Sergei Esenin Research Articles

Using the folklore and poetry by Sergei Yesenin in Russian as a foreign language lessons: an online class

Object of the article: Russian as a foreign language classes. Subject of the article: the method of creating an artificial language environment in classes with students from Asia and Africa who study Russian as a foreign language. Material of the article: an online experiment on the use of materials of Russian folklore and the artistic heritage of the poet of the early XX century Sergei Esenin in classes with foreign students. The purpose of the article is to identify the national axiology in Russian poetry. The purpose of the article is to show the features of the online lesson of Russian as a foreign language. Methodology: holistic hermeneutic analysis of the song on the poet's verses "Above the window the moon" with the involvement of biographical commentary and historical-literary context. The results of the study consist in the development of a methodology for analyzing the text with foreign students, aimed at a holistic perception and understanding of the poetic text.

Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors: The Duvakin Interviews, 1967–1974 By Slav N.Gratchev, MargaritaMarinova, IrinaEvdokimova. Translated by Slav N. Gratchev and Margarita Marinova. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021, xii + 234 pp. $80.00. ISBN 978‐1‐4874‐2725‐9

Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors: The Duvakin Interviews, 1967–1974 By Slav N.Gratchev, MargaritaMarinova, IrinaEvdokimova. Translated by Slav N. Gratchev and Margarita Marinova. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021, xii + 234 pp. $80.00. ISBN 978‐1‐4874‐2725‐9

Песни на стихи Сергея Есенина на занятиях по русскому языку для иностранцев

Юбилей Сергея Александровича Есенина — благодатный повод обратиться к произведениям одного из величайших и любимейших писателей России, чей поэтический стиль отличается уникальностью и самобытностью, а творческое наследие входит в сокровищницу культурного достояния страны. Обращение к стихам С. А. Есенина, положенным на музыку, создает отличную возможность применения этого материала на занятиях по русскому языку как иностранному, что позволяет не только углубить знания о стране изучаемого языка, расширить понимание русскоязычной картины мира, но и усилить мотивацию к овладению русским языком, а преподавателю, в свою очередь, помогает разрабатывать креативные увлекательные задания, не нашедшие отражения в большинстве учебников по русскому языку для иностранцев. Sergei Esenin’s 125th anniversary is a good reason for turning to the works of an author of almost unprecedented popularity, whose poetic style is original and unique, his literary heritage considerably enriching the treasury of the national culture. His poetry set to music can make invaluable material when teaching Russian to foreigners. It gives them an insight into the culture of Russia and the Russian language worldview, and enhances motivation for studying Russian and broadening understanding of its culture. It also gives the teacher an opportunity to use involving creative tasks not to be found in the majority of Russian textbooks for foreigners.

Russifying the Radīf: Lyric Translatability and the Russo-Persian Ghazal

Building on Earl Miner's insight that the lyric is a ‘foundation genre’ of world literature, this article develops this idea in the context of thinking about lyric translatability. I do this by examining the Russo-Persian lyric, a hybrid literary genre that developed within Russian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Radically unlike its classical Persian prototype, the Russo-Persian ghazal is a case study in lyric translatability. I explore the development of this hybrid genre from its appropriation by the Russian Romantic poet Afanasy Fet (d. 1890) to its influence on Sergei Esenin's Persian Motifs (1925), a text that adds a new dimension to the Russian-Persian encounter. Moving beyond historicist treatments that focus solely on direct impact or empirical encounters, this exploration of the Russo-Persian lyric traces the movement of literary form as a process of cultural translation that sometimes misunderstands the original, but which also transforms it, generating new literary form for a receptive audience. Broadly, this research sheds light on how the ghazal and its adaptations modifies and extends our understanding of lyric form, and on what is and is not translated through the lyric genre.

«Низкий дом» и «Дом с мезонином» — две модели «русского мира» в творчестве Сергея Есенина

«Низкий дом» и «Дом с мезонином» — две модели «русского мира» в творчестве Сергея Есенина

Russifying the Radif: Lyric Translatability and the Russo-Persian Ghazal

Building on Earl Miner's insight that the lyric is a 'foundation genre' of world literature, this article examines the Russo-Persian lyric, a hybrid genre that developed within 19th and 20th century Russian literature, as a case study in lyric translatability. First developed by the Russian Romantic poet Afanasy Fet (d. 1890) and later evident in Sergei Esenin's Persian Motifs (1925), the Russo-Persian lyric adds a new dimension to the Russian-Persian encounter. While tracing the migration of literary form as a process of cultural translation that transforms the original, generating new literary forms for new audiences, I shed light on how the ghazal and its adaptations modifies and extends our understanding of lyric form, and on what is and is not translated by the lyric genre.

Сергей Есенин в зеркале американской периодической печати 1922–1925 годов

Сергей Есенин в зеркале американской периодической печати 1922–1925 годов

Tbilisi Evening

Tbilisi Evening Titsian Tabidze (bio) Translated by Rebecca Gould (bio) March 15, 1927 Tbilisi evening almost died of crying with the music’s voice. The strings carried the heart’s sorrows from the river’s left bank. That’s how the raft man sang, his pine logs bound with swans, his sudden refrain reduced to new hopes’ ashes. My still heart keens with what I have or what I had, what was cast into the fire as I stand naked on the black mountain. I praise the wind of industry. I want to destroy the old country. Icarus’s honeyed wings were melted by the sun’s rays. Forgive me, if I cry for the milky dew of Tbilisi mornings. I envy the flute-player raised on heroic poetry. [End Page 37] I recline on the old raft I cry, bound to the pine swans. My song sings past the old refrain. I live with these dreams. [End Page 38] Titsian Tabidze Titsian Tabidze (1895–1937) was one of most eloquent and sophisticated poets of the literary modernist movement that dominated Georgian literature during the early decades of the twentieth century. Born in rural western Georgia, he passed most of his adult life in cosmopolitan Tbilisi, where he became close friends with Russian and Georgian poets, including his translator Boris Pasternak (winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize for literature), Sergei Esenin (d. 1925), and Osip Mandelstam (d. 1938). Like many Russian and Georgian poets of his era, Titsian perished in a purge directed by Stalin’s police chief Lavrenty Beria. In Titsian’s case the stimulus for his execution was his refusal to denounce his close friend and fellow poet, Paolo Iashvili. To date, Titsian’s work has only been systematically translated into Russian, but an interview with his descendants is available in English at https://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/tabidze_8_1_10/. Rebecca Gould Rebecca Gould is a translator of Persian, Russian, and Georgian poetry as well as a scholar, critic, and writer. Her work has appeared in the Hudson Review, Gettysburg Review, Guernica, and Literary Imagination, among many other venues. Her translated volume After Tomorrow the Days Disappear: Poems of Hasan Sijzi of Delhi will be published by Northwestern University Press. Gould has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Association of Literary Translators, and is currently an assistant professor in the humanities at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. Copyright © 2015 University of Nebraska Press

"As Many Street Cops as Corners": Displacing 1905 in the Pinkertons

AbstractRenewed popular interest in the Pinkertonovshchina – pre-Revolutionary, Western-styled detective fiction – invites a closer look at this fascinating phenomenon. An examination of the original serial's reception among young readers holds out clues to the psychological motivations of those who devour popular cultural genres in times of social flux. Memoirs and letters by Valentin Kataev (1897-1986), Leonid Borisov (1897-1972), and Sergei Esenin (1895-1925), who had all experienced the first Pinkerton craze as 10- and 12-year-olds, indicate that these colorful, readily accessible parables of Manichean justice in exotic locales allowed young readers to displace their own anxieties about an all-too-confusing domestic situation in the wake of the 1905 Revolution and the subsequent "Reaction". In this, the Russian Pinkertons of the 1900s and '10s functioned in much the same way as American comic books of the 1940s and '50s – another cheaply priced, fixed-format, violent, and markedly graphic (i.e., visual) genre which captivated young readers during a highly reactionary period in their nation's history.

Блок, Иванов, Рыжий

In this paper the author examines Ryzhii's connections with a variety of poets-predecessors, primarily Blok and Georgii Ivanov, but also Nikolai Rubtsov and Sergei Esenin. Traces from these poets can be observed in much of Ryzhii's poetry.

Sergei Esenin i russkaia dukhovnaia kul'tura by O. E. Voronova Poiut Esenina by Iurii Volkov Ia prostilsia s soboi, / Chtoby vstretit' sebia: Iunosheskie stikhi 1970-1977 gg by Boris Orlov Zhenshchiny, liubivshie Esenina by Boris Gribanov (review)

REVIEWS 725 Voronova, 0. E. Sergei Esenini russkaia dukhovnaia kul'tura. Uzoroch'e, Riazan', 2002. 505 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Priceunknown. Volkov,Iurii.Pojut Esenina. Moscow, 2002. I70 pp. Priceunknown. Orlov, Boris. Ia prostilsias soboi, / Chtobyvstretit'sebia: Iunosheskie stikhi 1970-I977 gg.Izdatel'stvoBukovskogo,St Petersburg,2002. 64 pp. Price unknown. Gribanov, Boris. Zhenshchiny, liubivshie Esenina. TERRA-Knizhnyi klub, Moscow , 2002. 303 pp. Illustrations.Priceunknown. OVER the past decade Ol'ga Voronova (born in I958) has emerged as an outstanding young scholar in the field of Esenin studies. Her first short monograph,Dukhovnye iskaniia Sergeia Esenina: Kniga dliauchitelia (Riazan', I995, 98 pp.), sought to breaknew ground by exploring Esenin'sspiritualevolution in relation to the Russian spiritual'renaissance'duringthe firstquarterof the twentiethcentury,and to suchcategoriesas 'thenew religiousawareness','the Russian idea', and 'Russian cosmism'. This somewhat embryonic study (which broached such topics as the figure of Christ in Esenin's early work, biblical motifsin his longer poems of 19I7-1 9, and Esenin'sown appearance as a penitent prodigal son in his verse of the 1920S) was soon followed by a fullerassortmentof ratherdisparatearticles,Dukhovnyi put'Esenina.Religioznofilosofskie i esteticheskie iskaniia(Riazan', 1997, 287 PP.). In that second book Voronova clarified the religious and philosophical meaning of individual works (notably, 'Mikola' and 'Pevushchii zov'), offered an 'existentialist' analysisof 'Chernyi chelovek', and commented sensiblyon a variety of other topics. Voronova's promising earlier work now comes to magnificent fruition in her thirdbook, Sergei Esenini russkaia dukhovnaia kul'tura, which stems from her doctoral dissertation,defended in Moscow in April 2000. In this meticulously annotated and copiously illustratedmonograph, ProfessorVoronova displays an exemplary breadth and depth of scholarship.Coherently and lucidly, she providesa many-sidedand perhapsdefinitiveevaluationof Esenin'spersonality (or 'mentality') and poetry as an embodiment of Russia's complex and frequentlycontradictoryspiritualtradition.Eight richly informativechapters illuminate the religious and national aspects of Esenin's work in its chronological development. The scholar offers a multitude of sensitive, persuasive and precise insights into the reflection in Esenin's work of Slavic pagan mythology, religious and ritual folklore, Orthodox icon-painting and liturgy, popular religious heresies, the traditions of the Old Believers, Old Russian and Russian classical literature, Russian religious and philosophical thought, and such forms of behaviour (or 'anti-behaviour') as palomnichestvoand strannichestvo, iurodstvo, riazhen'e and skomoroshestvo. Professor Voronova declares that Esenin is the most striking representative of Russian national consciousness (p. 3), a 'Russian national genius' (p. 50 i), with a 'peasant-Christian soul' (p. 221). Voronova's investigation into such highly topical and potentially 'nationalistic' subject-matter (Esenin and Russia's spiritual culture) is, in essence, laudably objective. Yet, to this nonRussian reviewer, it sometimes seems that many Russians are excessively 726 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 preoccupied with Russia's special place in world history and the divine scheme, Russia'sMessianic spiritualand historicalmission(pp. 323, 335). Are the particularattributesof the 'Russian Christ' (such as compassion, mercy, pity, humility, meekness,pp. 156, 159) uniquely and exclusively 'Russian'?Is it not misguided to emphasize a parallel between the blue-eyed, fair-haired, youthful Esenin and the Christ Child (illustration on the front cover and between pp. 448 and 449, see also pp. i8o-8i)? Perhaps,at times, Voronova tries too hard to exonerate Esenin from any possible charges of blasphemy and self-aggrandizement(pp. 3'', 345-46, 465) or a misspent, unworthylife (pp. 447, 463). Yet, despite these occasional misgivings, various minor misprints, and the regrettable lack of any indexes, 0. E. Voronova's Sergei Esenini russkaia dukhovnaia kul'tura is an outstandingworkof scholarship. Iurii Aleksandrovich Volkov (born in I948) has steadfastly and singlemindedly devoted his life to the writing of poetry and the quest to convey his spiritualand moralvision of the world. Receiving virtuallyno encouragement from professional colleagues or financial sponsors, Volkov since I989 has publishedeleven volumes of verse, largelyat his own expense. His tenth book, Epokhi zvezdnyi chas(Moscow, I997 [issued 2000]), presented a summation of his poetry and outlook, a combination of lyrical and philosophical verse, indebted to Christianityand Orientalmysticism. Volkov's eleventh book, PojutEsenina,is specificallydedicated to a fellow poet, Sergei Esenin, whom Volkovportraysas an eternallyyouthful, pensive, tender magician, 'the greatest lyric poet of our planet' and the source of Russia'smorality(p. 8). Aspiringto...

Isadora: A Sensational Life by Peter s> Kurth (review)

REVIEWS 727 collection of clearly written essays, based on recent research, and including some usefulwebsites,will be welcome. If it helps to bolsterthe studyof Tolstoi in UK Russian departmentsit will be doublywelcome. Department ofEuropean Studies andModern Languages MICHAEL PURSGLOVE University ofBath Kurth, Peter. Isadora. A Sensational Life.Little, Brown and Company, London, 2002. xiii + 652 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Index. ?25.00. THE life and art of the American dancer Isadora Duncan (i877-I927) were intimately connected with Russia. Isadora first visited the country in 1904, and eventually established her Moscow Dance School in I921 , before embarking upon a tempestuous marriage with the poet Sergei Esenin. Seventy-five years after her death, Isadora remains a controversial figure, whose pioneering art and flamboyant life continue to fascinate authors in America and in Russia. SubstantialAmerican monographs in recent years include FredrikaBlair's sympathetic biography, Isadora:Portrait of theArtistAs A Woman (New York, I986), Lillian Loewenthal's conscientious study, The Search for Isadora.The Legend andLegacy ofIsadora Duncan(Pennington,NJ, I993), and the splendidly illustrated volume, Life IntoArt: IsadoraDuncanand Her World(ed. Dor~e Duncan, Carol Pratland Cynthia Splatt,New Yorkand London, I993). Isadora has fared less well, however, in Russia, where the commercial marketsince I989 haslargelybeen floodedby translationsof English-language worksof the I920S and 1930s, such as Isadora'sautobiography,MyLife(New York, I927), and the memoirs of Irma Duncan and Allan Ross Macdougall, Mary Desti and Lola Kinel. Some 'original' Russian-language booklets do little more than rehash familiar material about the stormy relationship between Isadora and Esenin. Such, for instance, are the inessential offerings by Nonna Golikova (Istoriia liubvi.Aisedora Dunkan.Sergei Esenin, Moscow, I998) and by N. E. Makarova (Sergei Esenini Aisidora [Aisedora] Dunkan, in the series 'Legendy liubvi', Minsk, I999). A welcome exception is the wide-ranging, informative anthology, Aisedora:Gastroliv Rossii (comp. T. S. Kasatkina, Moscow, I992). Any foreboding aroused by the subtitleof PeterKurth's new biography ('A SensationalLife')is immediatelydispelledby the author'scalm and measured tone. Isadora is an impressivelythorough, scholarlyyet readable presentation of the dancer's life, supportedby copious illustrationsand over sixtypages of meticulous notes. Kurth declares at the outset: 'This is not a "dance book". Isadora needs rescuing from dancers more particularly, from dance scholars,whose ideas on her impact and contributionto the artrisefrequently to a brilliance of their own but who speak in a language she didn't know, about a subjectshe dismissedout of hand' (p. x). By perusingand evaluatinga mass of published and archival material, Kurth has achieved the fullest and most indispensablebiographyof IsadoraDuncan. The narrative proceeds at an unhurried pace, in six parts and thirty chapters, from Isadora'sbirth in San Franciscoto her death, fiftyyears later, 728 SEER, 8I, 4, 2003 in Nice. The inexpressibly horrible death of her two children in I9I3 is movingly related (pp. 293-302), and her lesbian affair with Mercedes de Acosta in I926-27 is briefly chronicled (pp. 523-27, 543-44). Rightly, the author seeks not to obtrude, although he is not afraid to voice judicious criticism where necessary. Thus, the waywardly brilliant Gordon Craig is exposed in all his awful egoism (pp. I35, I8o, 2I3), while Isadora herself is shown as reprehensiblyracist at times (p. 325, see also pp. 352, 385). Isadora has often been idolized as inspired, exalted, intelligent, cultured, instinctive, emotional, radical and undaunted. Kurth fair-mindedly also quotes a withering counter-claim by Max Eastman, who saw Isadora as 'a smatterer and a mental dilettante':'She had made a cult of impulse and impracticality, rapture and abandon. She had dimmed her own native good sense, drugged her cerebrumconsistently,all her life long, with romantic notions of what her classicart, and artin general, demanded and consistedof' (p. 363). Concerning Isadora and Esenin, this biography offers valuable new informationby quoting extractsfrom the diaryof Irma Duncan (pp. 6iI- I3) and the manuscript memoirs of Joseph U. Milward (see, for instance, PP. 442-43, 452-53, 455, 472, 477, 479). There is the occasional error or misprint. Thus, bosonozhka is wrongly rendered as bozonzhka (p. I5i) and boznozhka(p. 152), dingy(p. 424) is Isadora's approximation of the non-slang word den'gi(money), and Roslavleva is persistentlymisspelled as Roslasleva (PP. 58 I-82, 593...

Poemy Esenina: Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka': Tvorcheskaia istoriia, sud'ba, kontekst i interpretatsiia by N. I. Shubnikova-Guseva (review)

REVIEWS 323 misprints and a tendency towards wordiness and repetition. Perhaps inevitably , the terminology of theoreticaldiscourseoccasionallyjars and repels(see, for instance, pp. 6, 58, 6o-62, 308-og, 326). The book concludes with an attractivegalleryof seventy-fourcoloured illustrationsof worksby the 'French School' (Monet, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro,Van Gogh, Seurat),as well aspaintingsby Levitan, Serov and Korovin. A contrasting but equally wide-ranging study is achieved by another scholar, Nina Razumova. Tvorchestvo A. P. Chekhova v aspekte prostranstva ambitiously investigates the evolution of Chekhov's outlook or perception of the world throughout his literary career by analysing his portrayal of fundamental philosophical questions concerning man and space (man's relationship with the surrounding world, or nature). Razumova confronts such momentous issuesas the purposeof life, death, time, civilization,culture, science, and religion. Numerous storiesby Chekhov and all five major plays areconsideredin some detail, andparallelsarecarefullydrawnwith theworks of otherauthors,includingBunin,Dostoevskii,Flaubert,Gor'kii,Hauptmann, Ibsen, Maeterlinck,Maupassant,Shaw, Tolstoi, Turgenev, and Zola. In the course of her painstaking monograph Razumova arrives at a new periodization of Chekhov's work, noting as an important watershed his journey to Sakhalinin I890. She identifiesin chronological order such stages as tragic existential crisis, non-tragic anthropocentrism, creative cultural dialogue with the world, man's assimilationby the materialworld, and man's ontological integration in the world. This periodization perhaps inevitably appears somewhat schematic, and specific assertionsmay be disputed. Thus, Razumova controversiallydeclaresthat Chekhov'stwo 'basicplaces' (osnovnye toposy) are the steppe (step')and the sea (more), and she resolutely insists that Chekhov's 'individualist' outlook on life remained consistently scientific, materialist,non-religious,and non-metaphysical. Nina Razumova isimpressivelywell-read,inphilosophyasin literature,and herobservationsand conclusionsundoubtedlycontain much food forthought. It is regrettable,therefore,that the tone of herbook is so unrelievedlyearnest, and the style so weighed down by its relentlesstheoretical and philosophical terminology (couched often in lengthy words of non-Russian origin), that the resulting text frequently becomes indigestible and almost impenetrable (see, for instance, typical passages on pp. I26-27, 227, 243, 326, 365 . .) Bristol GORDON MCVAY Shubnikova-Guseva, N. I. PoemyEsenina.Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka'. Tvorcheskaia istoriia,sud'ba,kontekst i interpretatsiia. IMLI RAN, Nasledie, Moscow, 200 I. 687 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Indexes. Priceunknown. OVER the past decade Natal'ia Shubnikova-Gusevahas proved an assiduous and incisive commentator, compiler and editor in the field of Esenin studies (see, for instance, her contributions,as sole orjoint editor, to such substantial works as S.A. Esenin:Materialy k biografii, Moscow, I992 [issued I993]; Russkoe zarubezh'e o Esenine,2 vols, Moscow, 1993; Sergei Esenin, Russkaiabol'.: 324 SEER, 8 i, 2, 2003 Stikhotvoreniia: Poemy:Proza:Sovremenniki o Esenine,Moscow, 1995; and Sergei Eseninvstikhakh izhizni,4 vols, Moscow, 1995 and 1997). Shubnikova-Guseva'sfirstmajor monograph, Poemy Esenina.Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka', stemsfromherintensiveactivityas commentatorto volume three of the academic edition (Sergei Esenin, Polnoesobranie sochinenii v semi tomakh, vol. 3: Poemy,Moscow, I 998) and from her doctoral dissertation, defended at the Institute of World Literature,Moscow, in December 200I. Six 'large poems' (bol'shiepoemy)are investigated - 'Pugachev', 'Strana Negodiaev', 'Pesn' o velikom pokhode', 'Poema o 36', 'Anna Snegina', and 'Chernyi chelovek'. The monograph is handsomely printed, discerningly illustrated,and exhaustivelydocumented. Poemy Esenina.Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka' is a serious, ingenious, and impressive work of scholarship. Manuscripts are meticulously perused and compared, contemporary and historical parallels are perceptively drawn, prototypes and literary echoes are revealed. Among numerous insights and discoveries, Shubnikova-Guseva identifies Aleksandr Krasnoshchekov as a prototype of Nikandr Rassvetov, demonstrates that 'Strana Negodiaev' is a finished work, links Esenin's 'tender hooligan' with iurodstvo, considers the three prototypes of Anna Snegina, and indicates a multitude of literary precursorsof'Chernyi chelovek'(citingPushkin,Batiushkov,Gogol',Dostoevskii ,Chekhov, Musset, R. L. Stevenson, Wilde, and others). Shubnikova-Gusevadescribes 'Strana Negodiaev' as a satiricalfarce, and 'Poema 0 36' as a tragicrequiem. Each chapteroffersthoughtfulobservations and interesting hypotheses. As background material for an appreciation of Esenin'spoemy, thisstudyis indispensable.Inevitably,the monographprompts various suggestions and queries. Perhaps 'Chernyi chelovek' also resembles Kusikov's 'Pesochnye chasy' (I922). Esenin's line 'Chest' moia za pesniu prodana'echoes a Russiantranslationof Fitzgerald's'Andsoldmy Reputation for a Song' (renderedby 0. Rumer as 'Achest' moia za pesniu prodana', in OmarKhaiam.Rubai...

RUSSIA’S SILVER AGE IN TODAY’S RUSSIA

The culture of Russia’s Silver Age (1890-1917) has taken its place in the history of the arts of the country after having been forbidden under the Soviet regime. With a relative "thaw" under Khrushchev, the works of Sergei Esenin, Ivan Bunin and some of Marina Tsvetaeva’s works became available. Today, after the fall of the Soviet regime, what used to be forbidden is now widely published often in cheap editions. What used to be elite culture has become mass culture. However, it unclear how the culture of the Silver Age can address the problems of today's extremely politicized Russia. A similar problematic faces the new wave of interest for other cultural trends, which have also garnered the particular interest of Russian society: the culture and literature of Russian emigration and the literature of the Underground.

Reading Suicide: Tsvetaeva on Esenin and Maiakovskii

Мне кажется, смерть художника не следует выключать из цепи еґо творческих достижений, а рассматривать как последнее заключительное звено.Osip Mandel’ shtamThe death of a poet is a theme Marina Tsvetaeva addressed frequently both in poetry and in prose. The list of poets whose deaths underwent Tsvetaeva’s artistic scrutiny is varied and includes Aleksandr Pushkin, Aleksandr Blok, Sergei Esenin, Rainer Maria Rilke, Vladimir Maiakovskii, Maksimilian Voloshin, Andrei Belyi, and Nikolai Gronskii. A number of notable lyric cycles and some of Tsvetaeva’s finest prose essays emerged as homage to deceased poets. The function of these works extends beyond commemoration and entails the elaboration of Tsvetaeva’s definition of lyric poetry and her exploration of poetic responsibility.

Esenin's Last Letter

A note from the editors of Moskva: In giving us a chapter from his book They Knew Esenin [Oni znali Esenina], for publication in our journal, Iuryi Prokushev, the well known specialist on the life and works of the great Russian poet Sergei Esenin and winner of the RSFSR Gorky Prize, told us, For more than three decades I have been fortunate enough to have close relations with the friends and relatives of Sergei Esenin and with many of the poet's contemporaries who knew him well.

Sergei Esenin: Poet of the Crossroads

Sergei Esenin: Poet of the Crossroads

Sergei Esenin: Poet of the Crossroads

Sergei Esenin: Poet of the Crossroads

Comments on Sergei Esenin's Debut in Literature

At one time the notion that Esenin had made a brilliant debut in poetry in Petrograd during the pre revolutionary years of 1915 and 1916 had wide currency in the literature on him. The story was that he won recognition among professional writers immediately upon his arrival in the capital and became virtually the central figure in literature. (1) Many writings of recent years reproduce these notions in full. Investigators assert that soon after Esenin's arrival in Petrograd, literary circles began "a fight for him. Some sought to subject him to their reactionary, mystical views, while others, valuing the poet's originality, tried to support the strong sides of his talent."

New Material on Esenin (Drawings and Photographs)

The collection and arrangement of everything having a direct or indirect bearing upon the iconography of Sergei Esenin constitute an attractive if not a simple undertaking. While the efforts expended do not always lead to the hoped-for results, one find results in another.