A.S. Pushkin, like any poet, experienced the feeling of love very keenly. All his experiences and sensations poured out on a piece of paper wonderful poems. In his lyrics you can see all the facets of feeling. The work “I remember wonderful moment"can be called a textbook example love lyrics poet. Probably, every person can easily recite at least the first quatrain of the famous poem by heart.
In essence, the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment” is a love story. Poet in beautiful shape conveyed his feelings about several meetings, in in this case about the two most significant ones, he managed to touchingly and sublimely convey the image of the heroine.
The poem was written in 1825, and in 1827 published in the almanac “Northern Flowers”. The publication was handled by the poet’s friend, A. A. Delvig.
In addition, after the publication of the work of A.S. Pushkin, various musical interpretations of the poem began to appear. So, in 1839 M.I. Glinka created the romance “I Remember a Wonderful Moment...” based on poems by A.S. Pushkin. The reason for writing the romance was Glinka’s meeting with Anna Kern’s daughter, Ekaterina.
Dedicated to whom?
Dedicated to the poem by A.S. Pushkin to the niece of the President of the Academy of Arts Olenin - Anna Kern. The poet first saw Anna in Olenin’s house in St. Petersburg. This was in 1819. At that time, Anna Kern was married to a general and did not pay attention to the young graduate of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. But that same graduate was fascinated by the beauty of the young woman.
The poet’s second meeting with Kern took place in 1825; it was this meeting that served as the impetus for writing the work “I Remember a Wonderful Moment.” Then the poet was in exile in the village of Mikhailovskoye, and Anna came to the neighboring estate of Trigorskoye. They had a fun and carefree time. Later, Anna Kern and Pushkin had more friendly relations. But those moments of happiness and delight were forever imprinted in the lines of Pushkin’s work.
Genre, size, direction
The work relates to love lyrics. The author reveals the feelings and emotions of the lyrical hero, who recalls the best moments of his life. And they are connected with the image of the beloved.
The genre is a love letter. “...You appeared before me...” - the hero turns to his “genius” pure beauty", she became a consolation and happiness for him.
For this work A.S. Pushkin chooses iambic pentameter and cross rhyme. Using these means, the feeling of the story is conveyed. It’s as if we see and hear the lyrical hero live, who slowly tells his story.
Composition
The ring composition of the work is based on an antithesis. The poem is divided into six quatrains.
- The first quatrain tells about the “wonderful moment” when the hero first saw the heroine.
- Then, by contrast, the author paints the difficult, gray days without love, when the image of the beloved gradually began to fade from memory.
- But in the finale the heroine appears to him again. Then “life, tears, and love” are resurrected in his soul again.
Thus, the work is framed by two wonderful meetings of heroes, a moment of charm and insight.
Images and symbols
The lyrical hero in the poem “I remember a wonderful moment...” represents a man whose life changes as soon as an invisible feeling of attraction to a woman appears in his soul. Without this feeling, the hero does not live, he exists. Only a beautiful image of pure beauty can fill his being with meaning.
In the work we encounter all kinds of symbols. For example, the image-symbol of a storm, as the personification of everyday hardships, everything that the lyrical hero had to endure. The symbolic image “darkness of imprisonment” refers us to the real basis of this poem. We understand that this refers to the exile of the poet himself.
And the main symbol is the “genius of pure beauty.” This is something incorporeal, beautiful. Thus, the hero elevates and spiritualizes the image of his beloved. Before us is not a simple earthly woman, but a divine being.
Topics and issues
- The central theme in the poem is love. This feeling helps the hero live and survive in harsh days. In addition, the theme of love is closely related to the theme of creativity. It is the excitement of the heart that awakens inspiration in the poet. An author can create when all-consuming emotions bloom in his soul.
- Also A.S. Pushkin, like real psychologist, very accurately describes the state of the hero in different periods his life. We see how strikingly contrasting the narrator’s images are at the time of his meeting with the “genius of pure beauty” and at the time of his imprisonment in the wilderness. It's like two completely different people.
- In addition, the author touched upon the problem of lack of freedom. He describes not only his physical captivity in exile, but also an internal prison, when a person withdraws into himself, fences himself off from the world of emotions and bright colors. That is why those days of loneliness and melancholy became imprisonment for the poet in every sense.
- The problem of separation appears to the reader as an inevitable but bitter tragedy. Life circumstances often cause a rupture, which hits the nerves painfully, and then hides in the depths of memory. The hero even lost the bright memory of his beloved, because the awareness of the loss was unbearable.
Idea
The main idea of the poem is that a person cannot live fully if his heart is deaf and his soul is asleep. Only by opening up to love and its passions can one truly experience this life.
The meaning of the work is that just one small event, even insignificant for those around you, can completely change you, your psychological picture. And if you yourself change, then your attitude towards the world around you changes. This means that one moment can change your world, both external and internal. You just need not to miss it, not to lose days in the hustle and bustle.
Means of artistic expression
In his poem A.S. Pushkin uses a variety of paths. For example, to more vividly convey the hero’s state, the author uses the following epithets: “wonderful moment”, “hopeless sadness”, “tender voice”, “heavenly features”, “noisy bustle”.
We meet in the text of the work and comparisons, so already in the first quatrain we see that the appearance of the heroine is compared with a fleeting vision, and she herself is compared with the genius of pure beauty. The metaphor “a storm of rebellion scattered previous dreams” emphasizes how time unfortunately takes away from the hero his only consolation - the image of his beloved.
So, beautifully and poetically, A.S. Pushkin was able to tell his love story, unnoticed by many, but dear to him.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!I remember a wonderful moment: You appeared before me, Like a fleeting vision, Like a genius of pure beauty. In the languor of hopeless sadness In the worries of noisy bustle, A gentle voice sounded to me for a long time And I dreamed of sweet features. Years passed. The rebellious gust of storms scattered my former dreams, And I forgot your tender voice, your heavenly features. In the wilderness, in the darkness of confinement, my days dragged on quietly, without deity, without inspiration, without tears, without life, without love. The soul has awakened: And now you have appeared again, Like a fleeting vision, Like a genius of pure beauty. And the heart beats in ecstasy, And for him the deity, and inspiration, And life, and tears, and love have risen again.
The poem is addressed to Anna Kern, whom Pushkin met long before his forced seclusion in St. Petersburg in 1819. She made an indelible impression on the poet. The next time Pushkin and Kern saw each other was only in 1825, when she was visiting the estate of her aunt Praskovya Osipova; Osipova was Pushkin’s neighbor and a good friend of his. It is believed that the new meeting inspired Pushkin to create an epoch-making poem.
The main theme of the poem is love. Pushkin presents a capacious sketch of his life between the first meeting with the heroine and the present moment, indirectly mentioning the main events that happened to the biographical lyrical hero: exile to the south of the country, the period of bitter disappointment in life in which they were created works of art, imbued with feelings of genuine pessimism (“Demon”, “The Desert Sower of Freedom”), a depressed mood during the period of a new exile to the family estate of Mikhailovskoye. However, suddenly the resurrection of the soul occurs, the miracle of the revival of life, caused by the appearance of the divine image of the muse, which brings with it the former joy of creativity and creation, which is revealed to the author from a new perspective. It is at the moment of spiritual awakening that the lyrical hero meets the heroine again: “The soul has awakened: And now you have appeared again...”.
The image of the heroine is significantly generalized and maximally poeticized; it differs significantly from the image that appears on the pages of Pushkin’s letters to Riga and friends, created during the period of forced time spent in Mikhailovsky. At the same time, the use of an equal sign is unjustified, as is the identification of the “genius of pure beauty” with the real biographical Anna Kern. The impossibility of recognizing the narrow biographical background of the poetic message is indicated by the thematic and compositional similarity with another love poetic text called “To Her,” created by Pushkin in 1817.
Here it is important to remember the idea of inspiration. Love for a poet is also valuable in the sense of giving creative inspiration and the desire to create. The title stanza describes the first meeting of the poet and his beloved. Pushkin characterizes this moment with very bright, expressive epithets (“wonderful moment”, “fleeting vision”, “genius of pure beauty”). Love for a poet is a deep, sincere, magical feeling that completely captivates him. The next three stanzas of the poem describe next stage in the poet's life - his exile. A difficult time in Pushkin’s life, full of life’s trials and experiences. This is the time of “languishing hopeless sadness” in the poet’s soul. Parting with his youthful ideals, the stage of growing up (“Dispelled old dreams”). Perhaps the poet also had moments of despair (“Without a deity, without inspiration”). The author’s exile is also mentioned (“In the wilderness, in the darkness of imprisonment ...”). The poet’s life seemed to freeze, to lose its meaning. Genre - message.
I remember this moment -
I saw you for the first time
then on an autumn day I realized
was captured by the girl's eyes.
That's how it happened, that's how it happened
amidst the bustle of the city,
filled my life with meaning
girl from a childhood dream.
Dry, good autumn,
short days, everyone is in a hurry,
deserted on the streets at eight,
October, leaf fall outside the window.
He kissed her tenderly on the lips,
what a blessing it was!
In the boundless human ocean
She was quiet.
I hear this moment
“- Yes, hello,
- Hello,
-It's me!"
I remember, I know, I see
She is a reality and my fairy tale!
A poem by Pushkin based on which my poem was written.
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me,
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.
In the languor of hopeless sadness
In the worries of noisy bustle,
A gentle voice sounded to me for a long time
And I dreamed of cute features.
Years passed. The storm is a rebellious gust
Dispelled old dreams
And I forgot your gentle voice,
Your heavenly features.
In the wilderness, in the darkness of imprisonment
My days passed quietly
Without a deity, without inspiration,
No tears, no life, no love.
The soul has awakened:
And then you appeared again,
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.
And the heart beats in ecstasy,
And for him they rose again
And deity and inspiration,
And life, and tears, and love.
A. Pushkin. Full composition of writings.
Moscow, Library "Ogonyok",
Publishing house "Pravda", 1954.
This poem was written before the Decembrist uprising. And after the uprising there was a continuous cycle and leapfrog.
The period for Pushkin was difficult. The uprising of the guards regiments Senate Square In Petersburg. Of the Decembrists who were on Senate Square, Pushkin knew I. I. Pushchin, V. K. Kuchelbecker, K. F. Ryleev, P. K. Kakhovsky, A. I. Yakubovich, A. A. Bestuzhev and M. A. Bestuzhev.
An affair with a serf girl Olga Mikhailovna Kalashnikova and unnecessary, inconvenient for Pushkin unborn child from a peasant woman. Work on "Eugene Onegin". Execution of the Decembrists P. I. Pestel, K. F. Ryleev, P. G. Kakhovsky, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol and M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin.
Pushkin was diagnosed with “varicose veins” (On the lower extremities, and especially on the right leg, there is widespread expansion of the blood-returning veins.) The death of Alexander the First and the accession to the throne of Nicholas the First.
Here is my poem in Pushkin’s style and in relation to that time.
Ah, it's not difficult to deceive me,
I myself am happy to be deceived.
I love balls where there are a lot of people,
But the royal parade is boring to me.
I strive to where the maidens are, it’s noisy,
I am alive only because you are nearby.
I love you madly in my soul,
And you are cold towards the poet.
I nervously hide the trembling of my heart,
When you're at a ball wearing silks.
I don't mean anything to you
My fate is in your hands.
You are noble and beautiful.
But your husband is an old idiot.
I see you're not happy with him,
In his service he oppresses the people.
I love you, I feel sorry for you,
Being next to a decrepit old man?
And in thoughts of a date I am thrilled,
In the gazebo in the park above the bet.
Come, have pity on me,
I don't need big awards.
I'm in your nets with my head,
But I'm glad of this trap!
Here is the original poem.
Pushkin, Alexander Sergeyevich.
CONFESSION
TO ALEXANDRA IVANOVNA OSIPOVA
I love you - even though I'm mad,
Although this is labor and shame in vain,
And in this unfortunate stupidity
At your feet I confess!
It doesn't suit me and it's beyond my years...
It's time, it's time for me to be smarter!
But I recognize it by all the signs
The disease of love in my soul:
I’m bored without you, I yawn;
I feel sad in front of you - I endure;
And, I have no courage, I want to say,
My angel, how I love you!
When I hear from the living room
Your light step, or the noise of a dress,
Or a virgin, innocent voice,
I suddenly lose all my mind.
You smile - it gives me joy;
You turn away - I'm sad;
For a day of torment - a reward
I want your pale hand.
When you're diligent about the hoop
You sit, leaning casually,
Eyes and curls drooping, -
I am moved, silently, tenderly
I admire you like a child!..
Should I tell you my misfortune,
My jealous sadness
When to walk, sometimes in bad weather,
Are you going away?
And your tears alone,
And speeches in the corner together,
And a trip to Opochka,
And piano in the evening?..
Alina! have pity on me.
I dare not demand love:
Perhaps for my sins,
My angel, I'm not worth love!
But pretend! This look
Everything can be expressed so wonderfully!
Ah, it’s not difficult to deceive me!..
I'm happy to be deceived myself!
The sequence of Pushkin’s poems is interesting.
after Osipova's confession.
Alexander Sergeevich did not find a response in his soul
at Osipova’s, she didn’t give him love and
here he is, immediately tormented spiritually,
or maybe love thirst
writes "Prophet."
We are tormented by spiritual thirst,
In the dark desert I dragged myself, -
And the six-winged seraph
He appeared to me at a crossroads.
With fingers as light as a dream
He touched my eyes.
The prophetic eyes have opened,
Like a frightened eagle.
He touched my ears,
And they were filled with noise and ringing:
And I heard the sky tremble,
And the heavenly flight of angels,
And the reptile of the sea underwater,
And the valley of the vine is vegetated.
And he came to my lips,
And my sinner tore out my tongue,
And idle and crafty,
And the sting of the wise snake
My frozen lips
He put it with his bloody right hand.
And he cut my chest with a sword,
And he took out my trembling heart,
And coal blazing with fire,
I pushed the hole into my chest.
I lay like a corpse in the desert,
And God’s voice called to me:
"Rise up, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will,
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb."
He burned the hearts and minds of people with verbs and nouns,
I hope the fire brigade didn't have to be called
and writes to Timasheva, and one might say he is insolent
"I drank poison in your gaze,"
K. A. TIMASHEVA
I saw you, I read them,
These lovely creatures,
Where are your languid dreams
They idolize their ideal.
I drank poison in your gaze,
In soul-filled features,
And in your sweet conversation,
And in your fiery poems;
Rivals of the forbidden rose
Blessed is the immortal ideal...
A hundred times blessed is he who inspired you
Not a lot of rhymes and a lot of prose.
Of course, the maiden was deaf to the spiritual thirst of the poet.
And of course in moments of severe mental crisis
where is everyone going? Right! Of course, to mom or nanny.
Pushkin did not yet have a wife in 1826, and even if he had,
what could she understand in love,
mental triangles of a talented husband?
Friend of my harsh days,
My decrepit dove!
Alone in the wilderness of pine forests
You've been waiting for me for a long, long time.
You are under the window of your little room
You're grieving like you're on a clock,
And the knitting needles hesitate every minute
In your wrinkled hands.
You look through the forgotten gates
On the black distant path:
Longing, premonitions, worries
They squeeze your chest all the time.
It seems to you...
Of course, the old woman cannot calm the poet down.
You need to flee from the capital to the desert, wilderness, village.
And Pushkin writes blank verse, there is no rhyme,
complete melancholy and exhaustion of poetic strength.
Pushkin dreams and fantasizes about a ghost.
Only the fairy-tale maiden from his dreams can
soothe his disappointment in women.
Oh Osipova and Timasheva, why are you doing this?
made fun of Alexander?
How happy I am when I can leave
The annoying noise of the capital and the courtyard
And run away into the deserted oak groves,
To the shores of these silent waters.
Oh, will she soon leave the river bottom?
Will it rise like a goldfish?
How sweet is her appearance
From the quiet waves, in the light of the moonlit night!
Entangled in green hair,
She sits on the steep bank.
U slender legs waves like white foam
They caress, merging and murmuring.
Her eyes alternately fade and shine,
Like twinkling stars in the sky;
There is no breath from her mouth, but how
Piercingly these wet blue lips
Cool kiss without breathing,
Languishing and sweet - in the summer heat
Cold honey is not as sweet to the thirst.
When she plays with her fingers
touches my curls, then
A momentary chill runs through like horror
My head and my heart beats loudly,
Painfully dying with love.
And at this moment I am glad to leave life,
I want to moan and drink her kiss -
And her speech... What sounds can
To compare with her is like a baby's first babble,
The murmur of waters, or the May noise of heaven,
Or the sonorous Boyana Slavya gusli.
And amazingly, a ghost, a play of imagination,
reassured Pushkin. And so:
"Tel j" etais autrefois et tel je suis encor.
Carefree, amorous. You know, friends,"
A bit sad, but quite cheerful.
Tel j "etais autrefois et tel je suis encor.
As I was before, so am I now:
Carefree, amorous. You know, friends,
Can I look at beauty without emotion,
Without timid tenderness and secret excitement.
Has love really played enough in my life?
How long have I fought like a young hawk?
In the deceptive nets spread by Cyprida,
And not corrected by a hundredfold insult,
I bring my prayers to new idols...
In order not to be in the networks of deceptive fate,
I drink tea and don’t fight senselessly
In conclusion, another poem of mine on the topic.
Is the disease of love incurable? Pushkin! Caucasus!
The disease of love is incurable,
My friend, let me give you some advice,
Fate is not kind to the deaf,
Don't be road blind like a mule!
Why not earthly suffering?
Why do you need soul fire
Give to one when others
After all, they are also very good!
Captivated by secret emotions,
Live not for business, but for dreams?
And to be in the power of arrogant virgins,
Insidious, feminine, cunning tears!
To be bored when your loved one is not around.
To suffer, a meaningless dream.
Live like Pierrot with a vulnerable soul.
Think, flighty hero!
Leave all sighs and doubts,
The Caucasus is waiting for us, the Chechens are not sleeping!
And the horse, sensing abuse, became agitated,
Snoring bareback in the stables!
Forward to rewards, royal glory,
My friend, Moscow is not for hussars
The Swedes near Poltava remember us!
The Turkish were beaten by the Janissaries!
Well, why sour here in the capital?
Forward to exploits, my friend!
We'll have fun in battle!
War calls your humble servants!
The poem is written
inspired by Pushkin's famous phrase:
"The disease of love is incurable!"
From Lyceum poems 1814-1822,
published by Pushkin in later years.
INSCRIPTION ON THE HOSPITAL WALL
Here lies a sick student;
His fate is inexorable.
Carry the medicine away:
The disease of love is incurable!
And in conclusion I want to say. Women, Women, Women!
There is so much sadness and worry from you. But it’s impossible without you!
Eat good article on the Internet about Anna Kern.
I will give it without cuts or abbreviations.
Larisa Voronina.
Recently I was on an excursion in the ancient Russian city of Torzhok, Tver region. In addition to the beautiful monuments of park construction of the 18th century, the museum of gold embroidery production, the museum wooden architecture, we visited the small village of Prutnya, at the old rural cemetery, where one of the most beautiful women sung by A.S. Pushkin, Anna Petrovna Kern, is buried.
It just so happened that everyone I crossed paths with life path Pushkin, remained in our history, because the reflections of the great poet’s talent fell on them. If it were not for Pushkin’s “I Remember a Wonderful Moment” and the subsequent several touching letters from the poet, the name of Anna Kern would have been forgotten long ago. And so the interest in the woman does not subside - what was it about her that made Pushkin himself burn with passion? Anna was born on February 22 (11), 1800 in the family of landowner Peter Poltoratsky. Anna was only 17 years old when her father married her to 52-year-old General Ermolai Fedorovich Kern. Family life immediately did not work out. During his official business, the general had little time for his young wife. So Anna preferred to entertain herself, actively having affairs on the side. Unfortunately, Anna partially transferred her attitude towards her husband to her daughters, whom she clearly did not want to raise. The general had to arrange for them to study at the Smolny Institute. And soon the couple, as they said at that time, “separated” and began to live separately, maintaining only the appearance family life. Pushkin first appeared “on the horizon” of Anna in 1819. This happened in St. Petersburg in the house of her aunt E.M. Olenina. The next meeting took place in June 1825, when Anna went to stay at Trigorskoye, the estate of her aunt, P. A. Osipova, where she again met Pushkin. Mikhailovskoye was nearby, and soon Pushkin became a frequent visitor to Trigorskoye. But Anna began an affair with his friend Alexei Vulf, so the poet could only sigh and pour out his feelings on paper. It was then that the famous lines were born. This is how Anna Kern later recalled this: “I then reported these poems to Baron Delvig, who placed them in his “Northern Flowers” ....” Their next meeting took place two years later, and they even became lovers, but not for long. Apparently, the proverb is true that only forbidden fruit is sweet. The passion soon subsided, but purely secular relations between them continued.
And Anna was surrounded by whirlwinds of new novels, causing gossip in society, to which she did not really pay attention. When she was 36 years old, Anna suddenly disappeared from social life, although this did not reduce the gossip. And there was something to gossip about, the flighty beauty fell in love, and her chosen one was 16-year-old cadet Sasha Markov-Vinogradsky, who was a little older than her youngest daughter. All this time she continued to formally remain the wife of Ermolai Kern. And when her rejected husband died at the beginning of 1841, Anna committed an act that caused no less gossip in society than her previous novels. As the general's widow, she was entitled to a substantial lifelong pension, but she refused it and in the summer of 1842 she married Markov-Vinogradsky, taking his surname. Anna got a devoted and loving husband, but not rich. The family had difficulty making ends meet. Naturally, I had to move from expensive St. Petersburg to my husband’s small estate in the Chernigov province. At the moment of another acute lack of money, Anna even sold Pushkin’s letters, which she treasured very much. The family lived very poorly, but between Anna and her husband there was true love which they saved until last day. They died in the same year. Anna outlived her husband by just over four months. She passed away in Moscow on May 27, 1879.
It is symbolic that Anna Markova-Vinogradskaya was taken on her last journey along Tverskoy Boulevard, where the monument to Pushkin, who immortalized her name, was just being erected. Anna Petrovna was buried near a small church in the village of Prutnya near Torzhok, not far from the grave in which her husband was buried. In history, Anna Petrovna Kern remained the “Genius of Pure Beauty”, who inspired the Great Poet to write beautiful poems.
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me,
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.
In the languor of hopeless sadness,
In the worries of noisy bustle,
A gentle voice sounded to me for a long time
And I dreamed of cute features.
Years passed. The storm is a rebellious gust
Dispelled old dreams
And I forgot your gentle voice,
Your heavenly features.
In the wilderness, in the darkness of imprisonment
My days passed quietly
Without a deity, without inspiration,
No tears, no life, no love.
The soul has awakened:
And then you appeared again,
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.
And the heart beats in ecstasy,
And for him they rose again
And deity and inspiration,
And life, and tears, and love.
Analysis of the poem “I remember a wonderful moment” by Pushkin
The first lines of the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment” are known to almost everyone. This is one of Pushkin's most famous lyrical works. The poet was a very amorous person, and dedicated many of his poems to women. In 1819 he met A.P. Kern, who for a long time captured his imagination. In 1825, during the poet’s exile in Mikhailovskoye, the poet’s second meeting with Kern took place. Under the influence of this unexpected meeting, Pushkin wrote the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment.”
The short work is an example of a poetic declaration of love. In just a few stanzas, Pushkin unfolds before the reader long history relationship with Kern. The expression “genius of pure beauty” very succinctly characterizes enthusiastic admiration for a woman. The poet fell in love at first sight, but Kern was married at the time of the first meeting and could not respond to the poet’s advances. The image of a beautiful woman haunts the author. But fate separates Pushkin from Kern for several years. These turbulent years erase the “nice features” from the poet’s memory.
In the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment,” Pushkin shows himself to be a great master of words. He had the amazing ability to say an infinite amount in just a few lines. In a short verse, a period of several years appears before us. Despite the conciseness and simplicity of the syllable, the author conveys to the reader changes in his emotional mood, allowing him to experience joy and sadness with him.
The poem is written in the genre of pure love lyrics. The emotional impact is enhanced by lexical repetitions of several phrases. Their precise arrangement gives the work its uniqueness and grace.
The creative legacy of the great Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is enormous. “I Remember a Wonderful Moment” is one of the most precious pearls of this treasure.
To the 215th anniversary of the birth of Anna Kern and the 190th anniversary of the creation of Pushkin’s masterpiece
Alexander Pushkin will call her “the genius of pure beauty”, and will dedicate immortal poems to her... And he will write lines full of sarcasm. “How is your husband’s gout doing?.. Divine, for God’s sake, try to get him to play cards and have an attack of gout, gout! This is my only hope!.. How can I be your husband? “I can’t imagine this, just as I can’t imagine heaven,” the lover Pushkin wrote in despair in August 1825 from his Mikhailovsky in Riga to the beautiful Anna Kern.
The girl, named Anna and born in February 1800 in the house of her grandfather, Oryol governor Ivan Petrovich Wulf, “under a green damask canopy with white and green ostrich feathers in the corners,” was destined for an unusual fate.
A month before her seventeenth birthday, Anna became the wife of division general Ermolai Fedorovich Kern. The husband was fifty-three years old. Marriage without love did not bring happiness. “It is impossible to love him (my husband), I am not even given the consolation of respecting him; I’ll tell you straight - I almost hate him,” only the diary could young Anna believe in the bitterness of her heart.
At the beginning of 1819, General Kern (in fairness, one cannot help but mention his military merits: more than once he showed his soldiers examples of military valor both on the Borodino field and in the famous “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig) arrived in St. Petersburg on business. Anna also came with him. At the same time, in the house of her aunt Elizaveta Markovna, née Poltoratskaya, and her husband Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin, president of the Academy of Arts, she first met the poet.
It was a noisy and cheerful evening, the youth were amusing themselves with games of charades, and in one of them Queen Cleopatra was represented by Anna. Nineteen-year-old Pushkin could not resist complimenting her: “Is it permissible to be so lovely!” The young beauty considered several humorous phrases addressed to her impudent...
They were destined to meet only after six for long years. In 1823, Anna, leaving her husband, went to her parents in the Poltava province, in Lubny. And soon she became the mistress of the wealthy Poltava landowner Arkady Rodzianko, a poet and friend of Pushkin in St. Petersburg.
With greed, as Anna Kern later recalled, she read all Pushkin’s poems and poems known at that time and, “admired by Pushkin,” dreamed of meeting him.
In June 1825, on her way to Riga (Anna decided to reconcile with her husband), she unexpectedly stopped in Trigorskoye to visit Aunt Praskovya Aleksandrovna Osipova, frequent and welcome guest which was her neighbor Alexander Pushkin.
At Auntie’s, Anna first heard Pushkin read “his Gypsies,” and literally “wasted with pleasure” both from the marvelous poem and from the poet’s very voice. She retained her amazing memories of that wonderful time: “...I will never forget the delight that gripped my soul. I was in ecstasy...”
And a few days later, the entire Osipov-Wulf family set off on two carriages for a return visit to neighboring Mikhailovskoye. Together with Anna, Pushkin wandered through the alleys of the old overgrown garden, and this unforgettable night walk became one of the poet’s favorite memories.
“Every night I walk through my garden and say to myself: here she was... the stone on which she tripped lies on my table near a branch of withered heliotrope. Finally, I write a lot of poetry. All this, if you like, is very similar to love.” How painful it was to read these lines to poor Anna Wulf, addressed to another Anna - after all, she loved Pushkin so passionately and hopelessly! Pushkin wrote from Mikhailovsky to Riga to Anna Wulf in the hope that she would convey these lines to her married cousin.
“Your arrival in Trigorskoye left an impression on me deeper and more painful than that which our meeting at the Olenins once made on me,” the poet confesses to the beauty, “the best thing I can do in my sad village wilderness is to try not to think.” more about you. If there was even a drop of pity for me in your soul, you, too, should wish this for me...”
And Anna Petrovna will never forget that moonlit July night when she walked with the poet along the alleys of the Mikhailovsky Garden...
And the next morning Anna was leaving, and Pushkin came to see her off. “He came in the morning and, as a farewell, brought me a copy of Chapter II of Onegin, in uncut sheets, between which I found a four-fold sheet of paper with poems...”
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me,
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.
In the languor of hopeless sadness,
In the worries of noisy bustle,
A gentle voice sounded to me for a long time
And I dreamed of cute features.
Years passed. The storm is a rebellious gust
Dispelled old dreams
And I forgot your gentle voice,
Your heavenly features.
In the wilderness, in the darkness of imprisonment
My days passed quietly
Without a deity, without inspiration,
No tears, no life, no love.
The soul has awakened:
And then you appeared again,
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.
And the heart beats in ecstasy,
And for him they rose again
And deity and inspiration,
And life, and tears, and love.
Then, as Kern recalled, the poet snatched his “poetic gift” from her, and she forcibly managed to return the poems.
Much later, Mikhail Glinka would set Pushkin’s poems to music and dedicate the romance to his beloved, Ekaterina Kern, Anna Petrovna’s daughter. But Catherine will not be destined to bear the name of the brilliant composer. She will prefer another husband - Shokalsky. And the son who was born in that marriage, oceanographer and traveler Yuli Shokalsky, will glorify his family name.
And another amazing connection can be traced in the fate of Anna Kern’s grandson: he will become a friend of the son of the poet Grigory Pushkin. And all his life he will be proud of his unforgettable grandmother, Anna Kern.
Well, what was the fate of Anna herself? The reconciliation with her husband was short-lived, and soon she finally broke with him. Her life is replete with many love adventures, among her fans are Alexei Wulf and Lev Pushkin, Sergei Sobolevsky and Baron Vrevsky... And Alexander Sergeevich himself, in no way poetic, reported his victory over an accessible beauty in famous letter to my friend Sobolevsky. The “Divine” inexplicably transformed into the “Whore of Babylon”!
But even Anna Kern’s numerous novels never ceased to amaze her former lovers with her reverent reverence “before the shrine of love.” “These are enviable feelings that never get old! – Alexey Vulf sincerely exclaimed. “After so many experiences, I did not imagine that it was still possible for her to deceive herself...”
And yet, fate was merciful to this amazing woman, gifted at birth with considerable talents and who experienced more than just pleasures in life.
At the age of forty, at the time of mature beauty, Anna Petrovna met her true love. Her chosen one was a graduate of the cadet corps, a twenty-year-old artillery officer Alexander Vasilyevich Markov-Vinogradsky.
Anna Petrovna married him, having committed, in the opinion of her father, a reckless act: she married a poor young officer and lost the large pension that she was entitled to as the widow of a general (Anna’s husband died in February 1841).
The young husband (and he was his wife’s second cousin) loved his Anna tenderly and selflessly. Here is an example of enthusiastic admiration for a beloved woman, sweet in its artlessness and sincerity.
From the diary of A.V. Markov-Vinogradsky (1840): “My darling has brown eyes. They look luxurious in their wonderful beauty on a round face with freckles. This silk is chestnut hair, gently outlines it and shades it with special love... Small ears, for which expensive earrings are an unnecessary decoration, they are so rich in grace that you will fall in love. And the nose is so wonderful, it’s lovely!.. And all this, full of feelings and refined harmony, makes up the face of my beautiful one.”
In that happy union, a son, Alexander, was born. (Much later, Aglaya Alexandrovna, née Markova-Vinogradskaya, would give the Pushkin House a priceless relic - a miniature depicting the sweet appearance of Anna Kern, her grandmother).
The couple lived together for many years, enduring poverty and adversity, but never ceasing to tenderly love each other. And they died almost overnight, in the bad year of 1879...
Anna Petrovna was destined to outlive her adored husband by only four months. And as if in order to hear a loud noise one May morning, just a few days before his death, under the window of his Moscow house on Tverskaya-Yamskaya: sixteen horses harnessed to a train, four in a row, were dragging a huge platform with a granite block - the pedestal of the future monument to Pushkin.
Having learned the reason for the unusual street noise, Anna Petrovna sighed with relief: “Ah, finally! Well, thank God, it’s high time!..”
A legend remains to live: as if the funeral cortege with the body of Anna Kern met on its mournful path with a bronze monument to Pushkin, which was being taken to Tverskoy Boulevard, to the Strastnoy Monastery.
So in last time they met
Remembering nothing, not grieving about anything.
So the blizzard blows with its reckless wing
It dawned on them in a wonderful moment.
So the blizzard married tenderly and menacingly
The mortal ashes of an old woman with immortal bronze,
Two passionate lovers, sailing separately,
That they said goodbye early and met late.
A rare phenomenon: even after her death, Anna Kern inspired poets! And the proof of this is these lines from Pavel Antokolsky.
...A year has passed since Anna's death.
“Now the sadness and tears have ceased, and loving heart“I’ve stopped suffering,” Prince N.I. complained. Golitsyn. “Let us remember the deceased with a heartfelt word, as someone who inspired the genius poet, as someone who gave him so many “wonderful moments.” She loved a lot, and our best talents were at her feet. Let us preserve this “genius of pure beauty” with a grateful memory beyond his earthly life.”
Biographical details of life are no longer so important for an earthly woman who has turned to the Muse.
Anna Petrovna found her last refuge in the churchyard of the village of Prutnya, Tver province. On the bronze “page”, soldered into the gravestone, are the immortal lines:
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me...
A moment and an eternity. How close are these seemingly incommensurable concepts!..
"Farewell! Now it’s night, and your image appears before me, so sad and voluptuous: it seems to me that I see your gaze, your half-open lips.
Goodbye - it seems to me that I am at your feet... - I would give my whole life for a moment of reality. Farewell…".
Pushkin’s strange thing is either a confession or a farewell.
Special for the Centenary