MOTIFS TRANSFORMATION OF M. DESBORDES-VALMORE LYRICS IN THE WORKS OF MARINA TSVETAEVA

Abstract

The influence of French culture on the poetry of M. Tsvetaeva was noted by her contemporaries (B. Pasternak, S. Bobrov), and also became the subject of scientific research (for example, N. Strelnikova). However, the relationship of her poetry with the French writer work of the romanticism era, M. Desbordes-Valmore (1786-1859), which is almost forgotten in our days, is analyzed for the first time, which seems relevant in light of the growing interest in the role of women in European culture. The article uses a biographical method, with the involvement of the poetics of the rhythm of H. Meshonnik. The article examines the mentions of M. Desbordes-Valmore in M. Tsvetaeva’s poetry and in correspondence with B. Pasternak, provides a brief comparison of biographies in terms of their influence on the formation of a poetic voice. Their tragic fates have a lot in common: both survived revolutions, as a consequence the ruin of the family nest, extreme poverty, the loss of loved ones. The main similarity between M. Tsvetaeva and M. Desbordes-Valmore lies in the auditory imagination, in intonational rhythmic expressiveness and in vivid metaphor. Both M. Desbordes-Valmore and M. Tsvetaeva left evidence of a moment preceding the moment of writing, “music” preceding verbal expression. They often rely on the song as a precedent text (O. Revzina), a precedent rhythm. The autobiographical nature of the lyrics and the musicality bring together so dissimilar authors at first glance. M. Tsvetaeva read M. Desbordes-Valmore in the original, probably having become acquainted with her work at the summer courses in the history of French literature at the Sorbonne. The analysis of the transformations of M. Desbordes-Valmore’s poems motifs in M. Tsvetaeva’s lyrics clearly show not only a deep knowledge and understanding of the French romantic tradition, but also the innovation of her own poetic language.