The poet nikolay zabolotsky. Brief biography of Nikolai Zabolotsky. Famous unknown Zabolotsky

Composition

At first glance, both the work and the personality of Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky, a remarkable Russian poet of the 20th century, an original artist of the word, and a talented translator of world poetry, seem mysterious, paradoxical, at first glance. Entering literature in the 1920s as a representative of the Society for Real Art (Oberiu), the author of avant-garde works and the creator of the so-called "rebus" verse, from the second half of the 40s he writes poems in the best traditions of classical Russian poetry, where the form is clear and harmonious, and the content is distinguished by the depth of philosophical thought. Throughout his life, N. Zabolotsky enjoyed the authority of a reasonable and extremely rational person, in the 50s, in adulthood, he had the appearance of an official of an average hand, impenetrable and arrogant for unfamiliar people. But the works he created testify to what a finely feeling and responsive heart he possessed, how he knew how to love and how he suffered, how demanding he was of himself and what the greatest storms of passions and thoughts found consolation in his ability to create beautiful things - the world of poetry.

The poet's work gave rise to controversy in literary circles, he had many admirers, but there were also many ill-wishers. He was subjected to slanderous accusations and repressions in the 30s, betrayed in the 60s and again - deservedly - exalted in the 70s. So his career was thorny and difficult. Zabolotsky's literary heritage is comparatively small. It includes a volume of poems and poems, several volumes of poetry translations by foreign authors, small works for children, several articles and notes, as well as his slightly numerical letters. However, until now literary critics debate on the issues of his creative evolution, on its driving forces, on the principle of its periodization. At present, the work of N. A. Zabolotsky rightfully occupies a prominent place in literature, since, despite a difficult life and unfavorable historical conditions for the improvement and manifestation of talent, he managed to write a new weighty word in Russian poetry.

Love for nature, the discovery of its greatest significance for humanity became a sign that N. Zabolotsky - consciously or unwittingly - erected later over the building of all creativity. N. A. Zabolotsky quickly and successfully entered the circle of writers and began to pursue a career as a poet. The poems of the young author were not the product of pure fantasy. The hours he spent in his parents' house reading the books of the ancient philosopher Plato, the classical Russian poets G. Derzhavin, A. Pushkin, E. Baratynsky, F. Tyutchev and, finally, the German poet Goethe, formed in his mind specific requirements for the works he created. : sharpness and depth of thought in them, emotionality, sincerity. However, not wanting to be influenced by someone else's experience, he searched for his own original style.

Several circumstances served to confirm the original creative style of the "early" Zabolotsky. First, the poet's ability to think and recreate the world around him in spatial images in poems, which brought his works closer to the genre painting of P. Bruegel, M. Chagall, P. Filonov, K. Malevich, whose work he was interested in. Secondly, his desire to capture the reality of the 20s with all its unsightly sides born of the transition period. He strove to capture in the images all the details of a fast-paced life, and then, in a general visual picture of modern life, to distinguish between “white” and “black” and answer philosophical questions: why is life given to a person? what is the meaning of being? Thirdly, Zabolotsky's participation in the work of the literary avant-garde group Oberiu, which conducted bold verbal experiments in order to find a poetic form that would express in the absolute the artist's consciousness, his extraordinary, heightened vision of the world. "The world - without embellishment, poetry - without embellishment" - the principle laid by the Oberiuts at the basis of creativity. They argued that it was time for poetry to stop being a lightweight, romantically abstract genre. It must meet the harsh conditions of the time. Therefore, the members of Oberiu refused to use traditional poetic techniques, and this was a serious attempt to take a new step in literature away from the classical canons.

The above circumstances led N. A. Zabolotsky to create a "rebus" form of verse: poems-rebuses, where in complex verbal constructions, consisting of illogical metaphors, hyperbole and grotesque, high philosophical thoughts are encrypted. In 1929 they went out of print in the collection "Columns" and brought Zabolotsky a noisy, scandalous fame. The Columns collection consists of two cycles: Urban Columns and Mixed Columns. The cycles are different and, as it were, are opposed to one another in terms of themes and moods that prompted the author to create them.

Each poem of "City Columns" is a picture snatched from urban life, as if photographed by the artist's memory in the form of an ugly phantasmagoria, where well-fed, carnivorous creatures similar to those that the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch depicted on his canvases at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries ... An emotional explosion caused by a feeling of disharmony, chaos, injustice and roughness of the situation in the country during the NEP period gave birth to an explosion-poem. Tragically gloomy moods, intensified by the maximalism of youth, forced the poet to fill his poems with semi-fantastic monsters who perform ridiculous and disgusting actions. This was a kind of satirical depiction of the bourgeois life in the city, which he rejected and despised. The author was alien and disgusted with the stuffy world of markets, pushers with speculators, shops, closed apartments, noisy indifferent streets with cripples and beggars, which became the main scene of action in the cycle. In this world, everything is subject to sale and purchase, even the price of human life is determined, but it is small, because everything is dominated by the material, bodily, non-spiritual:

Libra reads Our Father,

Two weights, peacefully standing on a saucer,

Determine the course of life ...

("Fish Shop")

The concepts of honor, dignity, compassion are atrophied here:

And breaking through the crystal

Monotonous in many ways,

Like a happy dream of the earth,

Morality hovers on its wings.

("Wedding")

The characters of the poems are not capable of expressing their will, their movements are thoughtless, automated. What is happening around them and with them is fatal. Their life has no spiritual ideals and is doomed to disappear without a trace. A significant artistic device used by the poet to express the unnaturalness of what is happening is the motive of sleep. Sleep in "Columns" is a tool for conveying transformed reality, the phantasmagoric essence of which does not differ from the essence of a dream. In the poems "Football", "Illness", "Figures of a dream" there are techniques of "stringing", "growing" of one detail from another without logical motivation, fragmentaryness, from which the plot integrity is formed as a result.

In a dream, he sees someone's snout,

Dull, dense, like an oak.

Then the horse opened its eyelids,

Square exposed her tooth.

She gnaws at empty bottles

Bending down, reads the Bible ...

("Disease")

The absurdity of the unreal dream - the interpretation of possible daytime events - is equated by the author with the confusion of reality, in which he does not find a single expedient, pleasant feature. He periodically resorts to using the image of the Siren, an ancient mythological creature, to emphasize the fragility and illusory nature of the life depicted:

And where there are stone walls

And the roar of beeps, and the noise of the wheels,

There are magic sirens

In the clubs of orange hair.

("Ivanovs")

N. Zabolotsky comes to the conclusion that the power of a big city is destructive for a person: it is not he who controls the city, but this heap of stone and glass, destroying the relationship between man and nature, dictates his will to him, corrupting and destroying him. The young poet saw salvation in the return of people to nature, in the renewal of their moral ties. "Mixed columns" is a logical continuation of the previous cycle in the collection:

We live here smart and ugly.

Reigning life, being born from people,

We forget about trees.

The poems of the second cycle are sustained in a solemn tone of joyful opening. In the center of the poet's attention is the image of the parent land, from which it breathes with strength, love, affection. She gives life, and she also accepts living after the hour of death. The artist's fantasy allowed Zabolotsky to dissolve for a while in Nature, to become a tree, grass, a bird - a part of It in the literal sense, as in the poems "In our dwellings", "Temptation", "Man in the water". Animals, plants, elements are endowed with consciousness, “come to life”, just as the elements of urban life “came to life” in the previous cycle. But if in satirical poems about bourgeois vegetation the author, by virtue of artistic perception, "instilled" in objects an evil, vengeful spirit, disfiguring the psyche of people, then in works about nature he recognizes the fact of the existence of an "all-embracing soul" in it, that is, a universally spiritual absolute. She thinks, suffers, doubts, but at the same time remains majestic, proud and condescending to the ignorant, selfish human consumer, like an adult generous Mother. A person is not able to appreciate it, protect and preserve it. On the contrary, he humiliates and ruins her in selfish impulses, not thinking that he himself is the brainchild and continuation of nature:

When would we see

Not these squares, not these walls

And the bowels of the lukewarm lands,

Warmed by the spring foliage

When would we see people in the shine

Blissful infancy of plants, -

We'd probably be down on our knees

Before a boiling pot of vegetables.

In "Mixed Columns" N. Zabolotsky created a symbol of nature, in which the desire for a philosophical understanding of the value of life and its essence is guessed. The first book by N. Zabolotsky "Columns", consisting of twenty-two poems, was noticeably distinguished by the originality of the style even against the background of the variety of poetic trends that characterizes Russian literature of the 1920s. In 1929-1930, the poem "The Triumph of Agriculture" was written, addressing the problem of the relationship between nature and man. For the first time, the author spoke about suffering as a philosophical problem: a person suffers from his own imperfection and brings suffering to the nature that created him. If people can overcome selfishness in themselves, get rid of the selfish, consumerist way of life, unite among themselves, then they will discover the wisdom of collective transformation of life, agriculture, nature itself. In progressive scientific activity, the poet saw the way out of chaos, from the cruel predominance of the strong over the weak, of people over plants and animals, asserting the victory of reason in the future. In 1932, N. Zabolotsky got acquainted with the cosmogonistic ideas of K. E. Tsiolkovsky about the monism of the universe - the unity and interconnection of all organisms and matter. In his poems, in addition to nostalgic notes about the greatness of earthly nature, the voice of a thinker sounded who looked into the secrets of the universe. However, even now, in solving the great scientific riddle, he did not abandon the pantheistic approach.

In the early 30s, the poems "The Mad Wolf", "Trees", "Birds", the unpreserved poem "Clouds", the poems "School of Beetles", "Wedding with Fruits", "Lodzheyniki" were written. They are based on the natural philosophical concept of the universe as a single system that unites living and inanimate forms of matter. According to the theory of monism of the universe, all phenomena in the world are different types of moving matter, endowed with consciousness to a greater or lesser extent. Thanks to their eternal interaction and interconversion, the existence of a common building of nature is possible. Matter, each element of which "feels" and "responds" both in a highly organized being and in the inorganic world, constitutes the basis of the universe. In the mature work of Zabolotsky, nature loses the status of Mother and Savior and ceases to denote contextually only virgin expanses of the earth, forests with their wild population. Nature is everything that exists: matter, small and large particles, from which the fabric and flesh of stars, planets, objects and organisms that fill space are built. In the poems of the 30s, it acquires an abstract meaning, one might say, a cosmic essence. At the same time, the poet continued to be worried about the idea of ​​ridding the world of eternal "dimensional suffering" ("Walk"), from suppression of the weak by the strong. He still asserted the possibility of transforming the universe.

The poet saw its improvement in the consistent development of matter (from simple to complex), the mind inherent in all particles. And the mind, embodied to a greater extent in a person, should become the driving force behind this development. Nature is no longer opposed by the artist to people, does not rise above them, it becomes an accomplice and helper of the person-creator, empathizes with difficulties and successes, gives him the accumulated wisdom and is itself enriched with new experience. They are equal, interrelated and interdependent. The poems "Drought", "Spring in the forest", "Everything that was in the soul", "Yesterday, thinking about death" are devoted to this topic. By the end of the 30s, the poet is affirmed in the opinion that the elements of the Earth are a reduced model of a huge universe in action. Earthly nature is both its integral part and its manifestation. A similar scope of thought helped him in comprehending the philosophical truths of the essence of life, birth and death. He recognizes death as an integral element of the great continuous life in the cosmos:

I'm alive.

My blood did not have time to cool down,

I have died more than once. Oh how many dead bodies

I separated from my own body!

("Metamorphoses")

More and more the artist's attention is concentrated on the image of a person. People are the most important element of the universe, the result and the pinnacle of nature's creativity. It was in their minds that the consciousness inherent in her flashed with an extraordinary light. And the desire to comprehend the wisdom of the universe, its secrets, difficult to understand, elevates them. In the poems "North", "Gori Symphony", "Sedov", "Pigeon Book" there appeared the image of a man-transformer, exalted above the natural elements. For such Greed, N. Zabolotsky secured the right to eradicate everything that is imperfect in the world - that which causes suffering. Only people are able to free nature from the "eternal pressure", guided in creative activity by its own wise laws in the name of the triumph of ethical ideals.

Over time, N. Zabolotsky's verse became noticeably simpler, became clearer and more melodic. The eccentric grotesque has gone from him, the metaphor has lost its paradox. However, the poet still respected and applied the illogical metaphor, which gave his works a special emotional tone. The poet remained true to himself. Principle once proclaimed: “Faith and perseverance. Labor and honesty ... "- he was observed until the end of his life and was the basis of all creativity. In the "late" lyrics of Zabolotsky, there are features of his "early" works: for example, echoes of natural philosophical ideas, elements of humor, irony, even the grotesque. He did not forget about his experience of the 30s and used it in his subsequent work (“Read, trees, poems of Gesiod”, “Testament”; “Through Levenguk's magic device”; poem “Rubruk in Mongolia”). He did not forget about his experience of the 30s and used it in his subsequent work (“Read, trees, poems of Gesiod”, “Testament”; “Through Levenguk's magic device”; poem “Rubruk in Mongolia”). But his creative style has undergone significant changes after eight years of silence. It is difficult to unequivocally determine what caused this. Did the vicissitudes of fate, which made the poet think about the inner world, spiritual purity and beauty of each person and society as a whole, entailed a thematic change and a change in the emotional sound of his later works? Or the volume of Tyutchev's poetry, which in conclusion became a thin thread between him and the former joyful reality, a reminder of a normal life, made you, with special acuteness, re-experience the beauty of the Russian word, the perfection of the classical stanza?

In any case, in the new poems of N.A. The period of Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky's return to literature was difficult and painful. On the one hand, he wanted to express that much that had accumulated in his thoughts and heart for eight years and was looking for a way out in a poetic word. On the other hand, the fear that his original ideas will be used against him again. In the first years after returning from exile in happy moments of inspiration, he literally splashed out joyful emotions in poetry, revealing the secret of the happiness of creativity, inspiration, free communication with nature ("Thunderstorm", "Morning", "Give way to me, starling, corner"). Then this creative upsurge was replaced by a decline that lasted until 1952. Rare poems ("Ural", "City in the steppe", "In the taiga", "Creators of the roads") reproduced the reality seen by Zabolotsky in the Far East and Altai. With sadness and irony, he wrote about his ambivalent position:

I myself would try a lot,

Yes, the wanderer butterfly whispered to me:

"Who is loud in the spring,

In his poetry of the 1940s – 1950s, an uncharacteristic cheap openness appears, and the author's separation from the subject of conversation disappears. In the works of the Moscow period, his own aspirations, impressions, experiences are revealed, sometimes autobiographical notes sound. The philosophical content does not leave his poems; on the contrary, it becomes deeper and, as it were, "mundane": the artist moves more and more away from natural - cosmogonic abstractions and focuses attention on a living, earthly person, with his troubles and joys, gains and losses, - a person capable of feeling, thinking concretely, suffering ... And now everything that happens in the universe is conveyed by the author, as it were, through the inner vision and perception of this person. The harmony of the universe appears to him not only in liberation from evil and violence. He took a broader look at the problem: the harmony of nature - in the laws that stipulate justice, freedom of creativity, inspiration, beauty, love. The triumph of reason must be accompanied by the presence of a human soul. The soul, in the understanding of the later Zabolotsky, is an immaterial substance, a set of knowledge, experience and aspirations that are not subject to destruction by time and adversity. The artist looked differently at the problem of the meaning of being, the interpenetration of life and death. The purpose of life is not to at the end of its transition from one type of matter to another or to scatter in microparticles throughout the universe, becoming its building stock. The meaning of the life of a thinking person is that one day, having ceased to exist physically, continue to live on earth in the memory left about oneself, in the experience accumulated over many years, in the spiritual heritage, secretly materialized by other forms of natural existence - not only through the traditionally understood continuation of life immortal spirit:

I will not die, my friend. Breath of flowers

I will find myself in this world.

The centuries-old oak tree my living soul

Rooted, sad and harsh.

In its large sheets I will give shelter to the mind,

I will cherish my thoughts with the help of my branches,

So that they hang over you from the darkness of the forests

And you were involved in my consciousness.

("Will")

In the works of the Moscow period, along with the problem of human spirituality, N. A. Zabolotsky posed the problem of human beauty. The poems "Ugly Girl", "On the Beauty of Human Faces", "Portrait" are devoted to this topic. The cycle "Last Love" captivates with its beauty and sincerity, consisting of ten poems, autobiographical to a greater extent than the others ever written by Zabolotsky. A quantitatively small poetic selection contains the entire multi-colored gamut of feelings of a person who has known the bitterness of loss and the joy of the return of love. The cycle can be regarded as a kind of "Diary" confession of a poet who survived a break with his wife ("Thistle", "Last Love"), an unsuccessful attempt to create a new family ("Confession", "You repented until the grave ...") and reconciliation with his only beloved throughout her life as a woman ("Meeting", "Old Age"), but does not tolerate prosaic unambiguous generalizations.

And the wall of thistle rises

Between me and my joy.

The theme of impending unavoidable misfortune and heartache

He disappeared into some wild field,

A merciless blizzard brought ...

And my soul cries out in pain,

And my black phone is silent.

But just as before Zabolotsky did not allow his heart to become embittered in the unbearable conditions of repression and exile, so now his inherent enlightenment is reflected even in the sad motives of the love cycle:

Juniper bush, juniper bush,

Cooling babble of changeable lips,

Light babble, barely pitching in tar,

Who pierced me with a deadly needle!

Rich life and literary experience, as well as the established views of the humanist philosopher prompted N. A. Zabolotsky to create in 1958 a wide-panoramic historical work - the poem "Rubruk in Mongolia". Its plot is based on the story of the journey of the French monk Rubruk to Mongolia during the reign of Genghis Khan through the virgin expanses of Siberia, alien to civilization:

I still remember

As with a small team of servants,

Wandering in the northern desert

Rubruk entered Mongolia.

This is how the poem begins. And this is a serious author's claim for personal involvement in ancient adventures, and the intonation of the poem and its language seem to support this statement. Zabolotsky's universal ability to feel himself in different eras was helped not only by a thorough study of Rubruk's notes, but also by his own memories of nomadic life in the Far East, in Kazakhstan and in the Altai Territory. Yes, and in the image of the powerful Genghis Khan, there is a similarity with the once idiologized portrait of the "father of nations", who became for the author a guide from the present into the depths of the centuries.

Thus, in the work of the “late” Zabolotsky, a new, relevant at all times, theme of mutual misunderstanding and rejection of the carriers of two different, separated cultures, and, consequently, rejection of each other minds that do not have points of contact, a tendency to mutual assimilation and unity, sounded. It also reflects the problem of the existence of a rational mind in isolation from a highly moral spiritual ethics, already familiar from the poet's previous works. In the context of a historical poem, it acquired new philosophical shades. Reason is a great power; but only one practical mind without a soul is a destructive and destructive force, incapable of creation. N. A. Zabolotsky died at the age of 55, in the prime of his creative powers. All his difficult fate was inextricably linked with the Muse, with poetry. The muse was the expression of his "inquiring soul", she made him improve his creative skills, and it was she who allowed him to remain after death in the memory and hearts of admirers of Russian literature.

Nikolay Alekseevich Zabolotsky

Zabolotsky Nikolai Alekseevich (1903-1958) - Russian poet-lyricist of a philosophical warehouse, reflecting on the place of man in the universe. Author of the collections "Columns" (1929), "The Triumph of Agriculture" (1933), transcriptions of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" (1947), memoirs "The History of My Imprisonment" (1981), etc. To explain the principle of bipolarity in ethnogenesis, [Leo] Gumilyov cites an excerpt from Zabolotsky's poem "Ladinikov", which, according to the scientist, expresses the position of world-denial. “Ladinikov listened. // Above the garden // There was a vague rustle of a thousand deaths. // Nature, turned into hell, // It did its business without fancy: // The beetle ate grass, the bird pecked the beetle, // The ferret drank the brain from a bird's head, // And the faces twisted with fear // Night creatures looked out of the grass. // So - it is, the harmony of nature! // So - they are, the voices of the night! // Our waters shine on the abyss of torment, // Forests rise on the abyss of grief! // Nature's eternal press // Combined death and being // Into one ball, but thought was powerless // Combine its two mysteries! " In these lines, according to the scientist, as in the focus of a telescope lens, the views of the Gnostics are united, Manichees, Albigensians, Carmatians, Mahayanists - everyone who considered matter to be evil, and the world as a field for suffering.

Quoted from: Lev Gumilev. Encyclopedia. / Ch. ed. E. B. Sadykov, comp. T.K. Shanbai, - M., 2013, p. 259.

Zabolotsky Nikolai Alekseevich (1903 - 1958), poet, translator. Born April 24 (May 7 NS) in Kazan in the family of an agronomist. Childhood years were spent in the village of Sernur, Vyatka province, not far from the city of Urzhum. After graduating from a real school in Urzhum in 1920 he went to Moscow to continue his education.

He enters Moscow University at once in two faculties - philological and medical. Zabolotsky was captured by the literary and theatrical life of Moscow: performances Mayakovsky, Yesenin, futurists, imagists. Having started writing poetry while still in school, now I got carried away by imitating Blok, then Yesenin .

In 1921 he moved to Leningrad and entered the Herzenov Pedagogical Institute, joined the literary circle, but still "did not find his own voice." In 1925 he graduated from the institute.

During these years, he became close to a group of young poets who called themselves "Oberiuts" ("The Association of Real Art"). They were rarely and little printed, but they often performed with the reading of their poems. Participation in this group helped the poet find his own path.

At the same time, Zabolotsky actively collaborates in children's literature, in the magazines for children "Ezh" and "Chizh". His children's books in verse and prose "Snake Milk", "Rubber Heads" and others were published. In 1929 a collection of poems "Columns" was published, in 1937 - "The Second Book".

In 1938 he was illegally repressed, worked as a builder in the Far East, in the Altai Territory and Karaganda. In 1946 he returned to Moscow. In the 1930s-40s, the following were written: "Metamorphoses", "Forest Lake", "Morning", "I am not looking for harmony in nature", etc. For the last decade, he worked a lot on translations of Georgian classical and contemporary poets, visited Georgia.

In the 1950s, such poems by Zabolotsky as "Ugly Girl", "Old Actress", "Opposition to Mars", etc., made his name known to the general reader. He spends the last two years of his life in Tarusa on the Oka. He was seriously ill, suffered a heart attack. Many lyric poems, the poem "Rubruk in Mongolia" were written here. In 1957 he visited Italy.

AUTUMN MORNING

The speeches of lovers are cut off
The last starling flies away.
Falling from the maples all day
Silhouettes of crimson hearts.

What have you, autumn, done with us!
The earth freezes in red gold.
The flame of sorrow whistles underfoot
Heaps of foliage stirring.

Used materials of the book: Russian writers and poets. A Brief Biographical Dictionary. Moscow, 2000.

Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky (1903 - 1958) belongs to the first generation of Russian writers who entered the creative period of life after the revolution. In his biography, amazing dedication to poetry, persistent work on improving poetic skills, purposeful development of his own concept of the universe and courageous overcoming of the barriers that fate erected on his life and creative path are striking. From a young age, he was very exacting about his works and their selection, believing that it was necessary to write not individual poems, but a whole book. Throughout his life, several times he compiled ideal vaults, over time replenishing them with new poems, previously written - edited and in some cases replaced with other versions. A few days before his death, Nikolai Alekseevich wrote a literary testament, in which he indicated exactly what should be included in his final collection, the structure and title of the book. In a single volume, he combined the bold, grotesque poems of the 1920s and the classically clear, harmonious works of a later period, thereby recognizing the integrity of his path. The final set of poems and poems should have been concluded with the author's note:

"This manuscript includes the complete collection of my poems and poems, established by me in 1958. All other poems I have ever written and printed, I consider either accidental or unfortunate. They do not need to be included in my book. Texts of this manuscript. checked, corrected and finally installed; previously published versions of many verses should be replaced with the texts given here. "

N.A.Zabolotsky grew up in the family of a zemstvo agronomist who served on agricultural farms near Kazan, then in the village of Sernur (now the regional center of the Mari ASSR). In the first years after the revolution, the agronomist was in charge of a state farm in the district town of Urzhum, where the future poet received his secondary education. From childhood, Zabolotsky made unforgettable impressions of Vyatka nature and his father's activities, a love of books and an early conscious vocation to devote his life to poetry. In 1920, he left the parental home and went first to Moscow, and the next year to Petrograd, where he entered the department of language and literature of the A.I. Herzen Pedagogical Institute. Hunger, unsettled life and sometimes painful searches for his own poetic voice accompanied Zabolotsky's student years. He read with enthusiasm Blok , Mandelstam , Akhmatov , Gumilyov , Yesenin , but soon realized that his path did not coincide with the path of these poets. Closer to his search were the Russians 18th century poets , classics XIX , from contemporaries - Velimir Khlebnikov .

The period of apprenticeship and imitation ended in 1926, when Zabolotsky managed to find an original poetic method and determine the scope of its application. The main theme of his poems of 1926-1928 is sketches of city life, which absorbed all the contrasts and contradictions of that time. To a recent villager, the city seemed now alien and ominous, now attractive with a special bizarre picturesqueness. "I know that I am entangled in this city, although I am fighting against it," he wrote to his future wife E. V. Klykova in 1928. In comprehending his attitude to the city, Zabolotsky, back in the 1920s, tried to connect social problems with ideas about the relationship and interdependence of man and nature. In the 1926 poems "The Face of a Horse",

"In our dwellings" the natural-philosophical roots of the creativity of those years are clearly visible. The prerequisite for the satirical depiction of the vulgarity and spiritual limitation of the layman ("Evening Bar", "New Life", "Ivanovs", "Wedding" ...) was the conviction of the perniciousness of the departure of the inhabitants of the city from their natural existence in harmony with nature and from their duty to relation to her.

Two circumstances contributed to the approval of Zabolotsky's creative position and peculiar poetic manner - his participation in the literary community, called the Association of Real Art (among the Oberiuts - D. Harms , A. Vvedensky, K. Vaginov and others) and passion for painting by Filonov, Chagall, Brueghel ... Later he recognized the kinship of his work of the 1920s to the primitivism of Henri Rousseau. The ability to see the world through the eyes of an artist remained with the poet throughout his life.

Zabolotsky's first book "Columns" (1929, 22 poems) stood out even against the background of a variety of poetic trends in those years and was a resounding success. Some approving reviews appeared in the press, the author was noticed and supported by V.A.Gofman, V. A. Kaverin , S. Ya. Marshak, N. L. Stepanov, N. S. Tikhonov, Yu. N. Tynyanov , B. M. Eikhenbaum ... But the further literary fate of the poet was complicated by the erroneous, sometimes downright hostile slanderous interpretation of his works by the majority of critics. The persecution of Zabolotsky intensified especially after the publication in 1933 of his poem "The Triumph of Agriculture". Having entered literature quite recently, he has already found himself with the stigma of a champion of formalism and an apologist for an alien ideology. The new book of poetry he compiled, ready for printing (1933), could not see the light of day. This is where the poet's life principle came in handy: "We must work and fight for ourselves. How many failures are still ahead, how many disappointments, doubts! But if at such moments a person hesitates, his song is sung. Faith and perseverance. Labor and honesty ..." (1928, letter to E. V. Klykova). And Nikolai Alekseevich continued to work. The livelihood was provided by work in children's literature, begun in 1927 - in the 30s he collaborated in the magazines "Ezh" and "Chizh", wrote poetry and prose for children. His most famous translations are the adaptation for young people of Sh. Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" (a complete translation of the poem was made in the 1950s), as well as the transcriptions of Rabelais' book "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and de Coster's novel "Till Ulenspiegel".

In his work, Zabolotsky increasingly focused on philosophical lyrics. He was fond of poetry Derzhavin , Pushkin , Baratynsky , Tyutchev , Goethe and, as before, Khlebnikov , was actively interested in the philosophical problems of natural science - he read the works of Engels, Vernadsky, Grigory Skovoroda ... At the beginning of 1932 he got acquainted with the works of Tsiolkovsky, which made an indelible impression on him. In a letter to a scientist and great dreamer, he wrote: "... Your thoughts about the future of the Earth, mankind, animals and plants deeply excite me, and they are very close to me. In my unpublished poems and verses, I resolved them as best I could."

Zabolotsky's natural philosophical concept is based on the idea of ​​the universe as a single system that unites living and nonliving forms of matter, which are in eternal interaction and interconversion. The development of this complex organism of nature proceeds from primitive chaos to the harmonious ordering of all its elements. And the main role here is played by the consciousness inherent in nature, which, in the words of K. A. Timiryazev, "smolders dully in lower beings and only flashes with a bright spark in the human mind." Therefore, it is a person who is called upon to take upon himself the care of the transformation of nature, but in his activity he must see in nature not only a student, but also a teacher, for this imperfect and suffering "eternal pressure" contains the wonderful world of the future and those wise laws by which should be guided by a person. The poem "The Triumph of Agriculture" states that the mission of reason begins with the social improvement of human society and then social justice extends to the relationship of man to animals and all nature. Zabolotsky remembered the words well Khlebnikov : "I see equine freedom, I see equal rights for cows."

Gradually, Zabolotsky's position in the literary circles of Leningrad strengthened. With his wife and children, he lived in the "writers' superstructure" on the Griboyedov Canal, took an active part in the social life of Leningrad writers. Such poems as "Farewell", "North" and especially "Goryai Symphony" received approving reviews in the press. In 1937, his book was published, including seventeen poems ("The Second Book"). On Zabolotsky's desktop lay the begun poetic arrangement of the Old Russian poem " A word about Igor's regiment "and his own poem" The Siege of Kozelsk ", poems, translations from Georgian ... But the prosperity that came was deceiving ...

On March 19, 1938, N. A. Zabolotsky was arrested and cut off from literature, from his family, from free human existence for a long time. As accusatory material in his case appeared spiteful critical articles and a review "review", tendentiously distorting the essence and ideological orientation of his work. Until 1944, he was serving an undeserved sentence in forced labor camps in the Far East and in the Altai Territory. From spring to the end of 1945, he lived with his family in Karaganda.

In 1946, N. A. Zabolotsky was reinstated in the Writers' Union and received permission to live in the capital. A new, Moscow period of his work began. Despite all the blows of fate, he managed to maintain his inner integrity and remained faithful to the cause of his life - as soon as the opportunity arose, he returned to unrealized literary plans. Back in 1945 in Karaganda, while working as a draftsman in the construction department, Nikolai Alekseevich basically completed the transcription during off-hours. " Words about Igor's regiment ", and in Moscow he resumed work on the translation of Georgian poetry. His poems from G. Orbeliani, V. Pshavela, D. Guramishvili, S. Chikovani - many classical and modern poets of Georgia sound great. He also worked on the poetry of other Soviet and foreign peoples ...

In the poems written by Zabolotsky after a long break, there is a clear continuity with his work of the 30s, especially with regard to natural philosophical concepts. Such are the poems of the 10s "Read, trees, poems of Geeiod", "I am not looking for harmony in nature", "Testament", "Through the magic device of Levenguk" ... In the 50s, the natural philosophical theme began to go deep into the verse, becoming, as it were, its invisible foundation and giving way to reflections on the psychological and moral ties between man and nature, on the inner world of man, on the feelings and problems of the individual. In "Road Makers" and other poems about the work of builders, the conversation about human achievements, begun even before 1938 ("Wedding with fruits", "North", "Sedov"), continues. The poet measured the affairs of his contemporaries and his experience of working on eastern construction sites with the prospect of creating a harmonious living architecture of nature.

In the poems of the Moscow period, a sincere openness previously unusual for Zabolotsky, sometimes autobiographical ("The Blind", "In this birch grove", the cycle "The Last Love") appeared. The sharpened attention to the living human soul led him to psychologically rich genre-plot sketches ("Wife", "Loser", "In the Cinema", "Ugly Girl", "Old Actress" ...), to observations of how emotional warehouse and fate are reflected in human appearance ("On the beauty of human faces", "Portrait"). For the poet, the beauty of nature, its impact on the inner world of man, began to be of much greater importance. A number of designs and works of Zabolotsky were associated with a constant interest in history and epic poetry (Rubruk in Mongolia, etc.). His poetics was constantly improving, the formula of creativity was the triad he proclaimed: thought - image - music.

Not everything was easy in the life of Nikolai Alekseevich in Moscow. The creative upsurge that manifested itself in the first years after his return was replaced by a decline and an almost complete switch of creative activity to literary translations in 1949-1952. The timing was troubling. Fearing that his ideas would be used against him again, Zabolotsky often restrained himself and did not allow himself to transfer to paper everything that matured in his mind and asked for a poem. The situation changed only after the 20th Party Congress, which condemned the perversions associated with the personality cult of Stalin. Zabolotsky responded to new trends in the life of the country with poems "Somewhere in a field near Magadan", "Opposition to Mars", "Kazbek". It became easier to breathe. Suffice it to say that in the last three years of his life (1956-1958) Zabolotsky wrote about half of all poems of the Moscow period. Some of them have appeared in print. In 1957, the fourth, the most complete collection of his lifetime, was published (64 poems and selected translations). After reading this book, an authoritative connoisseur of poetry Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky wrote to Nikolai Alekseevich enthusiastic words that are so important for a poet not spoiled by criticism: "I am writing to you with the respectful timidity with which I would write to Tyutchev or Derzhavin. For me there is no doubt that the author of Cranes." , "Swan", "Give in to me, starling, corner", "Loser", "Actresses", "Human faces", "Morning", "Forest Lake", "Blind", "In the cinema", "Walkers", " An ugly girl "," I am not looking for harmony in nature "is a truly great poet, whose work sooner or later Soviet culture (perhaps even against will) will have to be proud of as one of its highest achievements. a rash and gross mistake, but I am responsible for them with all my seventy years of reading experience "(June 5, 1957).

Prediction K. I. Chukovsky comes true. In our time, the poetry of N.A.Zabolotsky is widely published, it has been translated into many foreign languages, comprehensively and seriously studied by literary critics, dissertations and monographs are written about it. The poet achieved the goal he was striving for throughout his life - he created a book that adequately continued the great tradition of Russian philosophical lyrics, and this book came to the reader.

Used material from the Moshkov Library website http://kulichki.rambler.ru/moshkow

Zabolotsky Nikolai Alekseevich (04.24.1903-14.10.1958), poet. Born on a farm near Kazan in the family of an agronomist and teacher.

All R. 20s Zabolotsky, editor of the children's section of the State Publishing House, author of the book Good Boots (1928), meets the members of the OBERIU group (association of real art) D. Kharms, A. Vvedensky, K. Vaginov and others and becomes an active supporter, “ theorist "of this trend. It, however, existed rather in ardent declarations, theatrical performances, declared itself at disputes, on "Posters of the House of Press" in Leningrad. From this, the meaning of Oberiuts, or "plane trees", as D. Kharms and A. Vvedensky used to call themselves, is the combination of the words "rank" (that is, spiritual rank) and "chinarik" (that is, a small butt) for an early Zabolotsky's poetry was not diminished.

The first book of serious poems by Zabolotsky "Columns" (1929), which had great success, bears traces of OBERIU programs, including programs written personally by him.

The Oberiuts sought meaning in the absurd, the mind in the zaumi, they represented the world in the forms of grotesque, fantastic visions. They "shifted" the whole life and the word into the element of the game, often illogical, "absurd". Doesn't that sound like the metaphors of the early Zabolotsky: “Straight bald husbands / Sitting like a shot from a gun” (“Wedding”); “The baby grows strong and matures / And suddenly, walking across the table, / Sits right in the Komsomol” (“New Life”).

Zabolotsky possessed too strong a natural principle to share the admiration of his fellows about the "abstruse language", "shiftology", "war on all meanings" in the name of creating an absurd reality. But he supported their desire to revive in poetry "a new sensation of life and its objects", to cleanse a specific subject from literary and everyday husks. , in all the purity of their concrete masculine forms ”(From the Declaration of the Oberiuts. 1928).

The collection "Columns" - in the best poems that compiled it - is a phantasmagoric picture of Leningrad, served from the inside out, from the deliberate, philistine-NEP side. A dense, bourgeois life reigns here, the element of gluttony, the market, beer halls. This element flattened, squeezed a person, narrowed his horizons. In "Stolbtsy" the evening bar turns into "the wilderness of a bottle paradise", where a waitress or a singer, "a pale siren at the counter, treats guests with tincture", "bedlam with flowers in half" lives in it. Here the "new way of life" is aware of its novelty in such signs of a wedding as the appearance of the chairman of the housing committee (or trade union) instead of

And taking the red speech,
Ilyich is sitting on the table.

Under the influence of the Oberiuts, every effort of the negative, philistine features of Leningrad in the 1920s goes on in the collection:

The People's House is a chicken coop of joy,
the barn of magical living,
a trough of festive passion,
thick hell of being.

Of all the designations of maiden beauty, the charm of youth, Zabolotsky in Stolbtsy knows, alas, only one thing: “here the girl drives her most pure dog on the lasso”; “He touches the girls with his hand”; "Ivanov kisses the girl"; "But there are no girls in front of him" ... "Women", of course, - "like tubs" ...

When describing the market in Zabolotsky, far from everything is recreated in the spirit of the Oberiuts, their universal irony. The poet is determined to laugh, to create an inverted, grotesque world, but in his paintings the cheerful, healthy spirit of the carnival, the spirit of the French novelist Rabelais, maybe even the splendor of B.M.Kustodiev's bazaars comes to life:

Herrings sparkle with sabers,
Their little eyes are meek,
But now, cut with a knife,
They curl up like a snake ...
Eels like sausages
In smoked pomp and laziness
Smoke, bending their knees,
And among them, like a yellow fang,
The tsar-balyk shone on the platter.

Yes, this is no longer a market, but a feast of the earth, a collection of its gifts, a demonstration of the creativity and power of nature! The poet has not yet made this conclusion in Stolbtsy: the inhabitants, owners and visitors of the markets are very primitive, imperceptible or vulgar at his fish markets, weddings. Here "the scales read" Our Father "", here morality will not break through "fat trenches of meat", here "the samovar is making noise as a household general." The poet looks with horror at this kingdom of picturesque inanimate matter and does not know where his place is in the world of new heroes of everyday life:

Can I find a place for me there,
Where my bride is waiting for me
Where the chairs are lined up
Where is the hill - like Ararat? ..

He only outlines his future place in Stolbtsy, rather hints at it. In the poem "Lunch" he recreates the whole rite of the "bloody art of living" - chopping meat and vegetables. We see the tossing of onions and potatoes in a boiling pot. The poet brings back the memory to the land, where all these products, both potatoes and onions, still lived, did not yet know death, this tossing in boiling water:

When would we see in the radiance of the rays
blissful infancy of plants, -
we surely knelt down
in front of a boiling pot of vegetables.

Soon after "Columns" the poet found and since then has not lost his place in the natural world, in the kingdom of plants and animals. I found it not at all through the market, not through the gluttony row and counters with beaten poultry and meat. In 1929-30 he wrote the natural-philosophical poem "The Triumph of Agriculture", then the poems "The Mad Wolf", "Trees", "The Wedding of Fruits". It was his poetic project of establishing the unity of the universe, combining living and inanimate forms of matter, increasing the purity and harmony of relations between man and nature.

Nature and man in it must get out of the state of the "eternal pressure" - this is the key image of all Zabolotsky's poetry - when the strong devour the weaker, but then they themselves then become the prey of the strongest.

In 1934, the poet again creates an image of the world where weak creatures are eaten by others, stronger ones, and these strong ones become food for even stronger ones: this is an endless process that connects being and death. Where is immortality? His hero Lodeinikov once heard (realized) in the night garden the terrible harmony of devouring, the cycle of successive extermination:

Over the garden
there was a vague rustle of a thousand deaths.
Nature turned into hell
I did my business without fuss.
A beetle ate grass, a beetle pecked a bird,
the ferret drank the brain from a bird's head,
and terribly distorted faces
nocturnal creatures looked out from the grass.
Nature's everlasting press
connected death and being
to a single club.

("Lodeynikov in the Garden")

Such a terrible world order is highly unpredictable. And this cycle is crowned, alas, with human "robbery" of nature in all its forms.

The painting of "the nature of the everlasting wine press" is not Zabolotsky's own discovery. He created this picture based on the ideas and images of the philosopher NF Fedorov, the creator of the grandiose philosophical utopia "The Philosophy of the Common Cause" and, of course, his follower, the Kaluga dreamer KE Tsiolkovsky. With the latter, Zabolotsky corresponded in 1932, agreeing and arguing, dedicating him to the range of his topics. The poet dreamed of getting rid of the process of devouring some creatures by others in nature, “nature's everlasting press” - the embodiment of its market.

In March 1938 Zabolotsky was arrested. Zabolotsky spent in prison and camps from 1938 to 1944. After returning to Moscow, to Tarusa, where he lived for a long time, the most fruitful period of his creative life began. The poet translated "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" (already in 1945), Sh. Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin", created a whole anthology of translations of Georgian lyrics. But most importantly, he revealed the potential riches of the human soul as the highest manifestation of all, including spiritual life, of nature. This is a very dramatic page of his lyrics. In it, as noted by the scientist V. P. Smirnov, the poet not only "sought to comprehend contradictions, but also took himself as an element of contradiction."

V. Chalmaev

Used materials from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian people - http://www.rusinst.ru

SEDOV

He was dying, clutching the right compass.
Nature is dead, frozen in ice
Lied around him, and the sun is a caveman's face
I could hardly see through the fog.
Shaggy, with straps on their chest,
The dogs dragged their light load a little.
A ship in an icy grave
Already left far behind.
And the whole world was left behind!
To the land of silence, where the giant pole,
Crowned with an icy tiara
The meridian brought me to the meridian;
Where is the semicircle of the aurora
I crossed the sky with a spear;
Where is the age-old dead silence
Only one person could violate, -
There, there! To the land of foggy ravings,
Where the thread of the last life ends!
And the heart moan and the last moment of life -
Give everything, give everything, but win the pole!
He was dying in the middle of the road
We languish with sickness and hunger.
Icy feet in scurvy spots,
The dead lay before him like logs.
But strange! In this half-dead body
There was also a great soul:
Overcoming pain. barely breathing
Bringing the compass to your face barely,
He checked his route by the arrow
And he drove ahead his funeral train ...
O end of the earth, gloomy and sad!
What people have been here!

And there is a grave in the far North ...
Far from the world, it rises.
Only the wind howls there sadly,
And an even shroud of snow shines.
Two faithful friends, both barely alive,
The hero was buried among the stones,
And even his coffin was not easy for him,
A pinch was not his native land.
And there were no military honors for him,
No funeral fireworks, no wreaths
Only two sailors, kneeling,
Like children, we cried alone among the snow.

But people of courage, friends, do not die!
Now that over our head
Whirlwinds of steel cut the air
And disappear in a blue haze
When, having reached the snowy zenith,
Our flag hovers over the pole, winged,
And indicated by theodolite angle
Moonrise and sunset
My friends, at the people's celebration
Let's remember those who fell in the cold land!

Get up, Sedov, brave son of the earth!
We replaced your old compass with a new one
But your campaign in the harsh North
They could not forget in their campaigns.
And we would live in the world without limit,
Gnawing into the ice, changing the river beds, -
The Fatherland has brought us up into the body
She breathed in a living soul forever.
And we will go to any tracts,
And if death overtakes the snow,
I would ask fate for only one thing:
So die as Sedov died.

Give in to me, STARLING, CORNER

Give in to me, starling, corner,
Set me up in an old birdhouse.
I give you my soul as a pledge
For your blue snowdrops.

And the spring whistles and mutters,
Poplars are flooded up to their knees.
Maples wake up from their sleep
So that, like butterflies, the leaves clapped.

And such a mess in the fields,
And such nonsense of brooks,
Try to leave the attic
Do not rush into the grove with a headache!

Begin your serenade, starling!
Through the timpani and tambourines of history
You are our first spring singer
From the birch conservatory.

Open up the show, whistler!
Throw back your pink head
Breaking the shine of the strings
In the very throat of the birch grove.

I myself would try a lot,
Yes, the wanderer butterfly whispered to me:
"Who is loud in the spring,
He will remain without a voice by summer "

And spring is good, good!
Enveloped the whole soul with lilacs.
Raise the nestling soul,
Over your spring gardens.

Take a seat on a high pole
Blazing across the sky with delight,
Stick the cobweb to the star
Together with bird tongue twisters.

Turn your face to the universe
Honoring blue snowdrops
With an unconscious starling
Traveling through the spring fields.

WILL

When my life dries up in my declining years
And after extinguishing the candle, I will go again
Into the boundless world of foggy transformations,
When millions of new generations
Fill this world with sparkling miracles
And they will complete the structure of nature, -
Let my poor ashes cover these waters,
May this green forest shelter me.

I will not die, my friend. Breath of flowers
I will find myself in this world.
The centuries-old oak tree my living soul
Rooted, sad and harsh.
In its large sheets I will give shelter to the mind,
I will cherish my thoughts with the help of my branches,
So that they hang over you from the darkness of the forests
And you were involved in my consciousness.

Over your head, my distant great-grandson,
I will fly in the sky like a slow bird
I will flash over you like a pale lightning,
As summer rain will fall, sparkling over the grass
There is nothing in the world more beautiful than being.
The silent gloom of the graves is empty languor.
I have lived my life, I have not seen rest;
There is no peace in the world. Life is everywhere, and I am.

I was not born into the world when from the cradle
For the first time my eyes looked into the world, -
For the first time on my land I began to think,
When a lifeless crystal smelled life,
When the first raindrop
She fell on him, exhausted in the rays.
Oh, it was not for nothing that I lived in this world!
And it is sweet for me to strive out of the darkness,
So that, taking me in your palm, you, my distant descendant,
Completed what I did not complete.

CRANES

Flew out of Africa in April
To the shores of the fatherland,
We flew like a long triangle
Drowning in the sky, cranes.

Stretching out silver wings
Through the whole wide firmament,
Led the leader into the valley of abundance
Its own small people.

But when it flashed under the wings
Lake, transparent through and through,
Black gaping muzzle
From the bushes rose to meet.

A ray of fire struck a bird's heart,
A quick flame flared up and went out,
And a bit of wondrous greatness
From a height it fell on us.

Two wings, like two great sorrows,
Embraced the cold wave
And, echoing the sorrowful sob,
The cranes rushed high.

Only where the stars move,
In redemption of your own evil
Nature returned to them
What death took with it:

Proud spirit, high aspiration,
Unyielding will to fight -
Everything from the previous generation
It passes, youth, to you.

And the leader in a metal shirt
Sinking slowly to the bottom
And the dawn formed over him
Golden glow spot.

READING POEMS

Curious, funny and subtle:
A verse that almost does not look like a verse.
The muttering of a cricket and a baby
The writer has perfectly comprehended.

And in the nonsense of crumpled speech
There is a certain sophistication.
But perhaps human dreams
To sacrifice this amusement to bring?

And is the Russian word possible
Turn a goldfinch into a chirp
To make sense of a living basis
Couldn't sound through it?

No! Poetry poses barriers
To our inventions, for she
Not for those who, playing charades,
Puts on the sorcerer's cap.

The one who lives real life,
Who is accustomed to poetry from childhood,
Eternally believes in the life-giving one,
Russian language full of reason.

I was brought up by a harsh nature,
It's enough for me to notice at my feet
Downy ball of dandelion,
Plantain is a hard blade.

Than a simple plant is more common,
The more vividly excites me
The first leaves of his appearance
At the dawn of a spring day.

In the state of daisies, at the edge,
Where the brook sings breathlessly
I would lie all night until the morning,
Throwing my face into the sky.

Living in a stream of glowing dust
Everything would flow, flow through the sheets,
And the foggy stars were shining
Flooding the bushes with rays.

And, listening to the spring noise
Among the enchanted herbs
Everything would lie and I thought I was thinking
Endless fields and oak forests.

1953

WALKERS

In zipuns of a home cut,
From distant villages, because of the Oka,
They walked, unknown, three -
On a mundane business, walkers.

Russia tossed about in hunger and storm,
Everything was mixed, shifted at once.
The hum of the stations, the cry in the commandant's office,
Human grief without embellishment.

Only these three for some reason
Standing out in a crowd of people
They did not shout furiously and fiercely,
We did not break the line of queues.

Peering with old eyes
What need has done here,
Travelers grieved, but themselves
They spoke little, as always.

There is a trait inherent in the people:
He thinks not with reason alone, -
All my soulful nature
Our people associate with him.

That is why our fairy tales are beautiful,
Our songs, folded in harmony.
They have both mind and heart without fear
One dialect is spoken.

These three spoke little.
What words! That was not the point.
But in their souls they have accumulated
Much over the long journey.

Because, perhaps, they were hiding
There are alarming lights in their eyes
In the late hour when they stopped
They are at the threshold of Smolny.

But when their hospitable host,
A man in a shabby jacket
Himself worked to death,
I spoke to them in short,

Talked about their poor neighborhood
Talked about the time when
The electric horses will come out
To the fields of national labor,

He said how life would spread its wings
How, having perked up the spirit, the whole people
Golden breads of abundance
Throughout the country, rejoicing, it will carry, -

Only then is severe anxiety
Melted in three hearts like a dream
And suddenly there was a lot
From what only he saw.

And the knapsacks themselves untied,
Gray dust in a dusty room,
And in their hands they shyly appeared
Stale rye pretzels.

With this artless treat
The peasants approached Lenin.
Everyone ate. And it was bitter and tasty
The meager gift of a torn earth.

1954

UGLY GIRL

Among other children playing
She resembles a frog.
A thin shirt tucked into his panties,
Reddish curls rings
Are scattered, the mouth is long, the teeth are crooked,
Facial features are sharp and ugly.
Two little boys, her peers,
The fathers bought a bike.
Today boys, not rushing to dinner,
They drive around the yard, forgetting about her,
She runs after them on the trail.
Another's joy is just like your own,
It torments her and breaks out of her heart,
And the girl rejoices and laughs,
Overwhelmed by the happiness of being.

No shadow of envy, no evil intent
This creature does not yet know.
Everything in the world is so immeasurably new to her,
Everything that is dead to others is so alive!
And I don't want to think while watching
That there will be a day when she, crying,
He will see with horror that among her friends
She's just a poor ugly girl!
I want to believe that the heart is not a toy,
It is hardly possible to break it suddenly!
I want to believe that this pure flame,
Which burns deep in her,
One will get through all his pain
And the heaviest stone will melt!
And even if her features are not good
And she has nothing to seduce the imagination, -
Infant grace of the soul
Already shines through in any of her movements.
And if so, what is beauty
And why do people deify her?
She is a vessel in which there is emptiness,
Or a fire flickering in a vessel?

1955

ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF HUMAN FACES

There are faces like lush portals
Where everywhere the great seems to be in the small,
There are faces - the likeness of wretched hovels,
Where the liver is cooked and the abomasum gets wet.
Other cold, dead faces
Closed with bars, like a dungeon.
Others are like towers in which
Nobody lives or looks out the window.
But I once knew a little hut,
She was ugly, not rich,
But from her window at me
The breath of a spring day was flowing.
Truly the world is great and wonderful!
There are faces that resemble jubilant songs.
Of these, like the sun, shining notes
The song of heavenly heights is composed,

DON'T LET YOUR SOUL BE LAZY

Don't let your soul get lazy!
So that the water does not crush in the mortar,
The soul is obliged to work

Drive her from house to house
Drag from stage to stage
Through the wasteland, through the windbreak,
Through a snowdrift, through a bump!

Don't let her sleep in bed
By the light of the morning star
Keep a lazy woman in a black body
And don't take the bridle off her!

If you decide to give her a favor,
Freeing from work,
She's a last shirt
It will rip off you without pity.

And you grab her by the shoulders
Teach and torment until dark
To live like a human with you
She studied again.

She is a slave and a queen
She is a worker and a daughter
She has to work
And day and night, and day and night!

Compositions:

Collected cit .: In 3 volumes. M., 1983-84;

Georgian classical poetry translated by N. Zabolotsky. Tbilisi, 1958. T. 1, 2;

Poems and poems. M .; L., 1965. (B-ka poet. B. series);

Fav. works: In 2 volumes. M., 1972;

Snake apple: Poems, stories, fairy tales / Book. comp. based on materials from zhurn. "Siskin" and "Hedgehog" 20-30s. L., 1973;

Columns. Poems. Poems. L., 1990;

The story of my imprisonment. M., 1991;

Fire flickering in a vessel ...: Poems and poems. Translations. Letters and articles. Biography. Memoirs of Contemporaries. Analysis of creativity. M., 1995.

Zabolotsky Nikolai Alekseevich (1903-1958), poet.

Born May 7, 1903 in Kazan in the family of an agronomist. He studied at a rural school, then at a real school in the city of Urzhum.

He began to write poetry in childhood. In 1925 he graduated from the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of the A. I. Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad. In 1926-1927. served in the army.

At the end of the 20s. XX century Zabolotsky joined the group of Oberiuts - young writers who created the Association of Real Creativity (A. Vvedensky, Yu. Vladimirov, D. Kharms, etc.). Together with the Oberiuts, he began to try his hand at children's literature, was published in the magazine "Hedgehog".

In 1929, the first collection of the poet "Columns" was published, which caused, in his own words, "a decent scandal" and brought him popularity.

In 1929-1933. he writes the poems "The Triumph of Agriculture", "The Mad Wolf", "Trees". Zabolotsky devoted many works to the relationship between man and nature, including one of his best poems "Everything that was in the soul ..." (1936).

In 1937, the Second Book was published, which confirmed the poet's skill and originality.

In the late 50s. Zabolotsky translated the Georgian medieval poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Sh. Rustaveli (1953-1957). In 1938 Zabolotsky was arrested on false political charges. While in prison, he continued to write, made a free arrangement of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign." After his release in January 1946 he came to Moscow.

Poems by Zabolotsky of the late 40s-50s. became classics of Russian lyrics ("Testament", "Thunderstorm", "The dawn has not yet risen over the village ...", "I am not looking for harmony in nature ...", "Swallow", "Ugly girl", "Cranes", "Give in to me starling, corner ... ", cycle" Last love ", etc.). They are distinguished by philosophical depth; the author discovers ever new facets and secrets in life, finds new correspondences to his changing inner world.

Zabolotsky also owns numerous translations from German, Hungarian, Italian, Serbian, Tajik, Uzbek, Ukrainian.

His translations from Georgian poetry are especially significant. The result of many years of work was the two-volume Georgian Classical Poetry, published in Tbilisi in 1958, translated by N. Zabolotsky.

His last poem is "Don't let your soul be lazy ...".

V.A. Zaitsev

Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky (1903-1958) - an outstanding Russian poet, a man of a difficult fate, who went through a difficult path of artistic quest. His original and diverse work enriched Russian poetry, especially in the field of philosophical lyrics, and took a firm place in the poetic classics of the 20th century.

A penchant for writing poetry was revealed in the future poet in childhood and school years. But serious studies of poetry fell on the early twenties, when Zabolotsky studied - first at Moscow University, and then at the Pedagogical Institute. A.I. Herzen in Petrograd. The Autobiography says about this period: “He wrote a lot, imitating now Mayakovsky, now Blok, now Yesenin. I couldn't find my own voice. "

Throughout the 20s. the poet goes through the path of intense spiritual searches and artistic experimentation. From the youthful poems of 1921 ("Sisyphean Christmas", "Heavenly Seville", "The Wasteland Heart"), bearing traces of the influences of heterogeneous poetic schools - from symbolism to futurism, he comes to the acquisition of creative originality. By the middle of the decade, one after another, his original poems were created, which later made up the first book.

At this time, N. Zabolotsky, together with young Leningrad poets of the "left" orientation (D. Kharms, A. Vvedensky, I. Bekhterev and others) organized the "Association of Real Art" ("Oberiu"), Zabolotsky took part in drawing up the program and declaration group, undoubtedly putting its own meaning in its very name: "Oberiu" - "The union of the only realistic art, and" u "is the decoration that we allowed ourselves." Having entered the association, Zabolotsky most of all strove to maintain independence, elevating the "creative freedom of the members of the community" to the basic principle.

In 1929 Zabolotsky's first book "Columns" was published, which included 22 poems from 1926-1928. It immediately attracted the attention of readers and critics, provoked contradictory responses: on the one hand, serious positive reviews by N. Stepanov, M. Zenkevich and others, who celebrated the arrival of a new poet with their original vision of the world, on the other hand, rough, passable articles under characteristic titles: "System of cats", "System of girls", "Decay of consciousness".

What caused such an ambiguous reaction? In the poems of "Stolbtsov" a sharply individual and defamiliar perception of the contemporary reality by the author was manifested. The poet himself later wrote that the theme of his poems was deeply alien and hostile to him "the predatory life of all kinds of businessmen and entrepreneurs", "a satirical depiction of this life." A sharp anti-bourgeois orientation is felt in many poems of the book ("New Life", "Ivanovs", "Wedding", "Obvodny Canal", "People's House"). In the depiction of the bourgeois world, features of absurdism appear, realistic concreteness coexists with exaggeration and illogism of images.

The book was opened by the poem "Red Bavaria", the title of which recorded the characteristic realities of that time: this was the name of the famous beer bar on Nevsky. From the first lines, an extremely concrete, lively and plastic image of the setting of this institution appears:

In the wilderness of the bottle paradise, where the palms dried up long ago, playing under the electricity, a window floated in the glass; it glittered on the blades, then sat down, hard; beer smoke curled over him ... But it cannot be described.

To a certain extent, in accordance with the self-characterization given by him in the "Declaration" of the Oberiuts, the author appears here as "the poet of naked concrete figures, pushed close to the eyes of the viewer." In the description of the pub and its regulars, which unfolds further, internal tension, dynamics and increasing generalization are consistently increasing. Together with the poet, we see how “in that bottle paradise / the sirens trembled at the edge / curve of the stage”, how “doors revolve on chains, / people fall down the stairs, / crackle with a cardboard shirt, / dance around with a bottle”, like “men everyone was shouting too, / they were swinging on the tables, / they were swinging on the ceilings / bedlam with flowers in half ... "The feeling of meaninglessness and absurdity of what is happening is increasing, a general phantasmagoria arises from everyday life, which spills out onto the streets of the city:" Eyes fell, as if weights, / the glass was broken - night came out ... "And instead of" the wilderness of the bottle paradise "the reader already faces" ... outside the window - in the wilderness of time ... Nevsky in splendor and melancholy ... "Generalized judgments of this kind are encountered and in other verses: "And everywhere is crazy delirium ..." ("White Night").

The very nature of metaphors and comparisons speaks of an acute rejection of the bourgeois world: "... the groom, is unbearably agile, / is molded to the bride with a snake" ("New way of life"), "in iron armor a samovar / makes noise with a house general" ("Ivanovs"), “Straight bald husbands / sit like a shot from a gun”, “a huge house wagging its backside / flies into the space of being” (“Wedding”), “A lantern, bloodless like a worm, / dangles like an arrow in the bushes” (“People's House ") and etc.

Speaking in 1936 in a discussion about formalism and forcibly agreeing with the accusations of criticism against his experimental poems, Zabolotsky did not abandon what he had done at the beginning of the journey and emphasized: “The columns taught me to look closely at the outside world, awakened my interest in things , developed in me the ability to depict phenomena plastically. In them I managed to find some secret of plastic images ”.

The poet learned the secrets of plastic art not for the sake of a purely artistic experiment, but in line with the development of life content, as well as the experience of literature and other related arts. In this regard, interesting is the striking miniature "Movement" (December 1927), built on a distinct contrast between the statically picturesque first and dynamic second stanza:

The cabman sits as if on a throne, armor is made of cotton wool, and his beard, like on an icon, lies, ringing like coins.

And the poor horse waves his arms, now it stretches out like a burbot, then again eight legs sparkle in his shiny belly.

The transformation of a horse into a fantastic animal with arms and a double number of legs gives impetus to the imagination of the reader, in whose representation the picture, which at first appears to be monumental and motionless, comes to life. The fact that Zabolotsky was consistently looking for the most expressive artistic solutions in the depiction of movement is evidenced by the poem "Feast" (January 1928), written soon after, where we find a dynamic sketch: "A horse streams through the air, / conjugates the body in a long circle / and cuts a smooth prison with sharp feet / shafts. "

The book "Columns" became a noticeable milestone not only in the work of Zabolotsky, but also in the poetry of that time, influencing the artistic searches of many poets. The sharpness of social and moral issues, the combination of plastic imagery, odic pathos and grotesque satirical style gave the book its originality and determined the range of the author's artistic possibilities.

Much has been written about her. Researchers rightly associate Zabolotsky's artistic searches and the poetic world of Stolbtsov with the experience of Derzhavin and Khlebnikov, the painting of M. Chagall and P. Filonov, and finally, with the “carnival” element of F. Rabelais. This powerful cultural layer was the basis of the poet's work in his first book.

However, Zabolotsky did not confine himself to the topic of everyday life and city life. In the poems "The Face of a Horse", "In Our Dwellings" (1926), "A Walk", "The Signs of the Zodiac Faded" (1929), etc., which were not included in the first book, the theme of nature is born and receives an artistic and philosophical interpretation, which becomes the most important in creativity of the poet in the next decade. Animals and natural phenomena are spiritualized in them:

The horse's face is more beautiful and smarter.
He hears the sound of leaves and stones.
Attentive! He knows the cry of the beast
And in a dilapidated grove a nightingale rumble.
And the horse stands like a knight on a clock,
The wind plays in light hair
Eyes burn like two huge worlds,
And the mane spreads like a royal porphyry.

The poet sees all natural phenomena as living, carrying human features: "The river is a plain girl / Hidden among the grasses ..."; "Every little flower / Waving a small hand"; finally, "And all nature laughs, / Dying every moment" ("Walk").

It is in these works that the origins of natural philosophical themes in the lyrics and poems of Zabolotsky in the 30-50s, his reflections on the relationship between man and nature, the tragic contradictions of being, life and death, the problem of immortality.

The formation of Zabolotsky's philosophical and artistic views and concepts was influenced by the works and ideas of V. Vernadsky, N. Fedorov, especially K. Tsiolkovsky, with whom he was in active correspondence at that time. The scientist's thoughts about the place of humanity in the Universe undoubtedly worried the poet keenly. In addition, his long-standing passion for the work of Goethe and Khlebnikov clearly affected his worldview. As Zabolotsky himself said: “At this time I was fond of Khlebnikov, and his lines:

I see equine freedom And equal rights for cows ... -

deeply struck me. I liked the utopian idea of ​​emancipating animals. "

In the poems "The Triumph of Agriculture" (1929-1930), "The Mad Wolf" (1931) and "Trees" (1933), the poet walked the path of intense socio-philosophical and artistic searches, in particular, he was inspired by the idea of ​​"liberation" of animals, due to the deep belief in the existence of reason in nature, in all living things.

Projected on the conditions of the collectivization unfolding in the country, embodied in the author's reflections and philosophical conversations of the protagonists of his dispute poems, this belief caused misunderstanding and sharp critical attacks. Poems were harshly disseminated in the articles "Under the Mask of Foolishness", "Foolish Poetry and Poetry of Millions", etc.

Unfair assessments and a mocking tone of criticism had a negative impact on the poet's work. He almost stopped writing and at one time was mainly engaged in translation activities. However, the desire to penetrate the secrets of life, artistic and philosophical understanding of the world in its contradictions, thoughts about man and nature continued to excite him, making up the content of many works, including the completed in the 40s. the poem "Lodeynikov", fragments of which were written in 1932-1934. The hero, wearing autobiographical features, is tormented by the contrast between the wise harmony of the life of nature and its ominous, bestial cruelty:

Lodeinikov listened. Over the garden there was a vague rustle of a thousand deaths. Nature, turned into hell, did its business without fancy. A beetle ate grass, a bird pecked a beetle, a ferret drank a brain from a bird's head, and the terribly distorted faces of nocturnal creatures looked out of the grass. Nature's eternal press has combined death and being into a single club. But thought was powerless to unite her two mysteries.

("Lodeynikov in the Garden", 1934)

In comprehending natural and human existence, tragic notes are clearly heard: "On the abyss of torment our waters shine, / on the abysses of grief, forests rise!" (By the way, in the 1947 edition, these lines were altered and smoothed almost to complete neutrality: "So this is what they are making noise in the darkness of the water, / What the forests are whispering about, sighing!" who commented on these verses of the early 30s in this way: “The poet's perception of the social situation in the country was indirectly reflected in the description of the“ eternal pressure ”of nature”).

In the lyrics of Zabolotsky in the mid-30s. more than once social motives arise (the poems "Farewell", "North", "Gori Symphony", then published in the central press). Still, the main thrust of his poetry is philosophical. In the poem "Thinking about death yesterday ..." (1936), overcoming the "intolerable melancholy of separation" from nature, the poet also hears the singing of evening herbs, "and the speech of water and stone is a dead cry." In this lively sound, he catches and distinguishes the voices of his beloved poets (Pushkin, Khlebnikov) and he himself completely dissolves in the world around him: “... and I myself was not the brainchild of nature, / but her thought! But her unsteady mind! "

The poems "Thinking about death yesterday ...", "Immortality" (later called "Metamorphoses") testify to the poet's close attention to the eternal questions of life, acutely worried about the classics of Russian poetry: Pushkin, Tyutchev, Baratynsky. In them, he tries to solve the problem of personal immortality:

How things are changing! What used to be a bird
Now lies a written page;
Thought was once a simple flower;
The poem walked with a slow bull;
And what was me, then perhaps
Again it grows and the world of plants multiplies.
("Metamorphoses")

In the Second Book (1937), the poetry of thought triumphed. Significant changes took place in the poetics of Zabolotsky, although the secret of "plastic images" found by him in "Columns" was here explicitly and very expressively embodied, for example, in such impressive paintings of the poem "North":

Where are the people with icy beards
Putting a tapered three-piece on your head,
Sitting in sleighs and long posts
Let the icy spirit out of the mouth;
Where are the horses, like mammoths in shafts,
They're running rumbling; where the smoke is on the roofs
Like a statue that frightens the eye ...

Despite the seemingly favorable external circumstances of Zabolotsky's life and work (the publication of the book, the high appraisal of his translation of The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Sh. Rustaveli, the beginning of work on poetic transcriptions of The Lay of Igor's Campaign and other creative plans), trouble awaited him. In March 1938, he was illegally arrested by the NKVD, and after a cruel interrogation lasting four days, and being held in a prison psychiatric hospital, he received a five-year term of corrective labor.

From the end of 1938 to the beginning of 1946, Zabolotsky stayed in the camps of the Far East, Altai Territory, Kazakhstan, worked in the most difficult conditions in logging, blasting, construction of a railway line, and only thanks to a happy coincidence he was able to get a job as a draftsman in a design bureau, which saved his life.

It was a decade of enforced silence. From 1937 to 1946 Zabolotsky wrote only two poems developing the theme of the relationship between man and nature ("Forest Lake" and "Nightingale"). In the last year of the Great Patriotic War and the first post-war period, he resumed work on the literary translation of The Lay of Igor's Host, which played an important role in returning him to his own poetry.

Zabolotsky's post-war lyrics are marked by the expansion of the thematic and genre range, the deepening and development of socio-psychological, moral-humanistic and aesthetic motives. Already in the first verses of 1946: "Morning", "The Blind", "Thunderstorm", "Beethoven" and others - the horizons of a new life that had opened up seemed to open up, and at the same time the experience of cruel trials made itself felt.

The poem "In this birch grove" (1946), all permeated by the rays of the morning sun, carries a charge of high tragedy, unabated pain of personal and national disasters and losses. The tragic humanism of these lines, their hard-won harmony and universal sounding are paid for by the torments that the poet himself experienced from arbitrariness and lawlessness:

In this birch grove,
Far from suffering and misery
Where pink hovers
Unblinking morning light
Where a transparent avalanche
Leaves are pouring from tall branches, -
Sing to me, oriole, a desert song,
The song of my life.

These poems are about the life and fate of a person who endured everything, but not broken and not distraught, about the dangerous paths of mankind that have approached, perhaps, the last line, about the tragic complexity of time passing through the human heart and soul. They contain the bitter life experience of the poet himself, the echo of the past war and a warning about the possible death of all life on the planet, devastated by an atomic whirlwind, global catastrophes (“... You fly over the ruins of death ... And the death cloud stretches / Above your head ").

A visionary, comprehensively meaningful universal catastrophe and the defenselessness of everything living on earth in front of formidable, chaotic forces beyond man's control are confronting us. And yet these lines carry light, purification, catharsis, leaving a ray of hope in the human heart: "Beyond the great rivers / The sun will rise ... And then in my torn heart / Your voice will sing."

In the postwar years, Zabolotsky wrote such wonderful poems as "The Blind", "I am not looking for harmony in nature", "Remembrance", "Farewell to Friends." The latter is dedicated to the memory of A. Vvedensky, D. Kharms, N. Oleinikov and other comrades in the Oberiu group, who became in the 30s. victims of Stalinist repression. Zabolotsky's poems are marked by an impressive poetic concreteness, plasticity and picturesqueness of the image and, at the same time, by a deep social and philosophical understanding of the problems of everyday life and being, nature and art.

The signs of humanism that are not characteristic of the official doctrine - pity, mercy, compassion - are clearly visible in one of the first post-war poems by Zabolotsky "The Blind". Against the background of a "dazzling day" rising to the sky, lilacs blooming wildly in the spring gardens, the poet's attention is riveted on the old man "with his face thrown into the sky", whose whole life is "like a big habitual wound" and who, alas, will never open his "half-dead eyes ". A deeply personal perception of someone else's misfortune is inseparable from philosophical understanding that gives rise to the lines:

And I'm afraid to think
That somewhere on the edge of nature
I'm just as blind
With his face thrown into the sky.
Only in the darkness of the soul
I watch the spring waters,
I will interview them
Only in my sorrowful heart.

Sincere sympathy for people walking "through thousands of troubles", the desire to share their grief and anxiety brought to life a whole gallery of poems ("Passer-by", "Loser", "In the cinema", "Ugly girl", "Old actress", "Where- then in a field near Magadan "," Death of a Doctor ", etc.). Their heroes are very different, but with all the diversity of human characters and the author's attitude to them, two motives prevail here, absorbing the author's concept of humanism: “Infinitely human patience, / If love does not die out in the heart” and “Human strength / There is no limit ... "

In the work of Zabolotsky in the 50s, along with the lyrics of nature and philosophical reflections, the genres of a poetic story and portrait based on the plot are intensively developed - from those written back in 1953-1954. poems "Loser", "In the cinema" before those created in the last year of his life - "General's dacha", "Iron old woman".

In a kind of poetic portrait "Ugly Girl" (1955) Zabolotsky poses a philosophical and aesthetic problem - about the essence of beauty. Drawing the image of an "ugly girl", "a poor ugly girl", in whose heart "someone else's joy lives as well as his own", the author, with all the logic of poetic thought, brings the reader to the conclusion that "what is beauty":

And even if her features are not good And she has nothing to seduce the imagination with, - Infant grace of the soul Already shines through in any of her movements.

And if so, what is beauty? And why do people deify it?

Is she a vessel, in which there is emptiness, Or a fire flickering in a vessel?

The charm and charm of this poem, revealing the "pure flame" that burns in the depths of the soul of the "ugly girl", is that Zabolotsky was able to show and poetically affirm the true spiritual beauty of man - something that was a constant subject of his reflections throughout the 50s biennium ("Portrait", "Poet", "On the Beauty of Human Faces", "Old Actress", etc.).

The social, moral, and aesthetic motives that were intensively developed in Zabolotsky's later work did not supplant his most important philosophical theme of man and nature. It is important to emphasize that now the poet has taken a distinct position in relation to everything connected with the invasion of nature, its transformation, etc.: “Man and nature are unity, and only a round fool can seriously talk about some kind of conquest of nature and a dualist. How can I, a human being, conquer nature if I myself am nothing but her mind, her thought? In our everyday life, this expression "conquest of nature" exists only as a working term inherited from the language of savages. " That is why in his work in the second half of the 50s. the unity of man and nature is revealed with special depth. This thought runs through the entire figurative structure of Zabolotsky's poems.

Thus, the poem "Gombori Forest" (1957), written on the basis of impressions from a trip to Georgia, is distinguished by its vivid picturesqueness and musicality of images. Here there is “cinnabar with ocher on the leaves”, and “maple in illumination and beech in glow”, and bushes like “harps and trumpets”, etc. The very poetic fabric, epithets and comparisons are marked with increased expressiveness, a riot of colors and associations from the sphere of art ("In the dogwood grove there are bloody veins / The bush was ruffled ..."; "... the oak raged like Rembrandt in the Hermitage, / And the maple, like Murillo, hovering on wings "), And at the same time this plastic and pictorial depiction is inseparable from the artist's intent thought, imbued with a lyrical feeling of involvement in nature:

I have become the nervous system of plants
I became a reflection of stone rocks,
And the experience of my autumn observations
I again wished to give it to humanity.

Admiration for the splendid southern landscapes did not cancel the long-standing and persistent predilections of the poet, who wrote about himself: “I was brought up by harsh nature ...” Back in 1947, in the poem “I touched eucalyptus leaves”, inspired by Georgian impressions, it is not by chance that he connects his sympathies, pain and sadness with other, much more dear to the heart visions:

But in the fierce splendor of nature
I dreamed of Moscow groves,
Where the blue sky is paler
Plants are more modest and simpler.

In the poet's later poems, the autumn landscapes of his homeland are often also seen by him in expressive and romantic tones, they are realized in images marked by plasticity, dynamism, sharp psychologism: “The whole day is showered from maples / Silhouettes of crimson hearts ... The flame of sorrow whistles underfoot, / Vorokhi foliage stirring "(" Autumn landscapes "). But, perhaps, he manages to convey the "charm of the Russian landscape" with special force, breaking through the dense curtain of everyday life and seeing and depicting this at first glance "the kingdom of fog and darkness", in fact, full of special beauty and secret charm.

The poem "September" (1957) is an example of the animation of a landscape. Comparisons, epithets, personifications - all components of the poetic structure serve as a solution to this artistic problem. The dialectics of the development of the image-experience is interesting (the ratio of the motives of bad weather and the sun, withering and flowering, the transition of associations from the sphere of nature to the human world and vice versa). A ray of sun breaking through the rain clouds illuminated the hazel bush and caused a stream of associations-reflections in the poet:

This means that the distance is not forever curtained by Clouds and, therefore, not in vain,
Like a girl, flashing, the nut Shone at the end of September.
Now, painter, grab Brush by brush, and on the canvas
Golden as fire and pomegranate Draw this girl for me.
Draw, like a tree, an unsteady Young Princess in a crown
With a restlessly sliding smile On a tear-stained young face.

The subtle spiritualization of the landscape, calm, thoughtful intonation, emotion, and at the same time the restraint of tone, the colorfulness and softness of the drawing, create the charm of these poems.

Noticing the details with pinpoint accuracy, capturing the moments of the life of nature, the poet recreates its living and integral appearance in its constant, fluid changeability. In this sense, the poem "Evening on the Oka" is characteristic:

And the clearer become the details of the Objects located around,
This makes the distance of river meadows, backwaters and outcrops even more immense.
The whole world is burning, transparent and spiritual, Now it is truly good,
And you, rejoicing, recognize many wonders In his living features.

Zabolotsky was able to subtly convey the spirituality of the natural world, to reveal the harmony of man with it. In his later lyrics, he went to a new and original synthesis of philosophical meditation and plastic image, poetic scale and microanalysis, comprehending and artistically capturing the connection between modernity, history, “eternal” themes. Among them, the theme of love occupies a special place in his later work.

In 1956-1957. the poet creates a lyric cycle "Last Love", consisting of 10 poems. They unfold a dramatic story of the relationship between already middle-aged people, whose feelings have gone through hard tests.

Deeply personal love experiences are invariably projected in these verses on the life of the surrounding nature. In the closest merging with her, the poet sees what is happening in his own heart. And therefore, already in the first poem, "a bouquet of thistles" carries the reflections of the universe: "These stars with sharp ends, / These splashes of the northern dawn / ... This is also an image of the universe ..." (emphasis added. - V.Z.) ... And at the same time it is the most concrete, plastic and spiritualized image of the outgoing feeling, the inevitable parting with the beloved woman: "... Where are the bunches of flowers, blood-heads, / Straight into my heart"; "And a wedge-shaped thorn stretched out / Into my chest, and for the last time / A sad and beautiful shine for me / The gaze of her inextinguishable eyes."

And in other poems of the cycle, along with the direct, direct expression of love feelings ("Confession", "You swore - until the grave ..."), it appears and is reflected - in the landscape paintings themselves, living details of the surrounding nature, in which the poet sees "A whole world of glee and grief" ("Boat trip"). One of the most impressive and expressive in this regard poems - "Juniper bush" (1957):

I saw in a dream a juniper bush,
I heard a metal crunch in the distance
I heard the ringing of amethyst berries,
And in a dream, in silence, I liked him.
I smelled a faint scent of tar through my sleep.
Bending back these low trunks,
I noticed in the gloom of tree branches
A little bit living likeness of your smile.

These poems surprisingly combine the ultimate realistic concreteness of visible, audible, perceived by all senses, signs and details of an ordinary, seemingly natural phenomenon and a special instability, variability, impressionistic visions, impressions, memories. And the juniper bush, which the poet saw in a dream, becomes a capacious and multidimensional image-personification, which has absorbed the old joy and today's pain of outgoing love, the elusive image of the beloved woman:

Juniper bush, juniper bush,
Cooling babble of changeable lips,
Light babble, barely pitching in tar,
Who pierced me with a deadly needle!

In the final poems of the cycle ("Meeting", "Old Age"), the dramatic collision of life is resolved, and a feeling of enlightenment and peace comes to replace the painful experiences. The "life-giving light of suffering" and the "distant faint light" of happiness, flickering with rare lightning, are inextinguishable in memory, but, most importantly, all the most difficult is behind: "And only their souls, like candles, / The last warmth is streaming out."

The late period of Zabolotsky's work was marked by intense creative pursuits. In 1958, turning to historical themes, he created a kind of poem-cycle "Rubruk in Mongolia", based on a real fact undertaken by a French monk in the 13th century. travel through the expanses of the then Russia, the trans-Volga steppes and Siberia to the country of the Mongols. In the realistic pictures of the life and life of the Asian Middle Ages, recreated by the power of the poet's creative imagination, in the poetics of the work itself, a kind of meeting of modernity and the distant historical past takes place. When creating the poem, the poet's son notes, “Zabolotsky was guided not only by Rubruk’s notes carefully studied by him, but also by his own memories of travels and life in the Far East, Altai Territory, Kazakhstan. The poet's ability to simultaneously feel himself in different time periods is the most amazing thing in the poetry cycle about Rubruk. "

In the last year of his life, Zabolotsky wrote many lyric poems, including "Green Ray", "Swallow", "Groves near Moscow", "At Sunset", "Do not let your soul be lazy ...". He translates an extensive (about 5 thousand lines) cycle of legends of the Serbian epic and negotiates with the publishing house to translate the German folk epic "The Song of the Nibelungs". In his plans and work on a large philosophical and historical trilogy ... But these creative ideas were no longer destined to come true.

With all the diversity of Zabolotsky's work, the unity and integrity of his artistic world should be emphasized. Artistic and philosophical comprehension of the contradictions of life, deep thoughts about man and nature in their interaction and unity, a kind of poetic embodiment of modernity, history, "eternal" themes form the basis of this wholeness.

Zabolotsky's work is fundamentally deeply realistic. But this does not deprive him of a constant striving for artistic synthesis, for combining the means of realism and romance, a complex associative, conventionally fantastic, expressive metaphorical style, which was openly manifested in the early period and preserved in the depths of later poems and poems.

Singling out in the classical heritage of Zabolotsky "first of all realism in the broad sense of the word", A. Makedonov emphasized: "This realism also includes a wealth of forms and methods of life-likeness, right up to what Pushkin called" the Flemish school a variegated rubbish ", and a wealth of forms grotesque, hyperbolic, fabulous, conventional, symbolic reproduction of reality, and the main thing in all these forms is the striving for the deepest and most generalizing, multi-valued penetration into it, in all its fullness, the diversity of spiritual and sensual forms of being. " This largely determines the originality of Zabolotsky's poetics and style.

In the programmatic article “Thought-Image-Music” (1957), summarizing the experience of his creative life, emphasizing that “the heart of poetry is in its content”, that “the poet works with his whole being”, Zabolotsky formulates the key concepts of his integral poetic system as follows : "Thought - Image - Music - this is the ideal triplicity towards which the poet strives." This sought-after harmony is embodied in many of his poems.

In the work of Zabolotsky, there is undoubtedly a renewal and development of the traditions of Russian poetic classics, and above all of the philosophical lyrics of the 18th-19th centuries. (Derzhavin, Baratynsky, Tyutchev). On the other hand, from the very beginning of his creative activity, Zabolotsky actively mastered the experience of poets of the 20th century. (Khlebnikov, Mandelstam, Pasternak and others).

Regarding his passion for painting and music, which was clearly reflected not only in the very poetic fabric of his works, but also in the direct mention in them of the names of a number of artists and musicians (Beethoven, Portrait, Bolero, etc.), the poet's son wrote in the memoirs "About Father and About Our Life": "Father has always treated painting with great interest. His penchant for such artists as Filonov, Bruegel, Rousseau, Chagall is well known. " In the same memoirs, Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, Schubert, Wagner, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich are named among Zabolotsky's favorite composers.

Zabolotsky proved to be an excellent master of poetic translation. Exemplary were his poetic transcriptions "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" and "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Sh. Rustaveli, translations from Georgian classical and modern poetry, from Ukrainian, Hungarian, German, Italian poets.

Life and creative path of N.A. Zabolotsky, in his own way, reflected the tragic fate of Russian literature and Russian writers in the 20th century. Having organically absorbed huge layers of domestic and world culture, Zabolotsky inherited and developed the achievements of Russian poetry, in particular, and especially philosophical lyrics - from classicism and realism to modernism. He combined in his work the best traditions of literature and art of the past with the most daring innovation characteristic of our century, rightfully taking a place among his classics.

L-ra: Russian literature. - 1997. - No. 2. - S. 38-46.

Keywords: Nikolai Zabolotsky, criticism on the work of Nikolai Zabolotsky, criticism on the verses of Nikolai Zabolotsky, analysis of the work of Nikolai Zabolotsky, download criticism, download analysis, free download, Russian literature of the 20th century

Citizenship:

Russian empire, THE USSR

Occupation: Language of works: Awards: at Wikisource.

Nikolay Alekseevich Zabolotsky (Zabolotsky)(April 24 [May 7], Kizicheskaya Sloboda, Kaymar Volost, Kazan District, Kazan Province - October 14, Moscow) - Russian Soviet poet.

Biography

Zabolotsky was fond of painting Filonov, Chagall, Bruegel. The ability to see the world through the eyes of an artist remained with the poet throughout his life.

After leaving the army, the poet found himself in the situation of the last years of the NEP, the satirical image of which became the theme of the poems of the early period, which made up his first book of poetry - "Columns". In 1929, she was published in Leningrad and immediately caused a literary scandal and mocking reviews in the press. Evaluated as a "hostile sortie", it, however, did not evoke direct "organizational conclusions" - orders against the author, and he (through Nikolai Tikhonov) managed to establish a special relationship with the magazine "Zvezda", where about ten poems were published, which replenished the Columns in the second (unpublished) edition of the collection.

Zabolotsky managed to create surprisingly multidimensional poems - and their first dimension, immediately noticeable - is a sharp grotesque and satire on the theme of bourgeois life and everyday life, dissolving the personality in itself. Another facet of "Columns", their aesthetic perception, requires some special preparation of the reader, because for those in the know Zabolotsky weaved another artistic and intellectual fabric, a parody. In his early lyrics, the very function of parody changes, its satitic and polemical components disappear, and it loses its role as a weapon of intra-literary struggle.

In "Disciplina Clericalis" (1926) there is a parody of Balmont's tautological eloquence, culminating in Zoshchenko's intonations; in the poem "On the Stairs" (1928), Vladimir Benediktov's "Waltz" suddenly appears through the kitchen, already Zoshchenko's world; "Ivanovs" (1928) reveals its parody-literary meaning, evoking (hereinafter in the text) the key images of Dostoevsky with his Sonechka Marmeladova and her old man; lines from the poem "Wandering Musicians" (1928) refer to Pasternak, etc.

The basis of Zabolotsky's philosophical searches

From the poem "The signs of the zodiac are fading" begins the mystery of the birth of the main theme, the "nerve" of Zabolotsky's creative searches - for the first time the Tragedy of Reason sounds. The "nerve" of these searches in the future will force its owner to devote much more lines to philosophical lyrics. Through all his poems, the path of the most intense penetration of individual consciousness into the mysterious world of being runs, which is immeasurably wider and richer than the rational constructions created by people. On this path, the poet-philosopher undergoes significant evolution, during which 3 dialectical stages can be distinguished: 1926-1933; 1932-1945 and 1946-1958

Zabolotsky read a lot and with enthusiasm: not only after the publication of "Columns", but before he read the works of Engels, Grigory Skovoroda, the works of Kliment Timiryazev on plants, Yuri Filipchenko on the evolutionary idea in biology, Vernadsky on the bio- and noospheres, covering all living things and the rational on the planet and exalting both as great transformative forces; read Einstein's theory of relativity, which gained wide popularity in the 1920s; "Philosophy of the Common Cause" by Nikolai Fedorov.

By the time The Columns were published, their author already had his own natural-philosophical concept. It was based on the idea of ​​the universe as a single system that unites living and nonliving forms of matter, which are in eternal interaction and interconversion. The development of this complex organism of nature proceeds from primitive chaos to the harmonious ordering of all its elements, and the main role here is played by the consciousness inherent in nature, which, in the words of the same Timiryazev, "smolders dully in lower beings and only flashes a bright spark in the human mind." Therefore, it is Man who is called upon to take upon himself the care of the transformation of nature, but in his activity he must see in nature not only a student, but also a teacher, for this imperfect and suffering "eternal pressure" contains the wonderful world of the future and those wise laws by which should be guided by a person.

Gradually, Zabolotsky's position in the literary circles of Leningrad strengthened. Many of the poems of this period received favorable reviews, and in 1937 his book was published, including seventeen poems ("The Second Book"). On Zabolotsky's desk lay the begun poetic arrangement of the Old Russian poem "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" and his own poem "The Siege of Kozelsk", poems and translations from Georgian. But the prosperity that came was deceiving.

In custody

« The first days they did not beat me, trying to decompose morally and physically. I was not given food. They were not allowed to sleep. Investigators took turns, while I sat motionless on a chair in front of the investigating table - day after day. Behind the wall, in the next office, from time to time someone could hear frantic screams. My legs began to swell, and on the third day I had to break my shoes, as I could not bear the pain in my feet. Consciousness began to be clouded, and I strained all my strength in order to answer rationally and prevent any injustice in relation to those people about whom I was asked ..."These are Zabolotsky's lines from the memoirs" The History of My Imprisonment "(published abroad in English in the city, in the last years of Soviet power, also published in the USSR, c).

He served his term from February 1939 to May 1943 in the Vostoklag system in the Komsomolsk-on-Amur region; then in the Altaylag system in the Kulunda steppes; A partial idea of ​​his camp life is given by the compilation he prepared "One Hundred Letters of 1938-1944" - excerpts from letters to his wife and children.

Since March 1944, after being released from the camp, he lived in Karaganda. There he finished the transcription of The Lay of Igor's Campaign (begun in 1937), which became the best in a series of experiments by many Russian poets. This helped in 1946 to obtain permission to live in Moscow.

In 1946, N. A. Zabolotsky was reinstated in the Writers' Union. A new, Moscow period of his work began. Despite the blows of fate, he managed to return to unfulfilled plans.

Moscow period

The period of returning to poetry was not only joyful, but also difficult. In the poems "The Blind" and "The Thunderstorm" written then, the theme of creativity and inspiration sounds. Most of the poems of 1946-1948 were highly praised by today's literary historians. It was during this period that "In this birch grove" was written. Outwardly built on a simple and expressive contrast of a picture of a peaceful birch grove, singing orioles - life and universal death, it carries sadness, an echo of the past, a hint of personal fate and a tragic foreboding of common misfortunes. In 1948, the third collection of the poet's poems was published.

In 1949-1952, the years of extreme intensification of ideological oppression, the creative upsurge that manifested itself in the first years after his return was replaced by a creative decline and an almost complete switch to literary translations. Fearing that his words would be used against him again, Zabolotsky restrained himself and did not write. The situation changed only after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, with the beginning of the Khrushchev thaw, which marked the weakening of ideological censorship in literature and art.

He responded to new trends in the life of the country with poems "Somewhere in a field near Magadan", "Opposition to Mars", "Kazbek". Over the last three years of his life, Zabolotsky created about half of all works of the Moscow period. Some of them have appeared in print. In 1957, his fourth, most complete collection of poems from his lifetime was published.

The cycle of lyric poems "The Last Love" was published in 1957, "the only one in the work of Zabolotsky, one of the most painful and painful in Russian poetry." It is in this collection that the poem "Confession" is placed, dedicated to N. A. Roskina, later revised by the St. Petersburg bard Alexander Lobanovsky ( Enchanted, bewitched / With the wind in the field, once married / All of you seem to be chained in chains / You are my precious woman ...).

Family of N. A. Zabolotsky

In 1930, Zabolotsky married Ekaterina Vasilievna Klykova. In this marriage, a son, Nikita, was born, who became the author of several biographical works about his father. Daughter - Natalya Nikolaevna Zabolotskaya (born 1937), since 1962 the wife of the virologist Nikolai Veniaminovich Kaverin (born 1933), academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, son of the writer Veniamin Kaverin.

Death

Although before his death the poet managed to receive both wide readership and material wealth, this could not compensate for the weakness of his health, undermined by the prison and the camp. In 1955, Zabolotsky had his first heart attack, and on October 14, 1958, he died.

Creation

Zabolotsky's early work is focused on the problems of the city and the masses, the influence of V. Khlebnikov is reflected in it, it is marked by the objectivity inherent in futurism and the variety of burlesque metaphor. Confrontation of words, giving the effect of alienation, reveals new connections. At the same time, Zabolotsky's verses do not reach such a degree of absurdity as those of other Oberiuts. Nature is understood in Zabolotsky's verses as chaos and prison, harmony as delusion. In the poem "The Triumph of Agriculture", the poetics of futuristic experimentation is combined with elements of an eighteenth-century Iroicomic poem. The question of death and immortality defines the poetry of Zabolotskiy in the 1930s. Irony, manifested in exaggeration or oversimplification, marks the distance in relation to the depicted. Zabolotsky's later poems are united by common philosophical aspirations and reflections on the nature, naturalness of language, devoid of pathos, they are more emotional and musical than Zabolotsky's previous poems, and closer to tradition (A. Pushkin, E. Baratynsky, F. Tyutchev). An allegorical one is added to the anthropomorphic depiction of nature (The Thunderstorm, 1946).

Zabolotsky-translator

Nikolai Zabolotsky is the largest translator of Georgian poets: D. Guramishvili, Gr. Orbeliani, I. Chavchavadze, A. Tsereteli, V. Pshavela. Peru Zabolotskiy belongs to the translation of Sh. Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" (- the last edition of the translation).

Chukovsky wrote about Zabolotsky's translation of The Lay of Igor's Campaign that he was "more accurate than all the most accurate interlinear translations, since it conveys the most important thing: the poetic originality of the original, its charm, its charm."

Zabolotsky himself wrote in a letter to N. L. Stepanov: “ Now, when I entered the spirit of the monument, I am filled with the greatest reverence, surprise and gratitude to fate for having brought this miracle to us from the depths of centuries. In the desert of centuries, where no stone was left after wars, fires and fierce extermination, stands this lonely, unlike anything else, the cathedral of our ancient glory. It's scary, creepy to approach him. One involuntarily wants the eye to find in it the familiar proportions, the golden sections of our familiar world monuments. Waste labor! There are no such sections in him, everything in him is full of special gentle savagery, the artist measured him differently, not by our measure. And how touchingly the corners crumbled, crows sit on them, wolves prowl, and it stands - this mysterious building, knowing no equal, and will stand forever as long as the Russian culture is alive". He also translated the Italian poet Umberto Saba.

Addresses in Petrograd - Leningrad

• 1921-1925 - residential cooperative house of the Third Petrograd Association of Apartment Owners - 73 Krasnykh Zor Street;
• 1927-1930 - tenement house - Konnaya street, 15, apt. 33;
• 1930 - 03/19/1938 - the house of the Court Stables Department - the embankment of the Griboyedov Canal, 9.

Addresses in Moscow

• 1946-1948 - at the apartments of N. Stepanov, I. Andronikov in Moscow and in Peredelkino at the dacha of V.P. Ilyenkov
• 1948 - October 14, 1958 - Horoshevskoe highway, 2/1 building 4, apartment number 25. Place of life, work and death of the poet. The house was included in the register of cultural heritage, but was demolished in 2001 (see). During the summer months N. Zabolotsky also lived in Tarusa.