ram trousers turns into a tyrant on the platform of the mausoleum. Dashing people say that inside, disappointed in the end, like fish on a platter, the corpse lies stuffed. It’s good, having lost your speech, stand up with a rifle and guard the coffin. “Don’t look me in the eye, maiden: you’ll still go left.” "The priest had a dog." "Both died of cancer." Leo Tolstoy enters in pajamas, Yasnaya Polyana is everywhere. (Guys with knives wander around, the smell of chypre and Komsomol smells.) He is the predecessor of Tarzan: the recorder is like a vine, cannonballs fly back and forth over the French palisade. This is a great son of Russia, albeit of the ruling class! The husband, whose great-grandchildren are barefoot, also rarely sees meat. Miracle Yudo: the gentle count turned into a bookcase! "Taught her to give blowjobs." “What’s all the noise and there’s no fight?” "Winged with the last words." "Who's last? I'm behind you." The Alexandrov couple enters, escorted by Nikolasha. They say “What a mess” or “Sweet jam”. The bunks wander around Europe in a vain search for a bucket, bumping into shy rednecks everywhere. Reflecting on the pier, the Aurora sails through the waves to blurt out the beginning of continuous terror. Oh, the fate of the ship**: you say “damn!” - they will answer “fuck!” "He married her." “I’ll give it cancer anyway.” "Oh, Tsushima-Hiroshima! Life is completely unbearable." Herzen and Ogarev enter; sparrows chirp in the groves. Which sounds at the moment of grasping like the adverb of a foreign land. The best view of this city is if you sit in a bomber. Look - the clouds, swollen like cotton wool from an immodest hollow, multiplying without reason, cling to the architecture. The Kremlin looms like a zone; they say in miniature. The wind whistles. The bittern screams. A woodpecker knocks on a crow. “They say the Plenum has opened.” “I hit her between the eyes with a log.” “The Parhat Jew soars proudly above the peaceful Arab hut.” Stalin enters with Dzhugashvili, a quarrel broke out between them. They quickly aim at each other, press the trigger, and the smoking pipe... This is how, according to the director, the Father of Nations died, having smoked a pack a day. And the ridges of the Caucasus stand as if on a guard of honor. Napareuli bursts forth from the brown eye. A kunak friend sinks his fang into a half-eaten kebab. "Did you watch Dersu Uzala?" “I didn’t tell you everything.” “Since he is a Chuchmek, he believes in Buddha.” "Are you going to be a bitch?" "I'll be a bitch." A foreign country comes in screaming, with a forbidden hemisphere and a horizon sticking out of its pocket, which has been vulgarized. He calls Yermolai Frederick or Charles, finds fault with the law, is fuming over duties, exclaiming: “How do you live!” And they confuse Raphael and Buonarotti with the gloss of flesh - not a damn thing on the back. Proletarians of all countries are marching to the restaurant. "In these scars you look like a Yankee." "I broke it because I was drunk." “I was a simple worker all my life.” "By the way, we all jerk off." Thoughts about the Future enter, wearing khaki tunics. They bring in an atomic bomb with a ballistic projectile. They dance and dance: “We are bully warriors! A Russian and a German will lie side by side; for example, at Stalingrad.” And, like widowed Matrynas, the cyclotrons howl dully. Crows caw loudly at the Ministry of Defense. You enter the bedroom - there are those on: on the pillow - orders. "Where there is an egg, there is a frying pan." “They say that soon vodka will cost a ruble again.” "Mom, I don't like dad." Someone Orthodox comes in and says: “Now I’m in charge. I have the Firebird in my soul and longing for the sovereign. Soon Igor will return to enjoy Yaroslavl. Let me cross myself, otherwise I’ll hit you in the face. Worse than damage and deprivation - Western thoughts are an infection. Sing, harmonica, drowning out the saxophone - the fiend of jazz." And they kiss the image with the cry of a sawed-off victim... “For me, a director’s-style steak.” "Barge haulers in Severomorsk are pulling a cruiser with a towline, having become thin from radiation." Thoughts about the Past enter, everyone is dressed haphazardly, with preference for silver brown. In classical Latin and in a low voice in Russian they say: “Everything is lost, a) a foxtrot under a lampshade, black and white shrines; b) caviar, stellate sturgeon, rye; c) beautiful whites. But the alphabet is not enough. And the baby in the cradle, Hearing “bayushki-bayu”, he replies: “Your mother! " ". “I got my hand into the shaft, getting acquainted.” “I’ll give you a wave and go to Sochi.” “A cross between a leukocyte and anthracite is called Cocytus.” The pioneers enter in formation, some with a plywood model, some with a meaningful denunciation written by hand. From the other world, like chimeras, the retired executioners nod approvingly at them, perky and snub-nosed, who turn on the “Russian Ballroom” and run into the hut to kick the aunt out of the double bed where they were made. What are you going to write? The youth. You won't strangle, you won't kill. “He vomited into the soup to hide his annoyance.” “I won’t sit next to him.” “And mine, like that Madonna, does not want to live without a condom.” The Swan enters with a Reflection in a round mirror, in which a platoon of birches is squatting, the first violin making faces. An ardent master with an imagination inflamed by a grenadier, only a timid ten, tears the velvet of the box with his claws. It is raining. The dog barks. Hanging from the stove, the slanting piece of trash with a bare bottom pesters the disabled man, biting a nail: “Disabled, but disabled. It hurts inside me.” “Let’s lie down in the coffin, even if the hour hasn’t struck!” "Is this a bitch or a male?" “The quarrel between the effect and the cause ends with death.” Garbage enters shouting, “Enough!” The prosecutor squares his cheekbone. The door to the citizen's cave does not need sesame. Either a great-grandson or great-grandfather is rolling a wheelbarrow in the ore depths, pouring crystal tears into the generous depths of the earth. And beyond the line of death, bathed in moonlight, a jaw with a golden fixation shines with permafrost. You know, the lives of those who laid down their heads will last for a long time. “I have a hut, but I’m too lazy to drag around.” “I’m not a b**ch, but a crane operator.” “Life arose as a habit before the chicken and the egg.” We filled the entire stage! All that's left to do is climb the wall! Soar like a falcon into the dome! Shrink into roundworm! Or everyone, including the dolls, whipping up the foam with their tongues, suddenly copulate in unison to breed a hybrid. Bo, saving space, how to mold the masses, except for the cemetery and except for the black line at the checkout? Eh, you give space to the steppe without a chain reaction! "Give me time without a sentence!" "Who shouts: 'Stop the thief!'?" "I drew a penis in a notebook." "Let go, for Christ's sake." Enter Evening in the Present, a house near the devil in the middle of nowhere. The tablecloth competes with the curtain in terms of external decoration. Having excluded the heartbeat - this babble is in quotation marks - there is a feeling as if Lobachevsky has been subtracted from space. The murmur of money-colored leaves, the smooth buzzer of a mosquito. The eye is unable to enlarge six by nine those who have died, who have sprouted into thick grass. However, this is not the first time. “Love makes children. You are now alone in the world. Do you remember the song that I used to sing in the dark? This is a cat, this is a mouse. This is a camp, this is a tower. This is the time that quietly kills mom and dad." 1986
Source: http://forum.referat.ru/cgi-bin/Printpage.cgi?board=literature&num=1068314153
There is no power to stop the flow of memories!
Joseph Brodsky, mentioned in the last article, taught at Mt.Holyoke College, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1995, I was one of his last twenty students, then he died. When I read soft-tipped memoirs like “My three meetings with I. Brodsky” in the magazine “Arion”, I want to cry. Brodsky's tragedy is that no matter how much he tried to avoid the swamp of emigration, he had to plunge into it from time to time. The aunt comes to the lecture, at the end she babbles in accented English: “Joseph, I am here just to say thank you for all the beautiful poetry you write, your verses enchant me, they elevate me high, oh, so high, higher than the sun “It’s so unbelievable,” and he turns and says: “Gu-gu-gu-gu.” Baba, naturally, is shocked.
The emigrants were looking for an icon on the wall in him (Genius, Jew, and he, and he left a country where you can’t cook porridge). Someday, when the excitement around his name dies down, Losev dies, Kushner dies, Basmanova dies, Bobyshev dies, Rein and Naiman die, his son Andrei dies, it will be no shame to publish the punk memories of us - Brodsky's students. It will be a pullback, it will be a collapse, it will be a cliff, it will be a steep bummer. We will be gray-haired, we will help the masses understand this great poet more fully. In conclusion, I would like to publish Brodsky’s poems, which were not included in the eight-volume edition published by the Pushkin House and are unlikely to be included anywhere in the near future, since they are dedicated to relations between Ukraine and Russia.
To the independence of Ukraine Dear Charles XII, the battle of Poltava, thank God, was lost. As the burry one said, Time will show “Kuzka’s mother”, ruins, The bone of posthumous joy with a taste of Ukraine. That is not a green one - visible, spent by an isotope, Zhovto-blakytny Lenin over Konotop, Tailored from canvas, know, Canada has in store. Even though there is no cross, the Ukrainians don’t need it. Bitter louse karbovanets, seeds in full zhmena. It’s not for us, the Katsaps, to accuse them of treason. They themselves lived under the images for seventy years in Ryazan, with greasy eyes, like convicts. Let's tell them, with a ringing mother, strictly marking the pauses: Good riddance to you, crests, and a towel. Go away from us in a zhupan, not to mention in a uniform, To an address with three letters, to the sides with four letters. Now let the Hans and the Poles in the hut chorus put you on four dice, you bastards. It’s like climbing into a noose, so together, choosing soup from a thicket, And gnawing chicken from borscht alone is sweeter. Goodbye, crests, live together - that's enough! Spit on the Dnieper, maybe it will roll back. Disdaining us proudly, as if we were chock-full of teeth, Torn corners and age-old resentment. Do not remember your bread, the sky, to us, you choke on the cake, you don’t need it for a long time. There is no point in spoiling the blood, tearing clothes on the chest, It’s over, you know, love, since there was between. There is no point in digging around in torn roots. The earth, the soil, the black soil with the underground gave birth to you, Completely download your rights, sew us one thing or another. This land gives you, Kaluns, no peace. Oh, levada, steppe, kralya, bashtan, dumplings, I guess they lost more - more people than money. We'll get by somehow. And as for the tear from the eye, there is no decree about it, wait until another time. With God, eagles and Cossacks, hetmans, guards, Only when it comes to you to die, bullies, Will you wheeze, scratching the edge of the mattress, Lines from Alexander, and not the nonsense of Taras. Source: http://imperium.lenin.ru/LJ /fenya/memories/index1.html#_10841063.html
Joseph Brodsky: geometry of the poetic world
This text has a long and, I hope, not yet completed history. It was written by a girl using the online nickname Eternity L "Arma, as a course work on speech culture - this explains some of the features of the text. Then the girl sent it to me in response to an offer to read her work (she wanted her work to be read. What is unclear?) I offered to discuss the text in a seminar mode (to which she agreed), but first asked to answer several technical questions about the text. It was in September. Since then, I have not received any answers, and therefore I decided to publish the text as is, only I removed the introduction - really, if you read 1 introduction to the coursework, you read them all. The possibility of discussion is not closed; I hope that the author of the work will also appear.
§1. The place of Joseph Brodsky's poetry in the poetic tradition
Poetry of the 1920s-1970s developed along the lines outlined in modernism and the avant-garde. Three main lines can be distinguished. The first comes from Acmeism, relatively speaking, the St. Petersburg line (inheriting the experience of Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Anensky). The second comes from futurism - the Moscow line (Khlebnikov, Mayakovsky, Pasternak). The third is the line of peasant poetry.
In the literature of emigration, the Acmeist, St. Petersburg line significantly predominated. In the Soviet Union, the movement of literature was increasingly determined by the theory and practice of “partyism.”
The poet's place in Russian culture was mainly determined by his belonging to one generation or another. This was especially true during the reign of Stalin. The poetic heritage of this era is partisan, tendentious and uniform.
The attitude towards poetry and power changed dramatically among the generation that entered literature in the 1960s. It broke with the idea that poetry should serve - whatever - and returned to its understanding as a self-sufficient value.
The new poetic thinking was most fully expressed by Joseph Brodsky, who became the voice of the generation.
A continuator of Akhmatova’s tradition, he became the creator of his new poetic empire, reflecting the surrounding reality from a new perspective.
§2. Creative and life path
Brodsky, born in 1940, began consciously working in poetry around 1960. This time became Day Zero for Brodsky and his friends, the starting point.
Soon in 1963, the twenty-three-year-old poet was declared a parasite, the following year he was arrested, put on trial and sentenced to exile, despite the intercession of brave people. After a new wave of protests in 1965, Brodsky was returned to Leningrad. In 1972 he was expelled from the USSR. In the USA, Joseph Brodsky found recognition, respect and a friendly environment for work.
In 1987 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Until this time, only four of his poems had been published in his homeland.
§3. Construction of a geometric model
§3.1
The poetry of Joseph Brodsky is a unique result of the painful search for a new poetic language, a new poetic form, a new Word.
His work is unlike anything else, but at the same time it enters the reader’s perception organically, as something always known (perhaps a kind of revival of the genetic mother).
Literature is a temporary art (according to Lessing), Brodsky makes it spatial, realized in figures and bodies.
He “begins literature anew, in a place that is frightening in its emptiness.”
Brodsky, over the head of the tendentious poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries, adopted and embodied the idea of self-sufficient poetry.
Turning to the world's poetic experience, he chooses for himself the creation of new poetry, a new empire.
The poet begins his search for the fundamental principles of his poetic creativity with the line of his first poem. Two extremes become his world - language and mathematics.
§ 3.2
An analysis of Brodsky's poems shows how, starting with an appeal to antiquity, outside of politics, he creates an overpopulated material world, his own time and space. This world later, expressed in peculiar geometric constructions, becomes the inner world of the poet.
Looking for something in the surrounding world that would become the basis for his own empire, Brodsky “clutters” his poems with real things. Long syntactic constructions, characteristic of Brodsky’s poetic speech, appear, flowing across the boundaries of lines and stanzas. Accepting that a person lives not in a country, but in a language, Brodsky elevates language to the category of spiritual values. Embodying the “dictation of language,” the poet turns to geometry.
The number of poems we analyzed amounts to eleven chronological collections. But the poem “Singing without Music” (1970) became significant in our analysis. It seems that it is decisive for the development of the geometric theme in Brodsky’s work.
Throughout the entire chronological period, which covers 1966-1976, geometric images in the poems of Joseph Brodsky developed from complex to simple (according to quantitative criteria).
3.2.1. The poems of 1966 became a starting point for us. But the study of poetic texts proved our assumption about the evolutionary development of geometric images. These poems provide a clear vision of reality, not refracted through the prism of subjective perception. Of all the concepts that interest us, only “space” appears twice (1.8, 1.23) and then in the generally accepted understanding of place. 1966 is the year of language, the only thing the poet knows. Because of this, he abandons the architecture:
...In such an architecture
there is something ugly...
But as for the disgrace of proportions,
then a person does not depend on them,
and more often from the proportions of the ugliness. (1.11)
In his first poems, mathematical terms are only a way to bring the description closer to reality:
Night yawned in the gaps of the altar.
And I - through these holes in the altar -
I looked at the trams running away,
On a string of dim lanterns.
And something that you won’t find in church at all,
Now I saw through the lens of the church
This is a world in which space has not yet appeared. This is evidenced by the frequent use of the word “emptiness” in its various representations: “emptiness in your pocket” (1.30), “from an empty chair” (1.52), “emptiness” (1.89).
3.2.2. Gradually the structural volume of the poems decreases. And in 1967, space appears in them, as if before that they were just shells of objects.
The role of the creator of his Universe allows Brodsky to experiment with generally known concepts, testing them in his own dimension.
The ruins are a feast of oxygen
And time. Newest Archimedes
I could add to the old law,
That a body placed in space
Repressed by space. (1.100)
The chaos of reification, a world overflowing with objects, is filled with space, everything superfluous is forced out.
In this chronological collection, for the first time, “language dictation” serves mathematics. Themes and images appear, which will later be developed by the author. Now this is only a reminder of what most likely was, and most likely will be. The poet begins to experiment with things, objects and even people. It just turns into a dot. Moreover, the author transfers this transformation to himself (perception of the meaning of existence?). Geometry concerns, as many artists, writers and poets believed, two of the most complex, inexplicable manifestations of life: love and time. Only in Brodsky these two realities are expressed through one thing - separation (signally):
Is it worth it? Hardly. Not worth a line.
How two straight lines part at a point,
Let's say goodbye when we cross paths. Hardly
Let's meet again, whether it's Heaven or Hell.
These two posthumous lives
only a continuation of the ideas of Euclid. (1.84).
For the first time, having defined the geometric manifestation of Heaven and Hell, the poet tries on life, as if applying or building on reality, geometric symbolism:
We lived so long without books,
no furniture, no utensils, old
sofa, that - before it arose -
the triangle was perpendicular,
restored by friends standing up
Above the two merged points. (1.97).
3.2.3. 1968 This is zero time:
"What time is it now?" "Yes, about zero."
"Oh, it's late." "Without taste
to tsifiri, I'll tell you what for
“Everything about me is the predecessor of the plus” (1.132).
It is zero that is the defining metaphor in the poems of this period. And even a person is in a certain sense of the word zero:
... I am a circle in cross section ... (1.108)
What is a circle? In cross-section - zero. A circle is a point with a radius. The 1968 poems are “rounded up.” These are poems with a radius: “And this is the same circle, but its radius is undoubtedly wider” (1.113), “I think, only the radius of zero” (1.116), “It is not the head that craves to press into this radius, but the belly...” (1.117), “arrow radius…” (1.122).
So geometry entered everyday life, began to be reflected (through) in everything that surrounds, in everything that was and what will be (even the cross becomes a plus). The completion was the appearance of a square:
Night. Window... Oh, if only there was a nurse
opened it!.. There is no question.
On this - now locked - square
My face and shoulders fit. (1.121)
3.2.4. "Window Square" appears in 1969. Man chose to communicate with the world a space limited by four straight lines.
This is a collection in which two opposites meet - time and space. And Brodsky’s poems affirm the dictation of space:
...Laughing wryly,
Let Time not take bribes -
Space, friend, is money-loving!
The two-kopeck eagle is right,
corrected four times! (1.159)
“The End of a Beautiful Era” is the central poem of this chronological collection. The name speaks for itself. In this world, the world of the end of an era:
Only fish in the seas know the value of freedom; but their
Dumbness forces us, as it were, to create our own
Labels and cash registers. And the space sticks out with a price list.
Time is created by death. Needing bodies and things
It looks for the properties of both in raw vegetables.
Kochet listens to the chimes. (1.161).
Space does not need objects; it displaces them, leaving only the “surfaces of things” (1.145).
And it’s not that Lobachevsky is strictly watched here,
But the widened world must narrow somewhere, and here -
This is where the prospect ends. (1.162)
This is how the world becomes a blueprint. Probably what he really is.
Brodsky expresses man’s desire to surround himself with squares (a far from imperfect geometric figure) in just a few lines:
...All sweaty
He wanders naked on the parquet floor at night
not in your own apartment, but in the corner
big earth that is round,
with a vague thought of green leaves. (1.174)
3.2.5. 1970 Year of the theorem. Year of Brodsky's studies. What he was looking for from the very beginning of his creative, and perhaps even life, path, he expressed in a theorem.
Reinforcing the importance of space:
Friend, honor space! (1.227)
Brodsky writes instructions for seeing what really is, instructions for construction - “Singing without music.”
This poem is central in terms of chronological division and the purpose of our study. This is an encrypted drawing, the text dictates the construction of a geometric model.
In our opinion, this spatial model represents two similar triangles lying in different planes and intersecting along a straight line that is perpendicular to each triangle. It is built as follows.
The poem consists of three semantic parts. The first of them is an introduction and transfers the real world into the dimension of a poetic text. In the second part of the poem, a textual construction of a geometric model of one of the triangles, namely the earth’s, occurs. It begins with drawing a perpendicular as a support for the heavens (1.233). The statement that a person is just a point is transformed from a philosophical concept into a geographical one (which proves the earthly origin of the first triangle):
... because we were at that time
we will diminish there too, God knows,
invisible to each other,
I still consider it an honor to be with you
reputed to be dots... (1.233)
The base to which the perpendicular was drawn (more precisely, in Brodsky the base is drawn to the perpendicular) is a line connecting two points - separation (in the psychological and spatial sense of the word):
...so, separation
there is a straight line... (1.234).
The other two sides are formed by the views of “the couple eager to meet” (1.234). The apex of the triangle becomes a spatial characteristic denoting a refuge for lovers. The earth triangle is a love triangle. Absolutely vital and real, only the third is not a person, but a meeting place, unknown and to some extent frightening with its mystery (1.234).
Having decided on the symbol of space - blank paper, Brodsky continues to build his geometric model of the poem (more precisely, he continues the dictation of language in the service of geometry). The construction of the second triangle begins, a surreal triangle that exists in the dimension of a poetic text. In a world where there is a substitution of concepts and terms accepted in real life. Let us conditionally call this world heavenly, because:
…our
the world is still limited by power
Creator: let us not have a guard
sky-high, so someone's passion
transcendental... (1.235).
The separation in this triangle is transformed into a straight line that does not connect two given points, but lies between them. It is through it, according to Brodsky, that the dependence of love on life is expressed. Most likely, this will be a different distance from the points to the line:
... break the drawing
by degrees, and squeeze it into the grid
its length - and you will find the dependence of love on life. (1.235).
This straight line is a kind of limit or place of points where two data will never be together. She is the border that separates them, which they are unable to cross. This straight line does not contain the point that in the first triangle was the meeting place, the meeting of “two piercing glances.” And the construction continues by constructing a perpendicular from the center of this line. But since the straight line is infinite, the point from which the perpendicular is restored is taken to be the center of the segment connecting these two points in the earth’s triangle (earthly separation). Based on previous analyses, we can conclude that these points are transferred from the terrestrial triangle to the celestial triangle. And their location will be the straight line between the two data. They transform into straight lines that meet at the base of the perpendicular and diverge in opposite directions. Since the straight line contains an infinite number of points, the following constructions can be presented in various versions, depending on subjective perception. The poet himself speaks about this at the beginning of the poem, mentioning “twenty-eight possibilities” (1.233). The sides of this triangle are also the lines of “piercing two glances”, only now they are transferred to another plane. Brodsky first defines the angle, and then only what forms it. This is the geometry of his world. This angle is at the vertex of the perpendicular. And the points of intersection of two views in the earthly and celestial triangle coincide and are the vertex of the angles, the common point, the point of connection in the real and unreal world, the point of connection of these two worlds:
...she herself is a service to them,
like a mirror where they look
not laughing at each other
take a look... (1.236).
Thus, each of the views is an incident and reflected ray at the same time. According to Brodsky, the lines of sight intersect at right angles:
... and every glance,
facing the top - leg. (1.235).
...an eyesore
abundantly proven scarecrows,
life requires us to find
what we have: an angle. (1.236).
By providing the geometric term with real material explanations, Brodsky explains its meaning for objective reality. Turning to reality, the author finds in what has always been clear a hidden meaning that explains well-known concepts. And gradually:
...the treasures of lonely thoughts, trash
unspoken words - all that
we have accumulated in the corners... (1.236)
The corners of the room turn into the very corners that form the intersecting lines in our model. In this case, this is the intersection of direct earthly separation and views emerging from these points.
In his creation, Brodsky reaches the highest degree of mastery:
And sooner or later, period
The indicated one will gain
Almost material appearance,
Star dignity and that
The inner light that is the cloud
Not covered... (1.237).
The point falls on the star map, and since the star is long-lasting, it becomes the fate of the two points. With what was given to them for a long time, forever, until the grave. Because, “invisible to each other,” they are both visible from there. And it will be so always and everywhere, at any time and in any space, which, in the end:
...Let's begin
depends on it
all-seeing. As if in reality
did not arrest the darkness,
take it now and paste it
into your new horoscope, for now,
all seeing eye of words
I couldn’t figure it out... (1.237)
Perhaps Joseph Brodsky had a specific star in mind. It seems to us that this star could be part of the constellation Gemini. As you know, Joseph Brodsky was born under the constellation Gemini. And the two points, according to our hypothetical assumption, are the two brightest stars of this constellation.
As an appendix, here are three diagrams for people with less rich spatial imagination.
lPZDB DCHB ZPDB OBBD S PVYASCHYM UCHPENKH OBKHYUOPNH THLPCHPDYFEMA, YuFP CH LBUEUFCHE DYRMPNOPK TBVPFSCH S UPVYTBMUS RETECHEUFY UFYIPFCHPTEOYE yPUIZHB vTPDULPZP "rTEDUFBCHMEOYE", BY KHMSHCH VOKHMUS NOE FBL TSE, LBL FSCH KHMSHCHVBEYSHUS RUYIYUUEULY VPMSHOPNH YUEMPCHELH, LPFPTSCHK TBUULBSCHCHBEF P FPN, LBL ON DPCHPMSHOP YBUFP PVEBEFUS U TsYFEMSNY RMBOEFSH NBTU. lPOYUOP, TEBLGYS NPEZP THLPCHPDYFEMS VSHMB CHRPMOYE PRTBCHDBOB: "rTEDUFBCHMEOYE" RTEDUFBCHMSEF UPVPK PDYO YUBNSHI OEDPUFKHROSHI FELUFPCH RPPFB, LPFPTSCHK YJCHEUFEO FEN, YuFP EZ P OE YOFETEUKHEF TBZMBDYFSH LPE-LBLYE FTHDOPUFY TBDI DPMZPTSYFYS EZP YUYFBFEMEK. with HCE UFP TB (YMY VPMSHYE) RETEYUYFBM LFP UFYIPFCHPTEOYE, YOPZDB U RPNPESH UCHPYI TKHUULYI RTERPDBCHBFEMEK Y DTHJEK. lTPNE FPZP, YuFP POY CHSHCHULBBMY UCHPY NOEOYS, YuFP PO UPIYEM U KHNB, SING CHUE VSHCHMY CHSCHOKHTSDEOSCH RTYOBFSHUS CH FPN, YuFP YN DBCE FTHDOP ULBUBFSH, LBLPK YNEOOOP UNSHUM ULTSHCHBEF US CH LBTSDPN UMPCHE, CH LBCDPC UFTPLE. FEN VPMEE, LPOYUOP, DMS YOPUFTBOOPZP YUFBFEMS. Chu Pfmyye PF RTBLFYUEL Chuei Rtedschdhei Ufyipch VTPPDULPZP, "Rededufbchmeyuye" Ynefski Gemsha PRYUBULPK Tebmshopufy Yuokhftzp Thulpzp Ottzchlb. UMPCHB LFPPZP UFYIPFCHPTEOYS UBNY RP UEVE RPLBYSCCHBAF, LBL UPCHEFULPE RTEDUFBCHMEOYE NYTB TBTHYFEMSHOSCHN PVTBBPN CHMYSMP ABOUT OTBCHUFCHOOPUFY Y SSHL THUULPZP OBTPDB, DB TSE LBL LMBUUYLY THUULPK MYFETBFHTSCH CH OELPFPTPK UFEREOY VSHMY ЪBUFBCHMEOSCH RPDYUYOYFSHUS YDEBMBN LPNNHOYNB. h LFPN CE UFYIPFCHPTEOYY NSCH UMSCHYYN, LBL MADI VSHMY UOYTSOSCH DP VE'MYYUOPZP UPUFPSOYS YuETOPK NBUUSCH, Y CHPRTELY CHUENKH LFPNKH YI PFYSCCHSHCH ABOUT RTPYUIPDSEEE UMHTSYF UMBVSHCHN CHYD PN RTPFEUFB RTPFYCH LFPC YUKHYY, LPFPTHA YURPCHEDHAF UFPSEYE ABOUT FTYVKHOE CHPTSDY.
lPOYUOP, SJSHLPCHPE TBCHYFYE RPDPVOPZP TPDB OYLPZDB OE RTPYUIPDYMP CH BOZMYKULPN SSHLE Y FEN UBNSHCHN CHPOYLBEF CHPRTPU P RETECHPDNPUFY "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS". lBL NPTsOP RETEDBFSH FH TEBMSHOPUFSH, LPFPTBS RTPUFP OE UKHEEUFCHPCHBMB - OE FP YuFP CH YUFPTYY DTHZPK LHMSHFKhTSCH, B CH EE SJSHLE. y Ch FP TSE CHTENS, LBLPK OPUYFEMSH BOZMYKULPZP SJSCHLB OHTSDBEFUS H RETECHPDE FBLPZP UFYIPFCHPTEOYS? eUMY BNETYLBOULYK YUFBFEMSH IPUEF RPOSFSH, UFP YNEOOOP UMHYUMPUSH CH TPUUYY CH 20-N CHELE, BY NPTsEF URTBCHYFSHUS U GEMK VYVMYPFELPK HCE RETECHEDEOOSCHY U TKHULPZP LOYZ; B EUMY EZP TsBTsDB ЪBOYS RTECHSHCHYBEF LFY RTEDEMSH, PO NPTsEF ЪBOSFSHUS YЪHYUEOYEN THUULPZP SJSHLB Y, CH LPOGE LPOGPCH, RTPYUEUFSH RPDMYOOPE UFYIPFCHPTEOYE. vShchFSH NPTSEF, LFPC TEBMSHOPUFY, LPFPTBBS PJCHHYUEOB CH "rTEDUFBCHMEOYY", UKhTsDEOP PUFBFSHUS ABOUT TDOPN SJSHLE. dBTSE UBN ZhBLF, YuFP vTPDULYK, LPFPTSCHK DPCHPMSHOP YBUFP ЪBOYNBEFUS RETECHPDPN UCHPYI RTPYCHEDEOYK, OE CHSMUS RETECHEUFY LFP UFYIPFChPTEOYE, RPDFCHETTSDBEF FP MY EZP OERETECHPDYNPUFSH, FP MY VEURPMEYOPUFSH FBLPZP ЪBDBOYS.
ъБУЭН, - YMY, FPYUOOEE ZPCHPTS, DMS LPZP RETECHEUFY? NPK PFCHEF ABOUT LFPF CHPRTPU - MYUOSCHK: DMS NEOS RETECHPD - LFP CHYD YUFEOYS. GEMSH MAVPK ZhPTNSCH YUFEOYS - LBL-FP DPUFYUSH UKHEOPUFY RTPY'CHEDEOYS, RPOSFSH, YuFP UFPYF NETSDH Y ЪB UFTPLBNY. lFP UCHSBOP U UBNPK ZMBCHOPK PUPVEOOPUFSHHA MAVPZP RTPY'CHEDEOYS MYFETBFHTSCH CHSHUPLPZP TBZB. lBL RYYEF OENEGLYK LTYFYL chBMSHFET VEOSHSNYO CH UCHPEN VMYUFBFEMSHOPN BUYE "UBBYUB RETECHPDYULB": "uFP YNEOOOP ZPCHPTYF RTPY'CHEDEOYE MYFETBFHTSCH? uFP POP RETEDBEF? pOP TBUULBSCCHBEF PUEOSH NBMP FEN, LFP EZP RPOINBEF. EZP UKHEEUFCHEOOPE UCHPKUFChP - OH CHSHCHULBSHCHBOIE, OH RETEDBYUB YOZHPTNBGYY". h DBOOPN UMHYUBE, YUFBS "rTEDUFBCHMEOYE", NSC OE RTYUKHFUFCHKHEN ABOUT HTPLE UPCHEFULPK YUFPTYY LH MSHFKhTSCH, IPFS UFYIPFCHPTEOYE RETEOBUSHEEOP RETUPOBTSBNY, UPVSHCHFYSNY, TEBMYEK LFPC BPPIY.nSH UMSHCHYYN RTUYUIFBOYE, RMBU IPFS VSH PDOPK DKHYY, LPFPTBBS - CHPURPNYOBS CHUE, YuFP POB RETETSYMB - RSCHFBEFUS PFMYFSH LFY UFTBDBOYS CH UMPCHEUOSCHK CHYD.CHP CHUSLPN UMHYUBE, LPZDB NSCH YUIFBEN MAVPE RTPY'CHEDEOYE YЪSEOP K UMPCHEUOPUFY, DBCE VE CHUSLPZP OBNETEOYS RETECHUFY U TKHUULPZP ABOUT BOZMYKULYK, U BOZMYKULPZP ABOUT RPMSHULYK, NSCH RETECHPDYN U FPZP SJSHLB, ABOUT LPFPTPN OBRYUBOP RTPY'CHEDEOYE, ABOUT OBY PVEIK TPDOPC SSCHL, SSCHL DKHYY. EN ЪЪБ, УМЭШ ьФПЗП СЪШЧЛБ Х УФИИБИ, Х ТБУУЛБББИ CHEMYLYI RYUBFEMEK, Ch FPN YUYUME - vTPDULPZP.
lBL ZPCHPTYF VEOSHSNYO CH CHCHYEKHRPNSOKHFPN YUUE: "mAVPK RETECHPD, LPFPTSCHK OBNETEO YURPMOIFSH RETEDBAEKHA ZHKHOLGYA, OE NPTSEF OYUEZP RETEDBFSH LTPNE YOZHTNBGYY. bFP PFMY YUYFEMSHOSCHK RTYOBL RMPIYI RETECHPDPCH." th LBLBS ZMBCHOBS JBDBYUB RP NOEOYA VEOSHSNYOB? "ЪБДББУБ КРОПДУЛБ - ьФП ПУЧПВПДYФШ Х ТПДОПК СЪШЛ ФПФ YuYUFEKYК СЪШЛ, ЛПФПТШК ПЛПМДПЧКО ДТХЗИН СЪШЛПН, ПУЧПВПДИФШ ФПФ СЪШЛН, ЪBLMAYUEO Х FATSHNE RTPYCHE DEOOIS, RHFEN RETEUUP'DBOYS LFPPZP RTPY'CHEDEOYS."
with IPUH UEKYUBU UDEMBFSH NBMEOSHLPE PFUFHRMEOYE, YUFPVSH YMMAUFTYTPCHBFSH, LBL PVUFPYF DEMP U RETECHPDPN ABOUT NPEK TPDYOE. with RTPYUYFBA RETCHSHCHPUENSH UFTPL UFYIPFCHPTEOYS ECHZEOYS TEKOB "nPOBUFSHTSH"; RFPPN RETECHPD H.William Tjalsma, YuFP VShchM PRHVMYLPCHBO CH BOZMYKULPN YJDBOY YJCHEUFOPZP UPCHEFULPZP BMSHNBOBBIB "neftprpmsh"; RPFPN UChPK RETECHPD.
UB UFBOGYEK "UPLPMSHOYIL", HERE NBZBYO NSUOPK
th LMBDVYEE TBULPMSHOYLPCH, VShchM NPOBUFSHTSH NHTSULPK.
THYOB Y FCHETDSCHOS, TBCHBMYOB, ZOYMSHE -
h DCHBDGBFSHCH RKHUFYMY UFTPEOSHE RPD TSIMSHE.
fBLHA LPNNHOBMMLH FERETSH HTs OE USCHULBFSH.
BUYEN S RETEEIBM, OE UFBOKH PVASUOSFSH.
s, ЪБЗОБOOШЧК, ПРБМШОСХХК, Х ЦЪой О ЛТБА
UNEOSM FBN PFRECHBMSHOA ABOUT LPNOBFH UCHPA...
Beyond Sokolniki Station, where there"s a meat store
And the Old Believers" cemetery, there was a monastery.
A ruin and a sea of mud, wreckage, disintegration:
In the twenties they set to turning into a dwelling.
There's no other communal house like it today.
Why I did it, I"ll not explain. I, worn-out, scandal-ridden,
Bum and lout, exchanged Leningrad for a monastery cell.
Behind Sokolniki Station, by the raskolniki cemetery
And a butcher's shop, stood the remodeled monastery.
It was a folly and a fortress, a shambles and a dive -
They made the building "co-op" in nineteen twenty-five.
Communal pads like that one doesn't find these days,
And why I ended up there I won't begin to say.
Harassed and out-of-favor, I was living on the edge,
And so I tossed my pillow on some old friar's ledge.
with OE IPFEM VSHCHBUFBFSHUS. with OE KHCHETEO, YuFP NPK RETECHPD IPTPY, OP FEN OE NEOEE ON FBL TSE, LBL "nPOBUFSHTSH" TEKOB, UFYIPFCHPTEOYE. b RETECHPD Tjalsma - LFP RTPUFP RETEDBYUB LPE-LBLPK YOZHPTNBGYY. EZP RETECHPD RTPYCHPDYF ABOUT YUFBFEMS CHREYUBFMEOYE, YUFP TEKO - LBLPC-FP ЪBOKHDB YMY OEKHDBYUOIL, LPFPTSCHK OILBL OE NPTsEF OMBBDYFSH UCHPA TSYOSH. vPMEE FPZP, UHDS RP RETECHPDH, PO, F.E. TEKO, OE KHNEEF UPYOSFSH UFYYY. rTPRHULBS UBNPE LMENEOFBTOP - F.E. FP, YuFP DHI MAVPZP UFYIPFCHPTEOYS ЪБМПЦЕО OE Х ЪБУЭООСИ УПЧ, B Ч TYFNBI, Ч TYZHNBI, Ч LPOOPFBGYSI, DBTSе Ч UETDGEVIEOYY, Ч YБЗБИ РПФБ - Tjalsma ЪБВМХЦДБЭФУС. y RPFPNH EZP RETECHPD OE YNEEF OILBLLPZP PFOPEEOYS UP UFYIPFCHPTEOYEN TEKOB.
UEKYUBU S VKHDH ZPCHPTYFSH P FTHDOPUFSI, U LPFPTSCHNY CHUFTEYUBEFUS RETECHPDYUYL, ЪBFESCHIYUSH RETECHEUFY "rTEDUFBCHMEOYE". OP RETED FEN, LBL S FTPOKHUSH CH LFPF RHFSH, S DPMTSEO RTPYUEUFSH CHUMKHI IPFS VSHCH RETCHHA UFTPZHKH DBOOZP UFYIPFCHPTEOYS, YUFPVSH POOBLPNYFSH CHBU U OIN.
rTEDUFBCHMEOYE
rTEDUEDBFEMSH UPCHOBTLLPNB, oBTLPNRTPUB, nYYODEMB!
bFB NEUFOPUFSH NOE BOBLPNB, LBL PLTBYOB lYFBS!
bFB MYOOPUFSH NOE BOBLPNB! ъOBL DPRTPUB CHNEUFP FEMB.
nOPZPFPYYE YYOEMY. chNEUFP NPIZB - JBRSFBS.
chNEUFP ZPTMB - FENOSCHK CHEWET. chNEUFP VHTLBM - OBL DEMEOSHS.
CHPF Y CHCHYEM YUEMPCHYUEL, RTEDUFBCHYFEMSH OBUEMEOSHS.
chPF Y CHCHYEM ZTBTSDBOYO,
DPUFBAEIK YYFBOYO.
"b RPYUEN FB TBDYPMB?"
"LFP FBLPK UBChPOBTPMB?"
"CHETPSFOP, UPLTBEEEOSHE."
"WHERE IS UPTFYT, RTPYKH RTPEEOSHS?"
with DKHNBA, YuFP RETECHPDYUIL PVSBO RPOSFSH UFYIPFCHPTEOYE CH RPDTPVOPUFSI; S DBCE RPJCHPMYM VSHCH UEVE ULBJBFSH - MHYUYE YUEN RPF; F.E., DBCE LFY PVPTPFSHCH, TYZHNSCH, LPFPTSCHE RPF PFPVTBM, VShchFSH NPTSEF, VEUUPOBFEMSHOP, RPD UMBCHOSHCHN CHMYSOYEN NKHSHCH - CHUE LFY CHEY DPMTSOSCH UFBFSH RTEDNEFPN BOBMY B DMS RETECHPDUYLB. h RETCHHA PYUETEDSH OHTSOP YULBFSH YUFPYUOIL UFYIPFCHPTEOYS, RPRSCHFBFSHUS KHUMSHCHYBFSH IB DTHZYI RTPY'CHEDEOYK CH OEN. oBUYUEF "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS", UBNSHCHN ZMBCHOSCHN YUFPYUOILPN SCHMSEFUS RPNB bMELUBODTTB vMPLB "dCHEOBDGBFSH". dBCE ZHTNB "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS" UBNB RP UEVE DBEF OBN LFPF LMAYU: UFYIPFCHPTEOYE UPUFPYF YJ RSFOBDGBFY "DCHEOBDGBFYUFYYYK", RMAU ЪBLMAYUYFEMSHOPE YEFSHTOBDGBFYUFYYE. fBLBS UFTPZHYUUEULBS UFTHLFKHTB OBUFPMSHLP OEPVSHLOPCHEOOBS, YUFPVSH OE CHSHCHBFSH KH OBU CHPRTPUSCH RP RPCHPDH ITS RTPYUIPTSDEOOIS. l FPNKH CE, WITH OBUY OUEULPMSHLP NPNEOFPCH CH "rTEDUFBCHMEOYY", - LFY DEFBMY LBTSKHFUS, RP NEOSHYEK NETE, RPDTTBTSBOYSNY, BIBNY PFDEMSHOSHHI UFTPL RPNSCH vMPLB. s OE OBZTKHTSKH CHBU RETEYUMEOYEN CHUEI, OP S RTYCHEDH PDOP YIP L RTYNETKH. h "dCHEOBDGBFY" vMPL PRYUSCHCHBEF ЪBVTPEOOOPZP h UFPTPOKH OPCHSHCHN NYTPN YUEMPCHELB "uFPYF VKHTTSHK, LBL REU ZPMPDOSCHK, / uFPYF VEENNMCHOSCHK, LBL CHPRTPU." fBL CE CH UBNPN OBYUBME "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS" PRYUSCHCHBEFUS LBLPC-FP YUEMPCHEYUEL: "fB MYUOPUFSH NOE OBLPNB! ъOBL DPRTPUB CHNEUFP FEMB." lBLPK-FP KHZTPTSBAEIK YUMEO LPNRBTFYY YDEF ABOUT UNEOKH RPDPTYFEMSHOPNH VKHTTSHA. OP CHUE LFP NEMPYY RP UTTBCHOOYA U DTHZYNY UIPDUFCHBNY LFYI UFYIPFCHPTEOYK. pDOP SCHMSEFUS FEN, YuFP CH PVPYI RTPYCHEDEOYSI ZPMPUB OBTPDB DPOPUSFUS DP OBU. h "dCHEOBDGBFY" vMPL LBL VKhDFP YDEF RP KHMYGE, UMSCHYB PFTCHCHLY YI TBZPCHPTPCH Y FBL TSE, TBZPCHPTPCH UPMDBF, F.E. UBNYI dCHEOBDGBFY. oBDP PFNEFYFSH, YuFP vMPL RETEDBEF LFY TERMILY CH FBL OBSCHCHBENPK "YUBUFKHYYUOPK" ZHTNE, CH TBNETBI OBTPDOSHI REUEO Y BUFKHYEL. h "rTEDUFBCHMEOYY" LBTSDPE DCHEOBDGBFYUFYYYE LPOYUBEFUS TERMYLBNY, RPDUMHYBOOSCHNY H FPMRE. fY TERMILY RETEDBAFUS CH CHYDE YUBUFKHYEL. oBRTYNET: "here SKGP, FBN - ULPCHPTPDLB."/ "zPChPTSF, YuFP ULPTP CHPDLB/ UOPCHB VHDEF RP THVMA."/ "nBN, S RBRH OE MAVMA." dBTSE VBOBMSHOSCHK MAVPCHOSCHK FTEKHZPMSHOIL, YuFP UMHTSYF UATSEFOSHCHN UFETSOEN "dCHEOBDGBFY", RTYUKHFUFCHHEF CH "rTEDUFBCHMEOYY", IPFS CH VPMEE ZTHVPN CHYDE Y LBL VSH NETSDH UFTPLBNY : lBFS, chBOSHLB Y REFTHIB RTDPDPMTSBAF UCHPA YUFPTYA, OP OBUYMYE Y VEOBDETSOPUFSH, U LPFPTSHNY POY RTPCHPDYMY "RETCHPE PFDEMEOYE" UCHPEZP TPNBOB, KHUIMYMYUSH Y UFBMY RPTSDLPN CHEEK. th EUFSH EEE PDOP UIPDUFCHP NETSDH PVPYNY UFYIPFCHPTEOYSNY: CH "rTEDUFBCHMEOYY" RETCHBS YUBUFSH LBTSDPK UFTPZHSH LPOYUBEFUS DCHHIUFTPYUOSCHN "TEYANE", LPFPTPPE LBL VHDFP PVPVEBEF RTEDSHDHEEEEEYUFFYYYYE. lBL RTBCHYMP, LFY DCHHIUFYYS OBRYUBOSCH CH FPN TSE TBNETE, LBL UMEDHAEEE: "h PYY VSHEFUS / lTBUOSCHK ZHMBZ. / tBDBEFUS / NETOSHCHK YBZ", F.E. CH RTEPVMBDBAEEN, OBTPDOPN TBNETE "dCHEOBDGBFY". oP, LPOYUOP, RTYIPD TECHPMAGYY OE FPTCEUFCHHAF CH YUBUFKHYLBI "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS": "rTSYUBUSH CH MPZPChP UCHPE / CHPMLY CHPAF "e-NPE"."; "dTKHZ-LHOBL CHPOEBEF LMSHHL/ CH OEDPEEDEOOSCHK YBYMSCHL" Y FBL DBMEE. chUFTEYUBS FBLYE UPCHRBDEOOYS RPYUFY ABOUT LBTSDPN YBZKH, NSCH OE NPTSE OE CHETYFSH, YuFP vTPDULYK UPYUYOYM "rTEDUF BCHMEOYE" RP NPDEMY "dCHEOBDGBFY". PVTБПН РТЪШЧЧБЭФ вМПЛБ. по LBL VХДФП ЗПЧПТИФ ENKH - "CHYDYYSH MY, UBYB, YUEN CHUE LFP LPOYUBEFUS?"
eUFSH EEE FTY YUFPYUOIL "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS", OP SING NEOEE CHBTSOSH RP UTBCHOOYA U vMPLPN. with RPLB OE TBCHYM UCHPK BOBMY LFYI, - BFKH TBVPFKH S PFMPTsKH. FEN OE NEOEE, CHUE UFYIPFCHPTEOYE KHLBYSCHCHBEF ABOUT FP, UFP RETED OBYNYY ZMBYBNY YDEF LPYNBTOSHCHK RETCHPNBKULYK RBTBD - YMY, FPYUOOEE ULBJBFSH, LBLPC-FP TBDYPDYLFPT PRYUSCHB EF OBN RTPYUIPDSEKHA UGEOH - RTYIPDSCH CHPTSDEK Y CHBTSOSCHI ZPUFEK ABOUT FTYVHOKH NBCHPMES ABOUT LTBUPK RMPEBDY. oBRTPFYCH FTYVHOSCH UFPYF FPMRB OBTPDH: NSCH RPDUMHYCHBEN YI PFYSCCHSHCH ABOUT RTPYUIPDSEEE, - IPFS, UHDS RP YI TBZPCHPTBN, YI VPMSHYE YOFETEUHAF VSHFPCHSHCHE RTPVMENSHCH, F.E ., UELU, CHPDLB, URMEFOY, DEOSHZY. th LFP RTPFYCHPRPUFBCHMEOYE - CHMBUFSH Y OBTPD - RTYCHEDEF OBU L UMEDHAEENKH YUFPYUOILH. rP CHUEK CHYDINPUFY, LFP UFYIPFCHPTEOYE RPUFTPEOP RP "LBTOBCHBMSHOPK" MPZYLE. nsch RTYUKHFUFCHKHEN CH EDYOUFCHEOOSCHK DEOSH ZPDB, LPZDB CHUE NPZHF RPJCHPMYFSH UEVE YuFP KHZPDOP, IPFS CH RPMKHULTSHFPN CHYDE. dYUFBOGYS NETSDH CHMBUFSHA Y "ZTSHSHA", F.E. OBTPDPN, OENOPZP UPLTBEBEFUS. dBTSE CHPTSDY SCHMSAFUS TSSEOOOSCHNY CH LFPF DEOSH - EUMY NSCH DPRKHUFYN, YuFP LFP OE "TEBMSHOSCHE" RHYLYO, zPZPMSH, fPMUFPK, zETGEO, LPFPTSHCHE RTYIPDSF ABOUT FTYVHOKH, B YUFPT YUUEULYE UPCHEFULYE RETUPOBTSY. lPOYUOP, ЪFP UNEMPE RTEDRPMPTSEOYE, OP LBL YOBYUE PVASUOYFSH RPSCHMEOYS LMBUUYLPCH TKHUULPK MYFETBFKhTSCH CH FBLPN BVUKHTDOPN CHYDE? vShchFSH NPTSEF, TSDPN U vBIFYOSCHN Y U vMPLPN "ЪPDYUYN" LFPC RPNSH SCHMSEFUS dBOYM iBTNU - PUPVEOOP CH EZP "BOELDPFBI YY TSYOY RKHYLOB" LBLPE-MYVP CHYDPYNEOOYE DPR HUFYNPE. ZMSDS ABOUT NYT RP-iBTNUPCHULY, NSCH VSH OE KhDYCHYMYUSH CHYDEFS "zPZPMS CH VEULPSHTLE" YMY "mSHCHB fPMUFPZP CH RYTSBNE".
with UEKYBU PVTBEBA CHBYE CHOYNBOYE ABOUT FYRSCH FTHDOPUFEK, LPFPTSHCHE CHUFTEYUBAFUS CH RETECHPDE "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS". with OE VKHDH ZPCHPTYFSH P RTPVMENBI, UCHSBOOSCHI UP UFYIPUMPTSEOYEN - LFP UBNP UPVPK TBHNEEFUS. OP S IPFEM VSC RPDFCHETDYFSH, UFP RETECHPDYUYL PVSBO UPITBOSFSH UYUFENKH TYZHNPCHBOYS Y TYFNB LBL NPTsOP VPMSHYE. VE CHUSLPZP UPVMADEOYS RTBCHYM UFYIPFCHPTOPZP YULHUUFCHB PF UFYIPCH RPMKHYUBEFUS RETEDBYUB CHUEZP MYYSH LHYU UMKHYUBKOP UPVTTBCHYIUS UMPC. l UPTSBMEOYA, YNEOOOP FBLYN PVTBBPN NOPZYE RETECHPDYUYLY ABOUT EBRBDE ЪBVMHTSDBAFUS: UYUYFBS TBNET Y TYZHNH RTPUFP RPVPYUOSCHNY RTPDHLFBNY RTYUFTBUFYS L FTBDYGYY, SING CHUEZDB ZPFPCHSH VTPUYFSH rKHYLYOB ЪB VPTF RBTPIPDB, YUFPVSHCHOE VEURPLPYFSH YUYFBFEMS. lPOYUOP, SING OE PRTBCHDBOSCH: RPULPMSHLH TEYUSH IDEF P RETECHPDE U TKHULPZP ABOUT BOZMIKULYK, FP UYUFENSCH UFYIPUMPTSEOYS DPUFBFPYUOP VMYOLY, YUFPVSH RPJCHPMSFSH RPFUYUEULYK RETECHPD .
dBCE CH UBNPN OBCHBOY UFYIPFCHPTEOYS RETECHPDYUYL UFBMLYCHBEFUS U RTPVMENPK. NPTsOP ULBUBFSH, YuFP vTPDULYK YNEEF CH CHYDH RTBLFYUEULY CHUE OBYUEOYS UMPCHB "RTEDUFBCHMEOYE", CH FPN YUYUME: RYUSHNEOOPE ЪBSCHMEOYE P YUEN-O.; FEBFTBMSHOPE ЪTEMYEE, URELFBLMSH; OBOYE, RPOINBOYE YEZP-M. y, L UPTSBMEOYA, OEF PDOPZP UMChB ABOUT BOZM. SJSHLE, LPFPTPPE UPPFFCHEFUFCHHEF CHUEN LFYN OBYUEOYSN. ъDEUSH DBOOPNH RETECHPDYUYLH RTYIPDIFUS RPDPVTBFSH BOZM. "revue" y LFPF CHSHCHVPT "revue" PUPVEOOOP PRTBCHDBO, EUMY - LBL S CHCHCHYE RTEDMPTSYM, TEYUSH YDEF P RETCHPNBKULPN RBTBDE, LPFPTSCHK vTPDULYK RTEDUFBCHMSEF OBN CH CHYDE ZhBOFBUNBZPTYY. h RTPUFTBOUFCHE "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS" CHUE RPJCHPMEOP - uFBMYO Y RHYLYO NPZHF RPNEUFYFSHUS ABOUT FPK CE UGEOE.
chFPTPC FYR RTPVMEN, YuFP CHUFTEYUBEFUS OBN CH RETECHPDE "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS", S VSC OBCHBM "GYFBFOPUFSHA". lFP UFYIPFCHPTEOYE RETERPMOOOP GYFBFBNY Y OBNELBNY, OBUYOBS U nBSLPCHULPZP, LPOYUBS bINBFPCHPK. vTPDULYK RETEDEMSHCHBEF CHUE LFY GYFBFSCH UNEYIPFCHPTOSCHN PVTBBPN, UPITBOSS EUFEUFCHEOOP FPMSHLP bINBFPCHH PF UOTSEOYS. with RTYCHEDH OUEULPMSHLP RTYNETPCH. h RETCHPK UFTPZHE PRYUSCHCHBEFUS "RTEDUFBCHYFEMSH OBUEMEOSHS" - "chPF Y CHCHYEM ZTBTSDBOYO, / DPUFBAEYK YYFBOYO." lPOYUOP, LFP OBNEL ABOUT "UFYIY P UPCHEFULPN RBURPTFE" nBSLPCHULPZP. vTPDULYK UOTSBEF ZPTDPUFSH nBSLPCHULYI UFYIPCH, RTPRHULBS DPRPMOEOEYE RPUME ZMBZPMB "DPUFBFSH", PUFBCHMSS OBN OEULPMSHLP CHHMSHZBTOKHA NSHUMSH. dBCE PRYUBOIE bFPZP RTEDUFBCHYFEMS - RETETBVPFLB DEFULY UFYIPCH, LPFPTSCHE UPRTPCHPCDBAF TYUPCHBOIE UNEYOPZP YuEMPCHYUELB: "fPYULB, FPYULB, ЪBRSFBS, / nYOKHU - TPTSYGB L TYCHBS, / rBMLY, RBMLY, PZHTEYUYL - / chPF Y CHCHYEM YuEMPCHYUEL". h PDOPK TERMYLE NSCH UMSCHYYN "x RPRB VSHMB UPVBLB." LBTSDSCHK TKHUULYK NPTSEF RTDDPMTSYFSH HFH GYFBFH: "x RPRB VSHMB UPVBLB. ON ITS MAVIM. pOB UYAEMB LHUPL NSUB. ON ITS HVYM. h SNKH ЪBLPRBM, OBDRYUSH OBRYUBM...". OP DMS YOPUFTBOOPZP YUYFBFEMS, LFB TERMYLB OYUEZP OE RPDULBSHCHBEF. dBMSHYE, NSCH YUFBEN: "rP eChTPR VTPDSF GENERAL H FEEFOSCHI RPYULBI RBTBY." lFP SUOBS RETELMYULB U "nBOYZHEUFPN lPNNHOYUFYUUEULPK rBTFYY" nBTLUB Y OZEMSHUB, - "rTYЪTBL VTPDYF RP ECHTPR - RTYЪTBL LPNNHOYЪNB." vTPDULYK OE ЪTS YURPMSH'HEF GYFBFSHCH: RETEDEMSHCHBS, DEZHPTNYTHS YI, BY VPTEFUS RTPFYCH RTPRBZBODSCH, LPFPTBS UFBMB ЪBNEOYFEMEN CHP'DKHIB CH UPCHEFULPE CHTENS. PFTEYYCHYUSH PF TPMY "YOTSEOOETB YUEMPCHYUEULYI DKHY", BY OBTSYZBEF LFY MPHOZY. bFB GYFBFOPUFSH - VKhDSH POB LTBUICHB YMY OERTYMYYUOB DMS TKHULPZP YUFBFEMS - PUFBEFUS RTPVMENPK VE CHYDYNPZP TEYEOYS DMS RETECHPDUYLB. fBLBS RPOSFOBS CHUEN YUYFBFEMSN FTBDYGYS, - VPMEE FPZP, FBLPE YTPOYUEULPE PFOPEYOYE L DBOOPC FTBDYGYY, RTPUFP OE UKHEEUFCHHAF CH FBLPN TSE CHYDE CH BOZMYKULPN SESSCHLE. dBCE MHYUYENH BOZMPSCHYUOPNH UREGYBMYUFH RP THUULPK MYFETBFHTE FTHDOP HOBFSH CHUE LFY GYFBFSCH. edYOUFCHEOOPE, YuFP NPTSEF UDEMBFS RETECHPDYUYL - LFP RETECHUFY YI, YuFPVSHCH OYI UPITBOSMYUSH IPFS VSC UMESH LFPC GYFBFOPUFY.
with VSHCH RPUFBCHYM FTEFYK FYR RTPVMEN, ABOUT LPFPTSCHI URPFSCHLBEFUS RETECHPDYYL CH "rTEDUFBCHMEOYY", RPD ЪБЗПМЧЛПН "ТЭБМИY". h LFPF TBBDEM NPTsOP CHLMAYUYFSH OE FPMSHLP RTEDNEFSH, CHSFSHCHE Y VSHCHFB, OP DBTSE TBMYUOSHE UFYMY THUULPK TEYUY, UMEOZPCHCHESH NBFETOSHCHCHSTBTSEOYS. h UBNPN OBYUBME UFYIPFCHPTEOYS RETECHPDYUYL UFBMLYCHBEFUS U ЪBDBUEK: LBL RETECHEUFY "rTEDUEDBFEMSH UPCHOBTLLPNB, oBTLPNRTPUB, nYOYODEMB!". DMS OPUIFEMS BOZMYKULPZP SJSCHLB LFY UMPCHB RTPUFP OERPOSPOSHE ЪCHHLY. th TBCHETOHFSHCHK CHBTYBOF - "Chairman of the Council of People"s Commissars, the People"s Commissariat of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" - OE PUEOSH LTBUYCHP VSC ЪCHHYUBM. with TEYM PUFBCHYFSH LFY UPLTBEEOYS CH RTYVMYYFEMSHOPN CHYDE, RPULPMSHLH CH LFPN TSE DCHEOBDGBFYUFYYY LBLPK-FP YUMEO FPMRSCH URTBYCHBEF, "lFP FBLPC UBCHPOBTPMB?"; ENKH PFCHEYUBAF, "CHETPSFOP, UPLTBEEOSHE". fP EUFSH, DMS OBTPDOPZP KHNB, PLTHTSEOOPZP UPCHEFULYY MPIKHOZBNY Y OEPMPZYNBNY, FBLYE UMPCHB FETSAF UCHPK UNSHCHUM.
b EUMY NSCH VETEN VPMEE LPOLTEFOSHCHK RTEDNEF YЪ RPCHUEDOECHOPK TSYOY, - OBRTYNET, bFKH OBTEEBOOKHA LPUP RPMFBCHULHA LPMVBUKH, LPFPTBS RPSCHMSEFUS PE CHFPTK UFTPZHE, NSCH URPFSCHLBEN US ABOUT FBLPC CE RTPVMEN. chPPVEE NSCH - BNETYLBOGSH - OE FP YuFP NSCH OE LPUP TETEN LPMVBUKH, - NSCH RTPUFP TEDLP TETEN LPMVBUKH. th UFTPZHE RTP fPMUFPZP NSCH YUIFBEN, YuFP "VTPDSF RBTHVLY U OPTSBNY, RBIOEF YYRTPN U LPNUPNPMPN". DMS TKHUULYI UBNP UMPP "YYRT" RBIOEF YYRTPN - DMS BNETYLBOULPZP OPUB YYRT OYUEN OE RBIOEF. th LBL RETEDBFSH UPCHNEEEOOYE TBOSCHI UMPECH TEYUY CH FBLYI UFTPLBI, LBL "chNEUFP VHTLBM - OBBL DEMEOSHS. / chPF Y CHCHYEM YuEMPCHYUEL, RTEDUFBCHYFEMSH OBUEMEOSHS." lBL CHPURTPIYCHUFY ЪMPVOPE PUFTPHNYE, CHSTBYFEMSHOPUFSH Y, CH LPOYUOPN YFPZE, RBZHPU UMEDHAEEK TERMYLY-YUBUFKHYLY: "tsYOSH - POB LBL MPFETES." / "chSHCHYMB ЪBNХЦ ЪБ ЭЧТЭС." / "dPCHEMY UFTBOKH DP THYULY." / "dBK YUETCHPOEG DP RPMKHYULY".
h LPOGE LPOGPCH, RETECHPDYUYL, TBUUNPFTECH UFYIPFCHPTEOYE DP NEMSHYUBKYI RPDTPVOPUFEK, DBTSE RTPTSYCH OELPFPTPE CHTENS CH NYTE UFYIPFCHPTEOYS, DPMTSEO Ch LBLPK-FP UFEREOY ЪБВШЧФШ ПВ ь FPN NYTE, Y, CHETS CH UCHPE S'SCHLPCHPE YUHFSHE, UPJDBFSH OPCHSHCHK NYT, LPFPTSCHK VHDEF UBCHYUEFSH PF UFBTPZP, PF RPDMYOOILB, FBL CE, LBL CHPURPNYOBOIE PDOPZP DOS ЪBCHYUYF PF LFPP DOS. RETECHPD FBLPZP TPDB VKhDEF OPCHBS TSY'OSH, ЪBZTPVOBS TsY'OSH RPDMYOOILB. with DPMTSEO RTYOBFSHUS CH FPN, YuFP - RPULPMSHLH S HCE DBCHOP PLPMDPCBO "rTEDUFBCHMEOYEN" - WITH DP UYI RPT OE DPVTBMUS DP LFPP NYTB. with OE KHCHETEO, YuFP BOZMYKULYK SJSHL - RP NEOSHYEK NETE, NPK BOZMYKULYK SJSHL, URPUPVEO ABOUT FBLPK CHOMEF, YMY URKHUL. lFP, NPTsEF VShchFSh, IPTPYP. with YYCHYOSAUSH RETED CHBNY, YuFP S refinery LPUOKHFSHUS CHUEZP MYYSH RPCHETIOPUFY YEDECHTTB "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS" CH LFPN DPLMBDE. ъBLBOYUYCHBS, S RTPYUYFBA RETCHHA UFTPZHKH UCHPEZP RETECHPDB "rTEDUFBCHMEOYS", RPULPMSHLH PUFBMSHOSCH RPLB OE PFTBVPFBOOSCH.
Joseph Brodsky's Revue
Chairman of the Minindel, the Sovnarkom and the Narkompros!
This terrain"s as familiar to me as the marches of Cathay!
This character"s familiar! No body, but a question mark"s pose.
I see a greatcoat"s dot, dot, dot. A comma"s pause, but not a brain.
Twilight"s swallowed the throat. A division sign, no eyeballs staring.
Here he is - a mannikin's emerged, the population's darling.
Here he is, the citizen,
taking it out of his wide pants.
"How much for that radiola?"
"Who the heck"s Savonarola?"
"Well, probably an acronym."
"Beg your pardons where"s the can?
Joseph Brodsky is a poet of the post-catastrophic experience. He belongs to the writers who, like the Italian Primo Levi, did not accept the radicalism of T. Adorno and defended the importance of poetry precisely “after Auschwitz and the Gulag.” But poetry of a special quality. The content of Brodsky's response to the challenges of political evil of the 20th century is discussed in the Nobel speech and can be reduced to two main provisions. The first is the protection of the reality of the individual, individuality with its uniqueness and originality in the conditions of a totalitarian ideology that reveres the individual (remember Mayakovsky) as a “zero” and not a “one”. At the same time, poetry, art and culture (and not simple literacy) were understood and accepted precisely as exponents of personal experience: “One of the merits of literature is that it helps a person clarify the time of his existence, distinguish himself from the crowd of both predecessors and their own kind, to avoid a tautology, that is, a fate otherwise known under the honorable name of “victim of history.” The second position is related to the first and lies in the need to “recreate the continuity of culture,” especially those forms that expressed “human dignity.” It can be said that the significance of literature as an expression of individual experience, despite all ideological and political fakes, becomes the main theme of the lecture, where the displacement of literature into the sphere of the reading minority is declared one of the crimes against man.
At the same time, in the works of Joseph Brodsky there are many lines that cause misinterpretations, accusations of coldness, rationality, unpatriotism, and dislike for Orthodoxy have become almost commonplace. These include a fragment of the poem “Representation”, written in 1986:
Someone Orthodox comes in and says: “Now I’m in charge.
I have a Firebird in my Soul and a longing for the sovereign.
Soon Igor will return to enjoy Yaroslavna.
Let me cross myself, otherwise I’ll hit you in the face.
Worse than damage and deprivation - Western thoughts are an infection.
Sing, harmonica, drowning out the saxophone - the fiend of jazz"
And they kiss the image
With the cry of a sawed-off victim...
As Lev Losev reports, this fragment was Brodsky’s response to a letter from the “Group of Orthodox Christians from the USSR”, published in the magazine “Continent” under the title “Sellers of Christ”, and it in turn was a response to Brodsky’s lines from the poem “The Fifth Anniversary”: “ I didn’t like rednecks, I didn’t kiss icons...” Losev comments on the main images of the stanza from “Presentation” as “a caricature of newly converted fanatics who replace faith with ritual, national arrogance and xenophobia.”
These lines, like the poem as a whole, being one of Brodsky’s most difficult to translate texts, are surrounded by an aura of misunderstanding not only in foreign language environments. Thus, a modern researcher, classifying Brodsky, along with G. Ivanov, as a “metaphysician of despair,” interprets the lines as a manifestation of “insensibility to the history of one’s fatherland” and “ignorance of the deepest spiritual culture from the Fathers of the Church to the Russian religious revival.”
In our opinion, everything is exactly the opposite: a fragment of the poem, being a text of increased semantic density, is both deeply Christian in spirit, and a poetic insight of a serious theological level, and a prophetic text (let us remember how Brodsky valued the poet’s intuition and prophetic gift) . At the same time, the fragment refers us to numerous artistic and philosophical texts of the 19th and 20th centuries, building the continuity of cultural experience that the poet spoke about in his Nobel speech.
Let's try to understand what phenomenon, what reality becomes the subject of the image. It is generally accepted that this May Day parade is a kind of phantasmagoria. T. Campbell in his commentary separates the two meanings of the word “representation,” but in fact they are intertwined, both are played out and interact: the poem gives us an idea of Soviet reality and political reality as a kind of theatrical performance staged by the void and the figures of the void. The performance begins with the destruction of the human face and the displacement of genuine human reality: “a sign of interrogation instead of a body,” “instead of a brain, a comma.” And already at the very beginning of the poem, a semantic play arises with the words “person,” “citizen,” “representative of the population.” This is a world of subhumans and subpersonalities, where a person is ultimately reduced to a holder of a certificate (“a citizen pulling out of his trousers”) or a “representative of the population.” The subhuman nature of the depicted world will be stated already in the first lines of the poem: “Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, People's Commissariat of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs!” This is a world where there are no names, and therefore no unique personalities. There are only indications of positions that, apparently, can be filled by anyone, regardless of their personal qualities. It’s almost like the Significant Person in Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” also, by the way, devoid of a name, or the official’s writing jacket in M. Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita.”
It is in this context that “someone Orthodox” appears, pronouncing his monologue, in which he reveals his claim to primacy, “longing for the sovereign,” aggression towards people of a different thought (apparently, non-believers) and hatred of Western thought. The very naming of the hero “someone Orthodox” requires comment, where the word “Orthodox” is an adjective, and the noun is still not the word “Christian”, but the indefinite personal pronoun “someone”. From the point of view of Christianity (representatives of all faiths and denominations will agree with this), a true believer cannot be “someone”, it is always “who”. In addition, a truly Orthodox person cannot claim primacy, an alliance with earthly power, especially such an inhumane one as depicted in the poem.
And at the same time, Brodsky, with his deep sense of language, which, in his opinion, distinguishes a true poet, is very accurate: “someone Orthodox.” What kind of character is this? In our opinion, Brodsky, who places such a character in the gallery of subhumans and inhumans, is among those who follow the Gospel call to discern spirits, to be vigilant and sober (Matthew 24: 4–8), to distinguish the real from the counterfeits. He sees in such a character more of an impostor and a seducer than a true Christian.
The image of “a certain Orthodox” can also be understood as one of the apocalyptic symbols. This “character” gets the opportunity to incarnate, “enter” into social reality precisely in the context of the loss of a sense of authenticity. In this regard, we recall the prophetic books of Isaiah: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20).
Perhaps Brodsky really did not know the patristic tradition, but is such knowledge always necessary? Don’t we see how often such “knowledge” turns into scolding? Isn't the accuracy of intuition and guessing the meaning much more important? For example, in patristic literature there are frequent statements about a proud man, who is distinguished by “a loud voice, proud speech, an obstinate and bitter answer, a proud and agile gait, and uncontrollable talkativeness.” Brodsky is close to this understanding.
Russian literature and philosophy knows its images of impostors, false prophets and various kinds of antichrists. In particular, one of the sources of “a certain Orthodox” can be called “Three Conversations about War, Progress and the End of World History” by V.S. Solovyova. One of the participants in the conversation, Mr. Z, speaks about the end of world history like this: “There is no doubt that that anti-Christianity, which, according to the biblical view - both the Old Testament and the New Testament - marks the last act of historical tragedy, that it will not be simple unbelief, or denial of Christianity, or materialism and the like, and that it will be religious imposture, when the name of Christ is appropriated to themselves by such forces in humanity that in fact and in essence are alien and directly hostile to Christ and His Spirit.”
Among the most important literary sources of Brodsky’s image is the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “Demons” and, in particular, the project of the nihilist Petrusha Verkhovensky to make the spiritually dead Stavrogin with his “stone mask instead of a face” the religious leader of the Russian people, either Ivan Tsarevich (is this where the Firebird comes from?), or the Russian analogue of the Roman High Priest: “The Pope will be in the West, and we will have you!”
Building the continuity of the images of Brodsky’s poem with the demonology of Russian literature, one cannot help but recall “someone’s shadow without a face and name” flashing at the carnival of mummers from 1913 in “A Poem without a Hero” by A. Akhmatova. The same uncertainty, lack of face and name, chaos, confusion.
A stanza from Brodsky’s poem “Presentation” refers us to Western European and American philosophical texts of the 20th century, demonstrating the poet’s loyalty to the universal responsiveness and universal character of the peaks of Russian culture. The first philosophical association that arises in connection with this image is M. Heidegger’s Das Man, a concept introduced by the philosopher in “Being and Time” (1927) and meaning inauthenticity, anonymity, facelessness, a person who wants to become like everyone else and ceases to be himself .
Brodsky’s intuition also reveals a closeness to the ideas of Heidegger’s student Hannah Arendt, who wrote in her book “On Violence”: “In both military and revolutionary action, the vanishing value is individualism; involvement in a group is a requirement to take some kind of action that will cut off his ties with a respectable society.”
Arendt also has remarkable discussions about the image of the pariah created by Jewish poets and writers (from Heinrich Heine’s Schlemiel to Kafka’s “man of good will”). This image contains a “new idea of man” - “man as an autocrat in the kingdom of the spirit”, constituting a “hidden tradition” of European culture. As a result, a changeover arises: “It is no longer the pariah despised by society that becomes the shlemiel, but those living in a rigid hierarchy. Because they exchanged what nature generously endowed them with for idols of public goods.” Isn’t Brodsky, with his dislike for various kinds of group community and identity, who called himself a “correspondence Christian,” one of the followers of this hidden tradition? And an interesting parallel to the position of a correspondence Christian and criticism of counterfeit Christianity can be seen in Naum Korzhavin’s poem “The Last Pagan. Letter from the 6th century to the 20th” with its criticism of simplified “cleaned up truths” and the consciousness of its greater closeness to Christ.
Speaking about Western European parallels, we cannot forget one of Brodsky’s favorite books - “The Open Society and Its Enemies” by K. Popper and the criticism it contains of totalitarian tendencies in European philosophy, starting with Plato’s “best state,” which was actually a reconstruction of the “ancient forms of tribal life”, excluding literature and poetry. And the dreams of “a certain Orthodox” in Brodsky are emphatically archaic: “firebird”, “longing for the sovereign”, “soon Igor will return...”.
So, the deep content of the fragment of Brodsky’s poem that interests us is the restoration of the idea of a true personality in conditions of ideocracy, political evil and the mass consciousness generated by it with its contempt for art. Threads stretch from the poem “Performance” to the poet’s essay Less than One(“Less than one”): “Once upon a time there was a boy. He lived in the most unjust country in the world. It was ruled by creatures who, by all human standards, should be considered degenerates. Which, however, did not happen.”
However, this content is still not obvious to everyone. And it seems to us that the point is not at all in the complexity of Brodsky’s poetic language. So, for example, Vyach. Iv. Ivanov, in his journalism during the First World War, warned about the danger of depletion of the ontological sense of the individual, “spiritual depersonalization.” The reason for the peculiar deafness to Brodsky’s “message” about the reality of the individual can also be attributed to the absence of a theology of culture in Russia. We find something close to such theology in the judgments of Sergei Fudel and Father Alexander Schmemann, but they expressed themselves in the space of marginal genres (letter, diary). There was no opportunity for a broad discussion of these ideas. In particular, Sergei Fudel wrote: “Some revelations of divine truth can be sent to a person in art. Moreover, we must honestly admit that, thanks to the great impoverishment of religious life, the words and artistic images of some writers - well, say, Tyutchev, Lermontov, Leskov. Pasternak or Exupery, as it were, compensate for this impoverishment."
Brodsky’s famous poem and the stanza about “a certain Orthodox man” breathe such truthful words and genuine theology. Totalitarian ideologies tried to destroy and suppress personality, but to do this, as independent Russian literature shows, is impossible: a true personality, his word and culture are a special reality that goes into infinity. Our task is to adequately read these texts, so that such reading becomes an event in life and so that, in particular, one day we do not wake up in the terrible reality of “Moscow-2042” by V. Voinovich, under the tutelage of some Father Zvezdonius, another incarnation of “a certain Orthodox” .
Literature