Он жив. Новелла

Abstract

“When you swim against the current, do not wait for the support of it” - wrote Khlebnikov being a student. He swam against the current of the Silver Age, after his death his Word was in the contradiction with the Soviet system. And even now the futurist poet is swimming against the current, against the mainstream of contemporary culture. Khlebnikov’s poetry and his behaviour show what is Genious as such. Genious is not “a great talent”, it is not simple quantative concentration of giftidness. There is a qualitative difference between a big talent (Mayakovsky) and a genious (Khlebnikov). I use here the concept “izgib” (“the bend”) what means the natural paradoxality of the artistic personality and the artistic style. There is a lot of examples of Khlebnikov’s extraordinary behaviour. One of the most impressive was described in the memories of Yury Annenkov. At the dinner Khlebnikov took a sprat from the distant common dish and carried it to his own plate making a wet trace on the table-cloth. “Nehkoť trevozhiť” (“I didn’t want to disturb” ) -was his explanation of his stange action. Really he didn’t want to disturb -not only the guests who could bring the dish nearer to him but first of all the creative process which never stopped in his mind and his soul. The wet trace of the fish on the table-cloth can serve a symbol of artistic “bend”. In serious context we can follow this bend in the permanent Khlebnikov’s pilgrimage up to tragic death in the village of Santalovo in Novgorod region. It was a final of a bright cathartic tragedy. The “bed” has no end. It is a continious way to eternity. On the contrary Mayakovsky’s “straight” way ends as a suicide, as a self-destruction. Even in comparison with Akhmatova, Pasternak, Mandelshtam and Tsvetayeva Velimir Khlebnikov shows the more clear model of Genius, independent of any non-artistic values. Only prosaist Andrey Platonov is similar to him in this sense. “Velimir is sitting crossing his legs. He is alive” -this is a short poetic inscription of Daniil Khaims to the portrait of Khlebnikov. Khlebnikov is still alive. He is new and strange even for the majority of educated readers. This is a pledge of his immortality.