Simple as a moo. Shchegolev P

Mayakovsky was born in the village of Baghdad in Georgia into the family of Vladimir Konstantinovich Mayakovsky (), who served as a forester in the Erivan province, from 1889 in the Baghdad forestry. The poet's mother, Alexandra Alekseevna (), from a family of Kuban Cossacks, was born in Kuban. In 1902, Mayakovsky entered the gymnasium in Kutaisi. After the death of his father in 1906, Mayakovsky, his mother and sisters moved to Moscow. In 1906 in Moscow, he entered the fifth gymnasium (now Moscow school 91), where he studied in the same class with Pasternak’s brother Shura. He interrupted his studies in 1908 and took up revolutionary activities.

In 1908 he joined the RSDLP and was arrested three times. He began writing poetry in 1909 in solitary confinement in Butyrka prison. In 1911 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Having met David Burliuk, he entered the poetic circle and joined the Cubo-Futurists. The first published poem was called “Night” (1912), it was included in the futuristic collection “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste.” In 1913 he turned to dramaturgy, the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky”, the author staged the play and played the title role.

In working on the poem “Cloud in Pants”. In the summer of 1915, the Brikov family met. Poem "Flute-spine". Anti-war lyrics: “Mom and the evening killed by the Germans”, “Me and Napoleon”, poem “War and Peace” (1915). Appeal to satire. Cycle “Hymns” for the magazine “New Satyricon” (1915) “Revolution. Poetochronika". He starred in films based on his own scripts. “Mystery Bouffe” was staged for the anniversary of the revolution. Leader of the associations of left-wing artists comfuta, MAF, Lef, Ref gaz. "The Art of the Commune". Propaganda of world revolution and revolution of spirit. Moving from Petrograd to Moscow. The poem "" is the theme of the world revolution.

In organized the release of "Windows of GROWTH". The years of the Civil War will be considered the best time in life, in the poem “Good!” prosperous 1927 nostalgic chapters. In in a number of works he continues to insist on the need for a world revolution and a revolution of the spirit “The Fourth International”, “The Fifth International”, “My Speech at the Genoa Conference”, etc.

In 1925 he went on his longest trip overseas: he visited Havana, Mexico City and for three months performed in various cities in the United States, reading poetry and reports. Later, poems were written (the collection “Spain. Ocean. Havana. Mexico. America.”) and the essay “My Discovery of America.” Vladimir Mayakovsky and Maxim Gorky in Finland

In actively collaborated with Izvestia in in Komsomolskaya Pravda. Published in magazines: “New World”, “Young Guard”, “Ogonyok”, “Crocodile”, “Krasnaya Niva”, etc. Worked in agitation and advertising, for which he was criticized by B. Pasternak, V. Kataev, M. Svetlov . In 1923, he organized the Lef (Left Front) group and the thick magazine Lef (seven issues were published). In the summer of 1928, disappointment in Lefe and leaving the organization and the magazine.

The satirical plays “The Bedbug” (1928) and “Bathhouse” (1929) were staged by Meyerhold. It was in 1929 that the poet was overtaken by the same disappointment that every poet experiences, the collapse of the values ​​that he idolized, but not for all poets it ends this way...

On April 14, 1930, at 10:15 am, Mayakovsky shot himself in the heart with a revolver. This happened in Moscow, in house 3 on Lubyansky Proezd, apt. 12. Obviously it was suicide. However, contrary to the posthumous request of the poet himself, “Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying, and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.” Speculation continues around his death. A version of murder is often expressed, but additional examinations and investigations did not find any indisputable evidence of this version. Fatal wound

Already the first poem “Crimson and white is discarded and crumpled...” could become a manifesto of the avant-garde in poetry. Never before has poetry been so freely expressive and metaphorical. “I’ll go cry that the policemen were crucified at the crossroads” or “And you could play a nocturne on the flute of drainpipes.” The combination of the energy of the rally and demonstration with the most lyrical intimacy was amazing.

In pre-revolutionary works, the confession of a poet, forced to the point of screaming, perceives reality as an apocalypse (tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky”, 1914, poems “Cloud in Pants”, 1915; “Spine Flute”, 1916; “Man”). Following "Flute" a poem was written, first published in the first volume of the complete works, "To Lilichka!" (M., "Fiction", 1953). Original creativity began after becoming acquainted with the poetry of the symbolist Andrei Bely. According to the poet, it all started with Andrei Bely’s line “I launched a pineapple into the sky.” David Burliuk introduced the young poet to the poetry of Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Verhaeren, but Whitman's free verse had a decisive influence; You can often come across the statement that Mayakovsky’s versification is unique, and he had no predecessors, but this is not entirely true. Mayakovsky did not recognize poetic meters; he invented rhythm for his poems; polymetric compositions are united by style and a single syntactic intonation, which is set by the graphic presentation of the verse: first by dividing the verse into several lines written in a column, and since 1923 by the famous “ladder”, which became Mayakovsky’s “calling card”. The ladder helped Mayakovsky to force him to read his poems with the correct intonation, because... commas were sometimes not enough.

However, there were more mundane rumors about Mayakovsky’s “ladder”. Some were convinced that the poet “broke” the lines only in order to increase his fee for publishing poems, since each line of the work was charged. Do you imagine Parisian women with their necks crushed by pearls and diamonds... Stop imagining! Life is tougher - my Parisian woman looks different...

After 1917, the creation of the socialist myth of the world order (the play “Mystery-bouffe”, 1918, the poems “”, 1921, “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”, 1924, “Good!”, 1927) and the tragically growing sense of its depravity (from the poem “The Satisfied” , 1922, before the play “Bath”, 1929) “The time of rallies and meetings” contributes as much as possible to the victorious march from the stage to the people. At this time, the country is still united in anticipation of a world revolution, the fall of all states and an era of universal justice. Many Mayakovsky researchers argue that in the mid-1920s he began to become disillusioned with the realities of the socialist system, although he continued to create poems imbued with official cheerfulness, including those dedicated to collectivization, until his last days

In 1918, Mayakovsky wrote the script for the film “Not Born for Money,” based on Jack London’s novel “Martin Eden.” The poet himself played the main role of Ivan Nov. Unfortunately, not a single copy of this film has survived. CINEMATOGRAPHER Also in 1918, Mayakovsky starred in the leading role in the experimental film “The Young Lady and the Hooligan,” based on a script written by Mayakovsky himself. After 50 years, the script did not remain forgotten; in 1970, a television film-ballet “The Young Lady and the Hooligan” was released based on the 1918 script

The poet embodies the idea of ​​a person as the crown of a worldview, who has the right not to reckon with anything or anyone that is outside of him. A challenge to Heaven is also a challenge to God, a directly stated doubt in his omnipotence. Almighty, you invented a pair of hands, made everyone have a head - why didn’t you invent so that it would be painless to kiss, kiss, kiss?! (Cloud in pants) The work of Mayakovsky, who knew the Holy Scripture very well, is full of quotes and hidden references to it, and a constant dispute with it.

23 “There is hardly another example in history of a person who had gone so far in a new experience, at the hour predicted by himself, when this experience, even at the cost of inconvenience, would become so urgently needed, would so completely abandon it. His place in the revolution, outwardly so logical, internally so forced and empty, will forever remain a mystery to me...” Boris Pasternak From the story “Safety Certificate”) “...Art was called tragedy. That's what it should be called. The tragedy was called “Vladimir Mayakovsky”. The title hid the ingeniously simple revelation that the poet is not the author, but the subject of the lyrics, addressing the world in the first person. The title was not the name of the writer, but the surname of the content.”

“...When talking about this poet, Mayakovsky, we will have to remember not only the century, we will constantly have to remember the century ahead. This vacancy: the world's first poet of the masses will not be filled so soon. And we, and perhaps our grandchildren, will have to look forward, not back, to Mayakovsky.” “...With his quick feet, Mayakovsky walked far beyond our modern times and somewhere, around some corner, he will be waiting for us for a long time.” M. Tsvetaeva (From the article “Poet and Time”) M. Tsvetaeva (From the article “Epic and Lyrics of Modern Russia”)

“I tried to write music to Mayakovsky’s poems, but it turned out to be very difficult, somehow it didn’t work out. I must say that it is very difficult to set Mayakovsky’s poems to music; it is especially difficult for me to do this, since Mayakovsky’s reading still sounds in my ears and I would like the intonation of Mayakovsky reading his poems to find a place in music.” D. Shostakovich (From the book “Mayakovsky in the memoirs of his contemporaries”)

What a joy that Mayakovsky exists and is not invented; a talent that has rightfully ceased to take into account how we write today and whether this means everything or much less; but with even greater passion he was jealous of poetry for its future, creativity for the fate of creation. It won't change him. Poetry will be tied to the poet by two things. – The fury of his creative conscience. A sense of not yet ripe responsibility before eternity - his judgment seat.

To write about his book is to outline... a natural history of modern talent in general.

He became a poet as recently as he had been an artist for a long time.

He wrote many things in which the tension of metaphor is brought to those limits where it rests on the fatal ability of individuality alone to receive impressions that are obsessive due to their untamed originality.

In printing houses these metaphorical batteries were typed in the manner of poetry. Column.

Often, the living, like a real incident, state of such metaphors, by the power of these rare properties, rushed into the lyrics and burst into the lyrics. This is the “I”. This is the largest part of the poems in the “I Shout to the Brick” department.

Often, however, these columns, not naturally connected with the metaphor located along them and often not completely filled with it, opened up access for verbal synonymy to the places reserved for the proper names of matter; prosaic considerations to vacancies of figurative and pathetic behavior.

Having already written several of these columns, which are more similar to poetry than anything else, an artist of such type and caliber as Mayakovsky cannot help but become a poet. In the same way, mutatis mutandis, Scriabin became a composer. I am inclined to think that this is generally the fate of every major modern talent. Apparently, the specialization carried out by man on an ever-increasing scale in the field of labor discourages nature from aimlessly specifying a breed.

Less and less people are born musicians, painters, and poets. But some spend their childhood in cities that are in no way similar to everything that is said about them by those who form their population. But, entering the brains of a few teenagers, the impressions themselves begin to liken themselves to the most distant fellow villagers in their brains. But, finally, there is no phenomenon around such a teenager that does not hurt because of its special visibility; and it was not visible and in memory - in an eternally present moment; that is, at the moment of crisis of acute inflammation of the paint. And, further, there are no such epidemics of imagery that people would not call: the names of the seasons; names of places, names of feelings and passions; in terms of mental states. Such a teenager, having heard for the first time a triad with a major seventh, ceases to understand how music can exist that is not produced directly from this single sound combination; how Alexander Blok, having written “Magic” and “Poisons,” writes everything else; How can one admire Pushkin, who so little resembles Laforgue and Rimbaud?

The existence of delimited types of creativity is not necessary for his impressions of genius. It is alien to them. But the existence of art in general is their own existence.

They do not know that the brain, pregnant with them, will sooner or later come to self-limitation, that “art in general” does not exist, that a teenager, someday becoming a poet on this path, will be sharp and intricate enough to allow himself to say goodbye forever to paradoxes painting or music. He, who caught metaphors like flies with his palm, where another, sensing the divine, spread out his rug like a Muslim priest; and, on the contrary, who found God where another drew water for his insipid words about the city, he will have to sacrifice a lot, having grown to that maturity about which the Baratynskys said:

“Tragedy” was the turning point from which the rapid transformation of the artist into a poet began. Mayakovsky begins to understand poetry as vividly as he once grasped the thoughts of the street and the sky above it with just a wave of his eyes. He approaches poetry more and more simply and more confidently, like a doctor approaching a drowned woman, forcing the crowd on the shore to part with his very appearance. I can see from his movements: he quickly, like a surgeon, knows where her heart is, where her lungs are; knows what to do to her to make her breathe. The simplicity of such movements is amazing. It is impossible not to believe in them.

Readings Interpretations

Yu.S. Moreva (Moscow)

DIALOGUE OF THE WHITE AND RED CLOWNS AS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING V. MAYAKOVSKY’S COLLECTION “SIMPLE AS MOOOING”

Annotation. The article substantiates the hypothesis that the artistic unity of Vladimir Mayakovsky’s second lifetime collection “Simple as Mooing” is formed, in particular, thanks to a special dialogue of the lyrical hero’s points of view, repeating the logic of the dialogue of the traditional theatrical (circus) pair of White and Red clowns. This assumption is confirmed during the analysis of the collection as a whole. With this perspective, the author of the article focuses on the special device of the lyrical hero’s statement. It is shown that the fragmentation of his consciousness and the loss of himself as a single whole by the lyrical subject at the same time create the artistic unity of the collection. The revealed paradoxical logic of intertextual connections allows us to draw the final conclusion that this makes possible the organic coexistence in the collection of works belonging to different genres and even literary types.

Yu. Moreva (Moscow)

Dialogue between the Whiteface Clown and the Auguste as a Key to Understanding a V. Mayakovsky's Collection of Verse "Simple as Moo"

Abstract. The article represents a hypothesis according to which the entity of the second lifetime collection of verse "Simple as Moo" by Vladimir Mayakovsky is formed, particularly, by a special form of a dialogue between the points of view of the hero, which follows the pattern of a traditional dialogue between the Whiteface clown and the Auguste. This assumption is confirmed during the analysis of the collection as a whole. In this perspective, in the author's spotlight gets a special structure of lyrical hero. The paper demonstrates that the fragmentation and loss of lyrical subject's consciousness at the same time create a unity of the collection. Revealed a paradoxical logic of intertextual connections allows making a final conclusion: it makes possible the coexistence in the collection belonging to different sorts and even the literary genres.

Key words: collection of verse; lyric cyclization; factor of cyclization; dialogue;

subject structure; lyric hero; point of view; futurism; postsymbolism.

The poet’s second lifetime collection was published in 1916. Compared to the poet’s first little book - “I!” 1913, consisting of only four texts, is a large and heterogeneous text ensemble. “Simple as Mooing,” dedicated to Lilya Brik, already contained thirty-five separate poetic texts (one of which became a kind of preface to the ensemble, and the rest were grouped into four cycle-sections), the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky” and the poem “Cloud in Pants "

In connection with such heterogeneity of material, there is a feeling of “fragmentary” composition of the collection, randomness of both the selection of texts and their arrangement: at first glance it may seem that the works included in the ensemble are weakly connected with each other, if connected at all. The fallacy of such a perception can be supported, for example, by a historical and literary fact, which is indicated by the memoirs of A.N. Tikhonov, the official owner of the Parus publishing house, where the collection was published1. Tikhonov reports that Mayakovsky had to follow the advice of the publishers and significantly change the composition of the book, which the poet was extremely dissatisfied with. It seems, however, that this evidence is not enough to unconditionally declare the verified composition of the collection or the presence of special intertextual connections that would unite the works into a single whole, not purely mechanically, but also at a deep semantic level2.

It is important that a detailed study of the collection reveals patterns that allow us to talk about it specifically as an artistic whole, i.e. about an internally complete ensemble, all texts of which are subject to a single author’s plan and, therefore, are built into a certain system3. Within the framework of this article, the object of study becomes one of the principles of the formation of this artistic whole - the special structure of the utterance of the lyrical hero. The peculiarity of the lyrical subject of “Simple as a Moo” is that he, being actually represented by one character, creates the feeling of the presence of many heroes, whose points of view are sometimes diametrically opposed4. The collection even contains precedents for the clash of different points of view, expressed in the statements of one character within the same text. To summarize, we can say that the lyrical hero of the collection has at least one more figure within himself - the figure of the “Other”. A similar rejection of the unity of the lyrical hero can be observed quite often in post-symbolist collections5. But in the case of Mayakovsky, it is precisely the fact that the “fragmentation” of the utterance, the “fragmentation” of the very consciousness of the subject of speech that serves to form artistic unity.

Trying to highlight the different points of view of the lyrical hero in the collection, the reader can pay attention to the constant emphasis on the word “red,” which is used in the ensemble’s texts to describe one

one of the hypostases of the lyrical hero and concepts related to his role. The word “red” in the collection is associated with motifs of laughter, madness6, the devil, hooliganism, violence, and chaos. The bearer of this consciousness is a mocker, an evil clown who mercilessly mocks the crowd and is aware of his antics:

I went out to the square

Scorched Quarter

He put it on his head like a red wig.

(“And yet,” p. 20, all texts from the collection are quoted indicating pages according to the 1916 edition7).

The smooth hairdresser immediately became coniferous,

The face stretched out like a pear:

"Crazy!"

(“They don’t understand anything,” p. 36).

But the collection also creates the opposite image. This is a tragic, sublime role associated with mourning motives, unhappy love, sacrifice, the divine, and harmony. The key motives that sound in the statements of this “voice” are pain, melancholy, suffering, death. It is interesting that in some of the poems where the statement belongs to the bearer of this consciousness, color is also found, and this color is white:

Staggered from the fifth floor.

The wind burned my cheeks

(“To the whole book”, p. 3)

White, white, like staring at a coffin

(“Mother and the evening killed by the Germans”, p. 53).

Of course, the points of view presented in the collection are not limited to

the two mentioned: the hero’s consciousness is split, and his own reflection on this matter becomes one of the key themes of “Simple as a Moo.” But don’t the “voices” of the hero described above resemble the famous images of Red and White - circus clowns who embody the traditional carnival couple of Harlequin and Pierrot? At first glance, there really is a similarity - but so far this similarity is only external. However, it is worth remembering how this couple’s performance is traditionally structured. These characters do not perform separately; the meaning of their appearance on the stage is precisely in interaction, in a dialogue arranged in a special way. So, the eternally sad White clown voices some statement, which Red immediately repeats, ridiculing and turning it around. Usually the attention and sympathy of the audience is on the side of the Red Clown, but it is wrong to assume that he is the main one. The leading role still belongs to the clown Bely, his point of view is usually closer to the author’s, and Red only highlights his statements and draws the public’s attention to them. In this sense, Bely's monologues represent an independent statement, and Red's answers are a parody, which can hardly be regarded as a valuable monologue in itself.

Let us turn to the text of “Simple as a Moo” to find out whether the hypothesis about the similarity of the interaction of the two “voices” found in the text with the dialogue of the circus couple of the Red and White clowns is confirmed. It turns out that most poems can be conditionally divided into “red” or “white” in connection with the motifs that appear in them. For this, it is not necessary that the color designations themselves appear in the text; it is only important that in the poem under consideration the image that was previously tied to one of the colors in the form of a hypothesis is clearly visible. So, for example, the poem “Here!” can be considered a striking example of a “red-haired” statement:

And if today I, a rude Hun, don’t want to make faces in front of you - and then I will laugh and joyfully spit, I’ll spit in your face,

I am a spender and spendthrift of priceless words (p. 38).

A diametrically opposite image is built, for example, in such a “white” statement - a fragment of the first act of the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky”:

Dear sirs!

Mend your soul

The emptiness could not ooze!

I don't know,

Offense or not?

I'm as dry as a stone woman.

I was milked.

Dear sirs!

Do you want a wonderful poet to dance in front of you?

Of course, the image of a tragic character created in the text, ready to suffer in front of the public and thereby entertain it, cannot help but resemble lines from the performance of the White Clown. The famous phrase of Pierrot from “The Golden Key” by A.N. also comes to mind. Tolstoy, with whom the character began his performances: “Hello, my name is Pierrot... Now we will perform in front of you a comedy called “The Girl with Blue Hair, Or Thirty-three Slaps on the Head.” They will beat me with a stick, slap me in the face and slap me on the head. This is a very funny comedy...”8.

It was already noted above that the meaning of the performance of a circus pair of clowns lies precisely in the interaction of their statements. It is interesting that this feature can be traced in the text of the collection: we are talking not just about the creation of two different voices, but about their dialogue, about the formation of such a statement about something, the completeness of which is due to the presence of two opposing points of view within it. This dialogic form is implemented in the collection in several ways.

Firstly, the sequence of poems itself can look like a dialogue: very often “red” follows directly after “white”, and this order is repeated several times and is not random. Thus, the poem “Listen!”9 (p. 17), which opens the cycle “I Shout to the Brick,” can be classified as “white.” In the collection it precedes the “red” poem “Hell of the City” (p. 18). The sublime, solemn statement of the lonely hero, looking into the silent dark night sky with precious pearls, is contrasted with images of an ugly city, where the sky with an “unnecessary, flabby moon” can barely be seen behind artificial lights, skyscrapers and swarming cars. The contrast between the divine and the devil is clearly visible, heightened by the presence of the image of God in one text and red devils in the other. It is curious that the world of the poem “Hell of the City” is literally overflowing with people, although they are not directly named: these are residents of the skyscrapers mentioned in the text, car drivers and tram passengers. The lyrical hero, who owns the words “Hell of the City,” destroys and inverts the hero’s statement from the previous poem, as the Red Clown does, but he still speaks on the same topic. In addition to the fact that in both texts the events unfold against the backdrop of a night city, they contain a motif of despair and loneliness, and if in “Listen!” If the hero himself is lonely, then in “Hell of the City” we meet a pitiful “old man”, highlighted against the background of the implied crowd.

Another pair of poems adjacent to the collection is arranged in a similar way - “Something about Petrograd” (p. 25) and “More Petrograd” (p. 26). The first of the poems conveys the melancholic mood of the hero: the Neva in the rain is likened to a camel driven by a tired driver, “tears are falling down” into the drainpipes, the sky itself is compared to a crying baby. The poem “Still Petrograd” even sounds sharper and more confusing than the previous text, written in classic iambic tetrameter with almost no pyrrhic: it is a dolnik in which four- and three-stress verses alternate, and the last verse tends to be accented (“majestic, like Leo Tolstoy”). . All the images in this poem create a terrible, devilish atmosphere: the fog “with the bloodthirsty face of a cannibal” chews people, time is like a harsh curse (in contrast to the emphasized silence from the poem “Something about Petrograd”: “and the sky, having died down, became clear”), and “some kind of rubbish” looks majestically from the sky - here even the hero’s open mockery is heard. Thus, the model of Petrograd is created precisely in the interaction of two opposing points of view, and it is important to pay attention to the sequence of poems. Already at the title level it becomes clear that the first poem is more important than the second: if the “white” text represents “something”, i.e. is an independent complete statement, then the text “red” is an answer, addition, reaction to what has already been said (“more” in the title). This feature exactly reproduces the logic of the dialogue between the White and Red clowns.

The same logic can be seen in the pair of poems “Morning” (p. 29) and “Night” (p. 31), also following each other. In the poem “Morning,” which describes the dawn, the image of stars, already familiar from another “white” text, is encountered; here the reader again faces a lonely hero suffering in a hostile (“hustle and horror”) city, to whom “a terrible joke pecking laugh.” In “Night,” on the contrary, one gets the impression of carnival delight, a holiday that begins in the city with the onset of darkness; here are laughing blackamoors, and a parrot, and cards, and the clinking of coins, and not only the crowd laughs: the hero finds himself inside it and squeezes “a smile into their eyes.”

The next option for implementing the interaction of the points of view under consideration is their dialogue within one text. Such a dialogue can be considered the apogee of interaction between the Red and White clowns, since in such a statement the points of view are the most inseparable, they flow into one another, and it is difficult to determine who owns this voice.

The most striking example here is, of course, the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky”, where the belonging of different points of view to one hero is most clearly established: both “red” and “white” statements belong to the hero Vladimir Mayakovsky. Separated only by a remark, the remarks of the same character seem to belong to completely different persons. For example, the remark already mentioned above, reminiscent of Pierrot’s statement and beginning with a theatrical appeal to the audience,

New philological bulletin. 2016. No. 1(36). --

lyu (“Gracious sirs!”), is a typical statement for the character of Vladimir Mayakovsky in his “white” incarnation. Every now and then, sighing, he talks about his unhappy fate, quietly convincing himself that “somewhere - it seems, in Brazil - there is one happy person” (p. 71). But in the next statement, the same character behaves completely differently, his voice begins to resemble the voice from the poem “Here!”: “Look for the fat in shell houses, and beat the tambourine of the belly with joy” (p. 38). In the text of the tragedy, there are also remarks in which two points of view are so fused together that it is impossible to understand who is the bearer of the statement: “I will lie down, bright, in clothes of laziness, on a soft bed of real dung” (p. 64). Here the motive of suffering also appears (later we talk about suicide), again associated with color symbolism, but individual details - “clothes of laziness” or “a bed of dung” - look like a mockery, parodying the high style of the tragic hero’s speeches.

What makes the hero change masks? What motivates this constant change of points of view in the collection? This seems to be due to two motives: unhappy love and creativity. There is a curious fragment of text in which the hero, driven by unhappy love, actually tears off his mask:

Only in mine

Inflamed

The brain was you!

Stop the stupid comedy!

Look -

I'm tearing off toys-armor!

The greatest Don Quixote!

(“To the Whole Book,” p. 4).

In this statement, two points of view are again merged: for the bearer of one of them, love is a “stupid comedy”, and everything that happens is madness, while the bearer of the opposite point of view poses another challenge to the viewer - he calls himself “the greatest Don Quixote” and, thus, again consciously tries on the image of a jester, although in this cry, of course, pain is heard. Note that the traditional character of the commedia dell'arte, the heroes of which are Pierrot and Harlequin, is Columbine - Pierrot's unhappy love, which makes him suffer. Thus, another motif of the collection turns out to be correlated with traditional theatrical performance.

The motive of creativity can perhaps be called the most important for explaining the hero’s need to constantly change his role. The hero repeatedly declares that fragmentation of the soul is the lot of the poet; it cannot accommodate all possible hypostases. Moments when a change in points of view is felt

expressed by the hero himself and even becomes an object of reflection, are associated with the motive of creativity:

And I feel “I”

Not enough for me.

Someone breaks out of me stubbornly (“Cloud in Pants”, p. 95)

I am a poet, I erased the difference

Between the faces of our own and those of others (“Vladimir Mayakovsky”, p. 70).

However, why does it turn out that different points of view and the divided consciousness of the hero serve to establish a connection between the texts of the collection, why do the conflicting voices not break the narrative canvas into two delimited layers? Perhaps the point is precisely that the lyrical hero himself is perfectly aware of his internal conflict and, moreover, is able to independently choose which mask to wear next time. Thus, it turns out that neither the White nor the Red clown can be trusted, because their replicas are nothing more than those sides of the conflict that the integral hero, who understands everything and controls his own theatrical circus performance, wants to highlight. A change of role is often marked in the text by a change of costume: the hero puts on a red wig, a yellow jacket, a toga and a laurel crown in accordance with the chosen role. The lyrical hero emphasizes that he is ready to change masks and appear before the public in new images not only of his own free will, but also at the request of the crowd:

I’ll be mad from meat, - and, like the sky, changing tones - If you want,

I will be impeccably gentle, Not a man, but a cloud in my pants!

(“Cloud in Pants”, p. 90).

It is interesting that the limits here again turn out to be the “red” (red) color of meat, associated with the motif of madness, and the “white” color of tender

clouds As noted above, these transformations take place within the framework of one person, aware of his integrity and separation from all kinds of masks:

Sometimes it seems to me, “I’m a Dutch rooster, or I

King of Pskov. And sometimes

I like best my own surname, Vladimir Mayakovsky

(“Vladimir Mayakovsky”, p. 84).

Returning to the logic of constructing the dialogue between the White and Red clowns, one more important feature should be noted. When reading the collection, one gets the feeling that the vast majority of poems can be conditionally classified as “red”, therefore the role of the Red Clown in the collection is the main one. However, as in a traditional theatrical or circus performance, the main role is assigned to the White clown. In the text of the collection one can find confirmation that here, too, the main character is tragic, and it is his position that is consonant with the author’s (and the position of that “whole” hero, who includes various roles), that it is he, the martyr, who appears in the first collection 1913, is the main character of “As Simple as a Moo.” This statement is presented most objectively: it is expressed both by the hero himself (subjectively) and by other heroes (objectively):

It’s good when the Soul is wrapped in a yellow jacket from examinations!

(“Cloud in Pants,” p. 104).

In this statement of the hero himself, one can trace the motive of deliberate buffoonery, designed to protect the hero’s soul from the attacks of the hostile surrounding world - to the reader, in fact, the confession of the hero-martyr. However, the hero still fails to hide his mental pain from strangers, and his true face is revealed, for example, by the Old Man with the black, dry cats from the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky”:

I see -In you

On a cross of laughter

The tortured cry is crucified (p. 66).

So, the main feature of the lyrical statement in the collection is the fact of the coexistence of several “voices” in one hero, the change of which is controlled by the hero himself. At the same time, he, playing different roles, realizes himself as Other in relation to all roles. The hypothesis that the text of the collection implements a typical theatrical or circus dialogue between the Red and White clowns is confirmed: The Red Clown, while riveting the reader’s attention to his remarks, nevertheless directs him to the statements of White, which, apparently, are closest to the author’s position . The functions of the Red Clown in the collection, as well as on the theatrical stage, are to emphasize, sharpen the most important details of the White Clown’s position, and strengthen the tragic principle. This gives the reader a key to understanding the meaning of the collection and indicates those details that should be especially noted. The complexity of the hero's relationship with himself, of course, reflects the complexity of his relationship with the world around him, which, being shown from different points of view, appears huge, hostile and full of tragedy. Thus, the fragmentation of the consciousness of the lyrical subject, the loss of the unity of the hero, paradoxically create the artistic unity of “Simple as a Moo”, build internal connections between different texts and allow works of different genres and even literary types to organically coexist within one book.

NOTES

1 Dinerstein E. Mayakovsky and the book. M., 1987. P. 60.

2 Darwin M.N. The problem of the cycle is in the study of lyrics. Kemerovo, 1983; Fomenko I.V. On the principles of composition of lyrical cycles // Izvestia of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Literature and Language Series. 1986. T. 45. No. 2. P. 25-39.

3 Sterjepulu E.A. Lyrical cycle as a system of poetic texts // Facta universitatis. Series: Linguistics and Literature. 1998. Vol. 1. No. 5. P. 323-332.

4 Savelyeva V.V. Role manifestations of the author in the organics and architectonics of a book of poetry // Author's book creation in poetry / resp. ed. O.V. Miroshnikova. Omsk, 2008. pp. 36-41; Chernyakova M.A. The diversity of the lyrical “I” of the early V. Mayakovsky: the mask of the lyrical hero as a form of protest // Problems of philology, history, culture. 2007. No. 18. P. 232-237.

5 Tyupa V.I. Status of a work of art in post-symbolism // Post-symbolism as a cultural phenomenon. Vol. 3M.; Tver, 2001. pp. 3-5.

6 Ternova T.A. Semiotics of madness in the literature of the Russian avant-garde // Bulletin of the Chelyabinsk State University. 2010. No. 21 (202). pp. 134-139.

8 Tolstoy A.N. The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio. M., 1991. P. 34.

9 Cantor K. The Thirteenth Apostle. M., 2008.

References (Articles from Scientific Journals)

1. Fomenko I.V. O printsipakh kompozitsii liricheskikh tsiklov. Izvestiya ANSSSR, Series of Literature and Language,

1986, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 25-39. (In Russian).

2. Steriopulu E.A. Liricheskiy tsikl kak sistema poeticheskikh tekstov. Facta universitatis, Series: Linguistics and Literature, 1998, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 323-332. (In Russian).

3. Chernyakova M.A. Raznolikost" liricheskogo "ya" rannego V. Mayakovskogo: maska ​​liricheskogo geroya kak forma protesta. Problemy filologii, istorii, kul"tury, 2007, no. 18, pp. 232-237. (In Russian).

4. Ternova T.A. Semiotika bezumiya v literature russkogo avangarda. Vestnik Chelyabinsk State University, 2010, no. 21 (202), pp. 134-139. (In Russian).

(Articles from Proceedings and Collections of Research Papers)

5. Savel "eva V.V. Rolevye proyavleniya avtora v organike i arkhitektonike knigi stikhov. Miroshnikova O.V. (ed.) Avtorskoe knigotvorchestvo vpoezii. Omsk, 2008, pp. 36-41. (In Russian).

6. Tyupa V.I. Status khudozhestvennogo proizvedeniya v postsimvolizme. Postsimvolizm kakyavlenie kultury. Moscow; Tver, 2001, Issue 3, pp. 3-5. (In Russian).

7. Dinershteyn E. Mayakovskiy i kniga. Moscow,

1987, p. 60. (In Russian).

Darvin M.N. Problema tsikla v izuchenii liriki. Kemerovo, 1983. (In Russian).

8. Kantor K. Trinadtsatyy apostol. Moscow, 2008. (In Russian).

Yulia Sergeevna Moreva - graduate student of the Department of Theoretical and Historical Poetics of the Institute of Philology and History of the Russian State University for the Humanities

Range of scientific interests: lyrical cyclization; avant-garde; poetry; Russian futurism.

Email: [email protected]

Yuliya Moreva - postgraduate student at the Department of Theoretical and Historical Poetics, Institute for Philology and History, Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH).

Research interests: lyric cyclization; avant-garde; verse studies; Russian futurism.

“I'm tired of it” Vladimir Mayakovsky

Didn't stay at home.
Annensky, Tyutchev, Fet.
Again,
driven by longing for people,
I'm coming
to cinemas, taverns, cafes.

At the table.
Shine.
Hope shines on a foolish heart.
What if in a week
the Russian has changed so much,
that I will burn his cheeks with the fires of his lips.

I carefully raise my eyes,
I'm rummaging through the pile of jackets.
"Back,
back-to-back,
back!"
Fear screams from the heart.
Tossing around his face, hopeless and boring.

I don't listen.
I see
a little to the right,
unknown either on land or in the depths of the waters,
diligently working on a calf's leg
a most mysterious creature.

You look and don’t know whether he’s eating or not.
You look and don’t know whether he’s breathing or not.
Two arshins of faceless pinkish dough!
at least the mark was embroidered in the corner.

Only swaying falling on the shoulders
soft folds of glossy cheeks.
Heart in a frenzy
vomits and rushes.
“Get back!
What else?

I look to the left.
His mouth gaped.
I turned to the first one, and everything became different:
for the one who sees the second image
first -
resurrected Leonardo da Vinci.

No people.
You see
the cry of a thousand days of torment?
The soul does not want to go dumb,
and tell whom?

I'll throw myself on the ground
stone bark
I bleed my face, washing the asphalt with tears.
With lips yearning for caresses
I'll cover you with a thousand kisses
smart face of the tram.

I'll go home.
I'll stick to the wallpaper.
Where is the rose more tender and tea-like?
Want -
you
pockmarked
Will I read “Simple as a Moo”?

For history

When everyone is settled in heaven and hell,
the earth will be summed up -
remember:
in 1916
Beautiful people disappeared from Petrograd.

Analysis of Mayakovsky's poem "Tired"

The theme of loneliness can be seen very clearly in the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky, who considered himself a genius and at the same time was convinced that his work was inaccessible to the understanding of others. However, the poet was looking not so much for comrades-in-arms, but for people who would sympathize with him and show the most ordinary human attention. In a crowd of thousands, Mayakovsky could feel restless and useless to anyone. He carried this feeling with him throughout his life, regretting that there was not a single person in the whole world who could accept the poet for who he is.

Living alone and at the same time being a public person is quite difficult. Mayakovsky tried to express this contradictory feeling in the poem “Tired,” written in 1916. The author, in need of moral support and encouragement, “driven by longing for people,” goes on another walk around the city, choosing places with the greatest concentration of people. He is looking for those who could become spiritually close to him, each time catching himself thinking that “hope shines on a foolish heart.” It should be taken into account that by the time the poem “Tired” was written, society was already so saturated with revolutionary ideas that almost all boundaries between classes were erased. And by appearance it is difficult to determine who is in front of you - yesterday’s peasant, who became rich in the wheat trade, or an impoverished aristocrat, drunk and degenerate. Therefore, when he sees a diverse crowd in a restaurant, the poet “fear screams from his heart. Tossing around his face, hopeless and boring.” Mayakovsky's gaze picks out individual people, whose faces represent “two arshins of faceless pinkish dough.” It is difficult for a poet to penetrate under this mask of indifference and indifference with which those around him cover their true feelings. Therefore, the author bitterly declares: “There are no people,” and the realization of this shocks Mayakovsky so much that he is ready to bleed his face on the pavement, “washing the asphalt with tears” and seek sympathy from a passing tram, which, unlike people, “smart face”, as well as at the wallpaper with delicate tea roses that cover the walls of his room.

The poet has no complaints about the imperfect world, which is so unfair to those who need love and care. However, the author makes a disappointing diagnosis for society, claiming that “in 1916, beautiful people disappeared from Petrograd.” Moreover, we are not talking about appearance, but about spiritual qualities for which Russians were famous for their responsiveness, tolerance, sensitivity and natural kindness.

This is not the first year that Mayakovsky has been making noise on the literary street. The time of youth and first youth had passed for him, and the youthful sonority of his voice was replaced by a slightly fattened loudness. Language is the main element of his poetry; all his noisy fame is based on language. He shouts annoyingly into his ears:

I'm as lonely as the last eye
of a man going to the blind.

I will laugh and spit joyfully,
I'll spit in your face
I am a spender and spendthrift of priceless words.

I give you poems that are as funny as be-ba-bo
Sharp and necessary, like toothpicks!

Every day I go to the plague-stricken
about thousands of Russians in Jaffa.

I'm fearless
hatred of daylight
suffered for centuries;
with a soul stretched like a nerve of a wire,
I -
king of lamps!

For several years now, Mayakovsky has been filling his works with such cries. This is how it was two years ago, this is how things are now, and this is how it will be in the future. I carefully followed Mayakovsky's creations, but in vain I tried to catch any signs of movement or growth. As he began, he continues - without any cancellations or changes. A loud screamer remains only a screamer and not only does not transform, but also does not show any desire to transform into a poet. The mood of the teacher from “Three Sisters”, who is pleased with everything, runs through all the products of his muse. And Mayakovsky’s self-satisfaction is fat, heavy, somehow sticking out of him in a special way. It's funny!

Me alone through the burning buildings
prostitutes will carry it in their arms like a shrine
and will show it to God in their justification.
And God will cry over my book!
Not words - convulsions stuck together with a lump:
and will run across the sky with my poems under his arm!
and will, breathless, read them to his friends.

Mayakovsky's poetic works have nothing in common with poetry, art, or art. This is a very unique literature; the emotions it evokes are also of a special order. Mayakovsky's products produce a physiological effect on the reader's body. The loud whoop of the “King of Lamps” fills the ears, hits the eardrum, and affects the brain. It looks like several Papuans are practicing the piano behind the wall.

Mayakovsky flaunts the uncommon expression of his muse, his unusualness, extravagance, but the unusual in his poems has already become annoyingly vulgar.

U--
faces.
Persons
U
Great Danes
years of res-
what?
Che-
res
iron horses
The first cubes jumped.

What a thick coating vulgarity on this rubbish! I insist on the vulgar expression of Mayakovsky’s muse. In his poetic work there is a deep triviality, peacefully coexisting with illiteracy and provincial arrogance. And quite often Mayakovsky’s poems are smeared with lard. “The horn lustfully interfered with the horn,” “the night fell in love with obscenity and drunkenness,” “the gardens fell obscenely in July,” etc. These pearls are very kind to Mayakovsky’s muse.

They had completely put an end to Mayakovsky’s “creativity,” but suddenly his poems were published by a publishing house whose motto was “Sow the reasonable, the good, the eternal.” Publishing house that arose under the "Chronicle". It’s a big sin on the souls of Mayakovsky’s publishers.

NOTES

Published from this edition.

Shchegolev Pavel Eliseevich(1877--1931) - literary critic, Pushkin scholar, publicist, historian of the democratic and revolutionary movement in Russia in the 18th - 20th centuries. In the 1900s, he was expelled from St. Petersburg and imprisoned for participating in revolutionary anti-government activities. In the 1910s he collaborated with the publishing house "Ogni", the magazine "Sovremennik", and the newspaper "Day". In addition to the article published here, P. Shchegolev touched upon the work of Mayakovsky in the notes “Futurists and Maxim Gorky” (Day, 1915, February 27); “The cry of the Russian futurist” (Day. 1915. June 20).

I'm as lonely as the last eye...- from the poem “A few words about myself” (1913).

I'll laugh and spit joyfully...- from the poem "Here!" (1913). Quoted inaccurately.

I give you poems that are as funny as be-ba-bo...-- from the poem "Jacket Veil" (1914).

Every day I go to the plague-stricken...-- from the poem "Me and Napoleon" (1915).

I'm fearless/ hatred of daylight...-- from TDC (Prologue, lines 29--33).

Me alone through the burning buildings...- from the poem “But still” (1914).

U- / faces / Faces / U...-- from the poem "From Street to Street" (1913).

Publishing house that arose under the "Chronicle".-- The publishing house "Parus" (which published Mayakovsky's book) and the magazine "Chronicle" operated under the leadership of M. Gorky.