Sergei Esenin Selected Poetry

  SERGEI ESENIN

• SELECТED POETR У

  

PROGRESS

SOV\ET AUTHORS L\ВRARY

  

СЕРГЕЙ ЕСЕНИН

ИЗБРАННЫЕ СТИХОТВОРЕНИЯ И ПОЭМЫ

  

ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО«ПРОГРЕСС•

  

SERGEI ESENIN

SELECТED РОЕТRУ

  Translated Ьу Peter Tempest

  

PROGRESS PUBLISHERS

  С. Есенин ИЗБРАННЫЕ СТИХОТВОРЕНИЯ И ПОЭМЫ

  На англ11йско.м нзы1<е с параллельными русским11 текста.м11 Kozlovsky Compilcd Ьу А. А.

  

© соста1J, предисловие, примечания, иллюстрации.

  Издательство «Прогресс», 1982 English translation © Progress PuЬlishers 1982 Printed in t/1e Union of Soviet Socialist Rep11Ыics

  704-800 92-82

  Page Foreword. Seпsitive Heart of Russia Ьу Yuri Prokushev .

  11 LYRICS 27 "lt is dusk поw"." .

  "Where the suпrise"." .

  29 v' 31 "Scarlet rays the risiпg suп".

  "Like а тist, flood waters"." .

  33 "Blossoт white Ьird cherries scatter"."

  35 Stars

  37 "Barefoot оп Midsumтer Eve"."

  39 The Birch-Tree .

  41 "Land I Iove"." . ::43

  45 Iп the Cottage .

  "Неу there, Russia, тother couпtry"."

  47

  49 "Laпd of тiпе iп dire пeglect"." .

  "Black-earth allotтeпt"." .

  51 "Swamps апd тarsh.laпd soddeп.""

  53 Good Morning! .

  55 Russia .

  57

  65 "The dry weather stifled"." "In а Iaпd of yellow пettle"."

  69

  73 The Cow .

  Soпg About а Dog" . .

  75

  79 "I'т tired of hоте Iife"." "I'II по тоrе go roaтiпg"." .

  81

  83 "Соте, Russia, proud wiпgs plyiпg."" "Waken те early toтorrow"." .

  87

  89 "Cleared the comfield"." .

  "Through virgiп sпow I roam"."

  91

  93 "The тооп is the toпgue"." "Head of green tresses"." .

  95

  97 Cantata . . .

  "I left ту father's hоте"." .

  99 101 "The twirliпg goldeп Ьirch-Ieaves"." . The Hooligan . 103 "Secret world, old world of тiпе"." . 107

  111 "Му dear, опе апd опlу laпd! ... " .

  "No regret I feel"." . 115 117

  "The Iives of us all are moulded"." "Self-deception is not iп ту пature"." 121 125 "It's settled! Yes, it is forever"." .

  "This street is so very familiar ... " . "There's one joy left to те ... " . 'V"'""I am happy as heaven above ... " .

  "Whirlwinds of thick snow ... " . "Shroud of Ыuе vapours ... " "Deep Ыuе dusk and moonlight ... "

  233 235 237 239 241 245 247 249

  217 219 223 227 229 231

  203 209 213 215

  179 183 185 197

  157 165 167 171

  143 145 149 153

  129 133 137 139

  "Maple bare of foliage ... " . "On such а night the senses reel ... " . "Aurevoir, ту friend, aurevoir ... " .

  " ... Scattered shrubs ... " . . . "Flowers Ьid goodbye to те ... " .

  "I've never seen women so pretty ... " . "Соте now, sing me the song ... " . "О you snowsleighs! ... " .

  6 "Though Ьу another you Ье drained ... ^" .

  "Land to which Ыuе hues ... ^"

.

То Kachalov's Dog . "IndescribaЬ!e Ыueness ... " . "Tht; disquiet of vaporous moonshine ... " "Drowsy feather-grass ... " "Leaves are falling ... " .

  "Му love's hands ... ^" . "Tell me why the moon shines palely ... " "Don't, silly heart, get excited ... " .

  "Horossan has one such door ... " . "Blue homeland of Firdausi ... " . "То Ье а poet-if from the truth ... " .

  "Never have I set eyes on the Bosphorus .... ^, "In а saffron land of an evening ... ^" . "Transparent and Ыuе is the air ... " ^. "Moonlight with the chilliness of gold ... ^" .

  "Today I asked the man who changes ... " . "Shaganeh, ту divine Shaganeh! ... " ^{. ·} "You, dear, said Saadi the poet ... ^" .

  Stanzas Letter to а Woman . Persian Themes "On ту heart's Ыооd ... ^" .

  "Gradually we are now departing ... " . Returning Ноше . . "Dear puЬ!ishers ... " . First of Мау . Soviet Russia . ^. "It can't Ье dispelled ... " . . "The grove of golden trees ... " . The Ballad of the Twenty-Six .

  Letter to Mother . ^. . .

  "У ears of ту unruly youth ... " .

  "Its Ыасk eyebrows evening lowers ... " .

  253 257 259 261 263 267 271 275 277 279 283 285 287 291

  . 295 Pugachev (excerpts)

  . 305 Lenin (excerpt from Gulyai-Polye

  

)

313 Anna S negina . 359 The Man in В!асk .

  381 Notes .

  11

  4, 1895,

Sergei Еsепiп was born оп October iп Konstaпtiпovo, а

village lying оп the high right bank of the Oka iп Ceпtral Russia. Today,

as in the poet's day: The hill as }Vhite as ever gleams ...

  And at its foot Still stands the Ьig grey bbulder.

From here you сап see vast water-meadows carpeted with flowers in

summer, sparkling lakes, coppices fadiпg iпto the distance and the Ыuе Ыur

of the Meshchora forest on the horizon.

  

Eseпin spent his whole childhood in Koпstantinovo. Barefoot, he would

run off with other boys of his age to play in the meadows, or they would

take horses to water dowп Ьу the river. "At night in calm weather the moon

staпds upright iп the water," he recalled. "When the horses were drinkiпg

  1

  1

thought they might drink the moon up at any moment and was so glad

when the moon floated away from their mouths оп the ripples."

  Flowers, rustling reeds, the lapping of waves-the beauty of the country- .

side iпspired poetry. As an adolescent, Esenin was already writing lyrical

poems about nature.

  1905, 1909,

Не went to the village school from then in at the age of

fourteeп, was enrolled at the Spas-Klepiki teacher traiпing school about

  

30 kilometres away. Оп completing studies there he received the grade of

elemeпtary school teacher.

  "1 Ьеgап writing verse early, when 1 was about nine, but 1 date ту 16 17," serious writing to the age of or he said later.

  

Iп 1912 he went to Moscow, inteпding to devote himself seriously to

studies and poetry. His interest in literature brought him to the Surikov

literary and musical circle which was at that time а meeting-place for bud­

ding writers of worker and peasant origin.

  

Early in 1913 he got а job as proof-reader's assistant at the Sytin

printing-house. In the evenings he attended lectures at the Shanyavsky

People's University, ranging from Russian and West European literature,

French and Russian history to modern philosophy, politics, economics

and logic.

  А 1915: turning-point in his life was the spring of

  А village dreamer, In the city

first-class poet I Ьесате.

  А

  12

  "1 had already written the book of poems Radunitsa," he recalled. "1

sent some of the poems to St. Petersburg journals and, not getting any

reply, went there myself." It was а journey into the unknown. Не went

without money or letters of recommendation, with his sole wealth-his

poems. _· Arriving in the Russian capital Esenin went straight.from the railway station to find the poet Alexander Blok. ^· _{_ ·} Russia was at war and he found а wartime city, renamed Petrograd,on the outbreak of hostilities with Germany in 1914.

  On March 9, 1915,

  Alexander В\оk wrote in his diary: "Peremyshl surrendered. Fatigue. Ryazan lad with poems in the afternoon." Esenin brought his very own Russia to the famous poet:

  А gar/and just for уои I weave And your grey path

  I strew withflmvers. О

  Russia, land of perfect реасе, I love уои and I trust your powers.

  Blok had seen and heard many poets in his \ifetime, both budding

poets and famous ones. Little could surprise him. У et Esenin did surprise,

or rather, excite him. "Fresh, clear and resonant verse," he noted.

  At their first meeting Blok chose six poems for puЫication. They made

up а small cycle of verses. Knowing how difficult it was for а young poet,

especially of peasant origin, to get his work puЫished in the capital, and

also aware that Esenin had no friends or acquaintances in Petrograd, had, in

fact, nowhere to stay, Blok sent Esenin with the poems he had selected

and а brief letter of recommendation to the poet Sergei Gorodetsky and the

writer Mikhail Murashev. They both did all they could to help Esenin,

especially in the first few months. ^· Shortly afterwards а reviewer wrote about Esenin's poems: "Listening

to this verse, the weary, sated townsman senses the forgotten aroma of the

fields, the cheerful scent of fresh\y-ploughed earth, the working life of the

peasant he knows so Iittle about, and his sluggish heart sophisticated Ьу its

searching and ordeals, begins to Ьеаt with something new and joyful."

  Esenin's first book of verse, Radunitsa, appeared early in 1916. "Poetry is everywhere. One must only Ье аЫе to sense it." In Esenin

there speaks the spontaneous feeling of the peasant. N ature and the country­

side have enriched his language with wondrous colours". There is nothing

more precious for Esenin than his native land." This highly appreciative

and penetrating comment on Esenin's first book was made Ьу Professor

Р. N. Sakulin, а great lover and connoisseur of Russian poetry.

  In Jater editions of Radunitsa Esenin included his remarkaЫe роет

"Russia". The image of the homeland in this poem is not obscured Ьу

religious symbols or vocabulary. lt is the poet's own voice, his own song of

his native land that we hear.

  13

  period," wrote Esenin, "was that they succuтbed to а

  тilitant patriotisт

whereas 1, for all ту love of the Ryazan fields and ту fellow countryтen,

was always Ьitterly opposed to the iтperialist war and to тilitant patriot­

isт ^. ..

  1 even got into trouЫe for not writing patriotic роетs on the theтe

'thunder peals of victory, roar!', but а poet can only write about things

with which he has an organic link." '

  Esenin's tiтe was one of great change in the history of Russia. It saw

the barricades of the 1905 revolution, the conflagration of the First Wor!d

War, the downfall of the tsarist autocracy in February

  1917 and the October Revolution in that sате year.

  The universal significance of the events of the October days gripped the poet's iтagination. Noteworthy is his роет of 1918,

  "The Druттer of Heaven".

  Like leaves ll1e stars are tumЬ/ing fnlo our rivers Ыие. Long /ive the revolution Оп eart/1 as in heaven /оо! Оиг hearts like bombs wе'ге pitching.

  We sow the snmvstorm's rage. Do we want icon spittle Upon our рсш/у gates? Do we fеаг the White coinmanders Of the gтШа heгd?

  То а 11еи1 sl1ore see it charging Like cm1a/1y-the world.

  This and other роетs of the 1917-19 period, such as "Cantata",

"Соте, Russia, proud wings plying ... " and "Waken те early toтorrow"."

are his first turn to historica! and revolutionary theтes, they are essays of

strength Ьу

  а

poet fee!ing the call to portray Russia in upsurge.

У et it тust Ье acknowledged that in his роетs of those years he was

sti!l not clear as to the true essence of the revolution. It was in this сотрlех

period that Esenin's "peasant slant" was тost in evidence. "1 was wholly

on the side of the October Revolution," he wrote, "but

  1 interpreted it all in ту own way, giving it а peasant slant."

  This is not to say that he was not aware of the leading and organising

force of the working class, of the Bo!sheviks who followed Lenin. Не was

constantly looking to the Bo!sheviks.

  But for very rnany people at that tiтe it was hard to grasp the full significance of this turning-point in the life of Russia. The fierce Ыows struck at the young Soviet repuЫic Ьу arrned foreign

intervention, the economic Ыockade and wartirne destruction increased

the poet's confusion and anxiety which prompted tragic passages in his

  14

  О it's fine for them staгing and standing, With ti11 kisses ro11ging theiг 111011ths.

  I alo11e have to sing, as sacristan, Laments fог ту country a/011d.

  This роет and "Secret world, old world of mine ... " express anguish

and sorrow for the old and doomed rural life, as well as painful concern

for the future of Russia.

  U nforgettaЬ!e is the image of Esenin's "red-maned foal": Have уои see11 it Thro11gh steppela11d /"Oaring

  /11 misty lakela11d rai11 With its iro11 11ostril s11ori11g A11d 011 iro11 paws-the trai11? A11d afteг it

  Through deep grasses With limbs it сап sсагсе co11trol ln а frolicsome race there passes А high-kicki11g гed-ma11ed foal? Silly-Ьilly, abs11гdly co11гsing, Wheгe's he dashing to through the field?

  Why, does /1е 1101 k11ow live horses Have lost out to mo1111ts of steel? Thc coursc of histo1·y cannot

  Ье revasctl-antl thc poct scnses this. ln 1920 he wrote: "lt now greatly saddens me that history is passing

through а grievous era of mortification of the individual as а fiving person,

what is coming is not at all the socialism

  1 was thinking .of ... " In "Letter to а Woman" he wrote of that period: ^·

  But you didn't k11ow: /11 tlze thick smoke, /11 the turmoil of life swiftly spreadi11g What tortured те was

  

I

did 11ot know Where our ship of fate }Vas headi11g ...

  In 1924 in an unfinished article оп modem literature Esenin wrote:

"During the years of the revolution, when the old way of Ше had been

destroyed and the new one had not yet been аЬ!е to emerge in the whirl­

• -wind of events, creative writing in our country was as whirling and explo­

  sive as the age of the revolution itself. The realm of chaos had arrived.

  

There were the most incrediЬ!e rifts and remarkaЫe unions. InnumeraЫe

  15

  

streпgth from the old order either weпt abroad or kept quiet, апd those

who accepted thc revolutioп marched iп step with it." Eпgeпdered Ьу the October Revolutioп, youпg Soviet literature grew

апd developed iп ап ideological struggle agaiпst bourgeois decadeпt

literature; duriпg its period of formatioп it also had to overcome the

iпflueпce of various (basically petty�bourgeois) groups which uпder the

smoke-screeп of their "revolutioпary" maпifestoes, declaratioпs and

slogaпs about а пеw art were iп fact seekiпg to iпject alieп bourgeois aesthet­

ic theories iпto а young Soviet literature and to influence the work of

writers who had sided with the revolutioпary pcople. The lmagists were

iп fact опе such literary group. The orgaпisers of this group Shershe­

(V.

пevich and А. Marienhof) puЫished а Declaratioп at the begiпning of

1919-the literary manifesto of the Imagists, which Eseniп also sigпed.

  

In their literary views the majority of the Imagists were typical repre­

sentatives of formalist art. While "criticisiпg" the Futurist slogaп "the

word is an end iп itself'', they persisteпtly advaпced the "new" slogaп of

"the image is ап епd iп itself'', iпterpretiпg it iп ап орепlу formalist

mаппеr. They categorically declared: "Art is form. Сопtепt is part of

form."

  Iп associatiпg with the Imagists, Еsепiп thought at first that his aesthetic

priпciples were close to their creative eпdeavours. Iп fact, however, the

formalist writing of the Imagists was profouпdly alieп to Eseпiп's poetry.

  

Although they were uпаЫе to divert Еsепiп from the high road of realism,

the Imagists did occasioпally lead him astray оп to their tortuous formalist

by-ways. Iп the Imagists' literary cafe Pegasus' Stall Еsепiп was ofteп

surrouпded Ьу bourgeois, bohemiaп sort of people. All this had а bad

iпflueпce on the poet апd, iп the fiпal aпalysis, оп "his work.

  The tragic theme of the man who is alieп iп spirit to declasse bohemiaп­

ism апd who seeks to break free from its teпacious claws is developed Ьу

Еsепiп iп several poems of the "Moscow of the Taverпs" cycle: /'т Jt1st as prot1d a!l(/ (/ogge(/,

  Вш With 11e1v pain 1 smart­ My nose they t1sed to Ь/о(){/у, Nmv J've а hloodie(/ heart. A/l(l now / tell-1101 mt1mmy, Вша loud тоЬ hostile to те:

"/t's nothing. / trippe(/ апс/ tшnhlecl.

_·· Ву moming the brt1ise 1vill l1eal.

  It is по accideпt that iп 1925 the poet remarked: "Imagism was а

formal school which we waпted to set up. But this school had по firm

grouпd beпeath it, апd died of its оwп accord, leaviпg the field of battle

to the orgaпic image."

  Iп 1921 Еsепiп married Isadora Duпсап. Оп Мау 10, 1927, they weпt

Ьу air to Gсгmапу. Нс speпt ncarly two ycars abroad touriпg almost thc

  16

  

wrote very little. But he repeatedly stressed the importance for him of

having visited Europe and America.

  After his encounter with bourgeois life Esenin underwent а great change

in his views and, most importantly, saw what was taking place in his

country in а different light. "1 love Russia. It recognises по power but

Soviet power," he announced with forthrightness and political conviction

in the first interview he gave abroad.

  Не was particularly shaken Ьу the spiritual poverty reigning in the

West, Ьу the utter indifference of " the powers that Ье" to the lot of mil­

lions of common people.

  "There, in Moscow," he wrote to Marienhof, "we thought that Europe

was а most extensive market for the dissemination of our ideas in poetry,

but, my goodness, now from here 1 see how splendid and rich Russia is in this respect. I think there is not and cannot Ье another country like it."

  The poet gave his artic\e about America the expressive title-"The

Iron Mirgorod", after Gogol's story about philistinism in а small Ukrai­

  

1

nian town. "It was only abroad that realised ful\y the importance of the

Russian revolution which saved the world from hopeless philistinism,"

he said.

  

His travels in the West helped Esenin to Ье finally convinced of the

great historical truth affirmed Ьу Lenin.

  The new Soviet \ife in town and country was now more and morc

convincingly replying to the question which only а short while beforc

had tormented the poet and many of his fellow countrymen: "Where

are events taking us?" With joyous excitement he speaks of this in

his verses: l see it а// And c/early uшlerstan1/ Тliat this new era's Not а passing phase, That Lenin's

  пате Stirs like а wind 1/1е /ши/, Sets tlumghts in motion Like а windmill's sails.

  Likc а revelation, а summing up of his untiring quest of truth in thc "".1

years of the revolution rcsound Escnin's stirring words: havc grown

to lovc Communist construction cvcn morc. Evcn if

  1 am not closc to thc Communists, as а romantic in my pocms, I am closc to them in my mind

  1

  1

and hope that pcrhaps shall bccomc closc to thcm in my writing too."

Thc poct now links the namc of Lenin and Communist policy, abovc

а\\, with thc enormous social changcs taking placc bcforc his vcry cycs

in thc lifc of Russia's pcasants. "l'vc just comc from thc country, you

know," hc told thc writcr Yuri LibcLlinsky. "And 1t's al\ Lcnin ! Нс kncw

what to say to makc thc country stir. What strcngth he has, eh?"

  Charactcristic is onc of thc key cpisodcs in the narrativc poei;n "Anna

  17 Snegina", where the peasants persist in asking their fellow countryman

  about tl1e main thing that concern them in the revolution: So now say:

Will the land Ье turned оvег to us peasants

  Withouf апу fees to рау? 'Кеер your hands off!'- The government1 roar at us And tel/ us to Ьide our time.

Then what were we fighting the war for

And perishing in the fronf line?"

  And each of them smiling sullenly Looked searchingly straight in ту еуе, While 1 with а heavy heart wondered And nothing could say in reply. Му head buzzed, the porch steps were t1·emЬ/i11g, This question of theirs though Сате through: " What sorf of а person Is Lenin?" 1 softly rep/ied: "Не is you!"

  These aphoristic Iines about Lenin are highly significant. They attest а

the poet's true sense of history, his understandiпg that Leniri was man

of the people, his policies and views weI"e those of the people and there

  а

was Iiving bond i.etwee1, the leader of the J"evolution and the broad

masses.

  "Не is you" is also the reply tl1e poet makes to himself, it is his own

discovery of Lenin's essence, his revolutionary cause and immortal ideas.

  This discovery and deep political conviction run 'through Esenin's "Ballad of the Тwenty-Six" and other revolutionary works of his. Esenin was almost the first poet ever to portray the path of the toiling peasantry to proletarian revolution.

  The tl1eme of two Russians-the disappearing one and the Soviet

one-is developed further in his poems "Returning Ноте" and "Soviet

Russia". These poems, rich in thought, impress one as epic works of

great social force and also as а profoundly personal confession Ьу the

poet about that which is dear to him. Behind each particular episode one

is aware of the struggle and seething life of the whole country. What is

  

Esenin's social, civic position in these poems? What concerns him most?

The poet's thoughts and feelings here are honest. At the same time they

are complex and contradictory_ like the reality which surrounded him:

  What then! Forgive те, native haunts.

  18 l'т pleased enough if you in апу way I've aided.

  What if ту songs are sung today по тore­ Was I not heeded when ту land was ailing? У oung people, thrive! Ве fit and firт of body ! А life that's different, different songs you know. While I along ту lonely road go plodding, Forever having quelled а rebel soul.

  Виt even then When feuding, Lies and sorrow ,

No longer hold this world of ours in thrall

I still shall laud

  With all ту poet's power This one-sixth of the world Which "Russia" we call.

  Thus behind the outwardly ordinary, traditional theme of the hero's

retum to his native village after travelling round the world, Esenin de­

velops the theme of Russia. The many-faceted, artistically capacious

image of the homeland is historically concrete and full of great social

content. Here we find both а critical view of Russia's past and faith

in the strength of the Russia of today and tomoпow, in its future.

  а Esenin was truly great national poet. His work does not fit into

the framework of "peasant poetry". Yet during his lifetime Esenin was

firmly relegated Ьу the critics to the group of "peasant poets".

  а This "traditional" view of Esenin prevailed for long time in critical literature about the poet.

  There can Ье no doubt that the roots of Esenin's poetry Iie in the

Ryazan countryside. Не speaks with pride about his peasant origin: "Му

а 1-а

old man, he was peasant, here am peasant's -son." It is no accident

that in the revolutionary days of 1917 :Esenin saw himself as the con­

tinuer of the traditions of the well-known nineteenth-century poet

A!exei Koltsov.

  

But there is yet another important factor which must not Ье for­

а

gotten or. overlooked. Russia was peasant country. The three Russian

  а

revolutions of the twentieth century were revolutions in peasant

country. The peasant question was always of cqncern to the most pro­

gressive minds.

  History gave Russia the one and only way of solving the "peasant

question"-socialist reconstruction of the Russian countryside. While

accepting this way with. his mind, Esenin felt in his heart that it would

Ьу no means Ье as easy and simple for peasant Russia to follow this

_·

path as some of his contemporaries imagined. Hence Esenin's con­

stant anxious, sometimes tormented reflections on the future of peasant

  19 For loпg eпough, soil-tilliпg Russia,

  Уои followed the priтitive plough! The poplar апd Ьirch suffer aпguish At the poverty sееп all arouпd.

For тyself, I doп't kпow ту оwп future ...

I've по place iп the пеw life, I feel, Yet still wish to see poor drab Russia

  А prosperiпg couпtry of steel.

  With all his heart Esenin accepts and is eager to extol the beauty

of nascent "steel" Russia, for it is to her that the future belongs. At the

same time his love for the "Ryazan plains" did not diminish to the end of

his days. There is no real contradiction here. Only an apparent one.

For man and nature, man and his native land are the eternal themes

of poetry.

  In 1924 Esenin went to the Caucasus, where he· wrote the de­

lightful cycle of lyrical poems entitled "Persian Themes". In them

ordinary facts of everyday life are fused into poetry remarkaЫe for its

artistic expressiveness:

  Shagaпeh, ту diviпe Shagaпeh! Iп the North is а girl who is waitiпg Апd your likeпess to her is aтaziпg,

Апd it тау Ье she тurтurs ту пате ...

Shagaпeh, ту diviпe Shagaпeh.

  The beauty of Oriental landscape is entrancing, the southern breeze

is balmy, and the poet's heart is light when he is with his belovid. But

thoughts of home do not leave the poet even here, he is irresistiЫy

drawn to the land of his fathers and forefathers:

  Ве Shiraz city пever so fair,

lt's Ryazaп's rolliпg plains that delight те.

  Humaneness, the feeling of friendship, sincerity and romanticism,

the comblnation of Oriental colours with the poetry of the Russian plains,

perfection of form-all this is present in his "Persian Themes" to the

highest degree. This cycle of poems rightly ranks among the crowning

achievements of world lyric poetry. ln the summer of 1925 Esenin returned to Moscow. Не strove to

bring order into his personal everyday life. Не wrote about this inten­

  20 confuse everyone.

  1 don't like what everyone thinks about те". In spring,

  1

  1

when соте, shall not allow anyone to Ье close to те". All that was

а farewell to youth. Now it will Ье different."

  

The poet's sensitive and vulneraЬ!e heart yearned for life and light. We

know how productive the tiтe he spent in the Caucasus was, with what

love and firт belief he wrote about Soviet Russia, the events of the

October Revolution and Lenin. In the роет "Му Path" he says:

  What now? 1 see ту youth depart! lt's tiтe for getting down То business,

  For curblng ту unruly heart

And starting тоrе тaturely singing.

And тау а different rura/ life With а new vigoul' Fil/ те".

  

This "тaturity" unfortunately escaped the notice of тапу of his

friends and sоте literary critics. They continued to assert he was а

"real" poet not in "Soviet Russia" but in his роетs about Moscow's

taverns.

  

Esenin, who ·had given, or rather, sacrificed everything for his work

", as Dтitri Furтanov once and whose "whole life was his poet i:y reтarked, was sorely pained Ьу these attacks.

  

This тау Ье sensed alтost physically in his роет "The Man in

Black", which is the poet's requieт.

With tragic sincerity Esenin speaks in his poetic confession about

the "darkness" which has sullied his pure soul and is torтenting his

heart. But this is only one facet, one aspect of the роет.

  

Esenin's "loathsoтe guest" is not only and not so тuch his per­

sonal еnету. Не is the еnету of all that is fine, the еnету of Man. In

th,e роет he is the personification of all the dark forces inherited Ьу the

new world froт the old one, continually corrupting huтan souls.

ln the роет Esenin struck out at "the тап in Ыасk" so violently

and exposed his "Ьlack soul" so fearlessly that the need for а тerciless

  '

battle with hiт Ьесате clear for everyone. This, to ту тind, is the

second aspect of the роет.

  

In Noveтber 1925 Esenin entered а Moscow hospital for treatтent

and also to get away froт the environтent which he was finding in­

creasingly oppressive and painful. The sате desire to change his sur­

roundings and get away froт his Moscow "friends" took hiт to Lenin­

grad at the end of Deceтber 1925, where Ье planned to stay until the

suттer and then go to see Махiт Gorky in Italy. But these plans

were never realised. Оп the night of Deceтber 27, 1925, Esenin coт­

mitted suicide in the Hotel Angleterre in Leningrad. А day before his

  21

  

as Esenin's poetic testament and even as an expression of the "spirit"

of the times. Esenin's "admirers" of the petty-bourgeois bent argued

that Esenin's collapse was inevitaЫe, that the poet had squandered all

his poetic potential and that his lyrical talent was in conflict with the

age. So Mayakovsky wrote the роет "То Sergei Esenin" in which he

sought to wrest Esenin from those who wished to make the poet's death

serve their own ends.

  Unfortunately very many of those who have written about Esenin,

especially just after his death, saw in him primarily just the bard of

vanishing patriarchal peasant Russia.

  АН this was in the most direct way bound up with the very sharp

battle of ideas that was being waged in literary circles during the

formative period of the young Soviet state between, on the one hand,

authors who were creating the new Soviet literature, openly siding with

the revolution and furthering the splendid traditions of the Russian

classics-traditions of realism, popular spirit and civic responsibllity,

and, on the other hand, the members of various literary groups and

trends who, as

  а rule, adopted the standpoint of petty-bourgeois for­ ma!ist art.

  То detach Esenin frorn the major events of his age, to oppose his

work to the times in which he lived, to present him as standing apart

from the social storms and revolutionary upheavals which· he witnessed­

is to destroy the poet, to destroy the social and national significance of

liis poetry. ^·

· The titles Esenin gave to his new books were Оп Russia and the

Revolution, Soviet Russia and The Soviet Land. They contain the voice

of the new Russia, its dreams, hopes and fears, they contain the soul

of the people, the soul of the poet, they contain life itself in the etemal

conflict of good and evil. We feel how difficult it was for the poet to Ьid

а

final farewell to the past and we see how hard it was for him some­

tirnes to tread the unexplored paths of the new life.

• - - But which of the poets-Esenin's contemporaries-found it easy?

  В!оk? Mayakovsky? "All poetry is а journey into the unknown." Blok, Esenin and Mayakovsky are sometimes contrasted. And

  sometimes one of them is "raised up" at the expense of the others. Or,

  which is worse, the work of one of them becomes

  а kind of yaгdstick,

and other works which do not measure up to it and demand their own

analysis, are placed outside socialist rea!ism. All this results in

  а one­

sided, impoverished idea of the poetry of the age of the October

  Revolution.

  For all their ideological and artistic differences Blok, Mayakovsky

and Esenin were united on the main- point-their genuine concem for

the fate of insurgent Russia. Each of them was totally on the side of the

October Revolution, each said his own inspired word about those un-

forgettaЫe days.

  . Esenin's poetry is highly dramatic and true. It is full of. sharp social

conflicts and tragic col!isions, profound and sometimes, it would seem,

insuperaЫe contradictions. "Prayers for the Dead", "Anna Snegiшi",

  22

  

"Pugachev", "Stanzas", "Moscow of the Tavems", "Persian Themes"­

at first it is hard to imagine that а\1 these poems were written Ьу the

same man, and, what is more, over а very short period of time.

  а It is essential to have clear idea of the objective character of the

contradictions in Esenin's poetry and not to ignore the main tendency,

the main line of development in his work, which brought the poet from

"Prayers for the Dead" to "Soviet Russia" and "Anna Snegina", works

  а which make Esenin classic of Soviet poetry.

  Leonid Leonov was right when he wrote in January 1926: "Esenin's melodious talent was marked Ьу а powerful creative charge. 1 am deeply

convinced that Sergei Esenin could have done а great deal more. His

а

creative juices had not yet dried up, Jittle longer and they would have

gushed out of the Esenin recesses again, as the bright and sweet sap ap-

  ' pears in а notch on а Ьirch-tree in spring. Maxim Gorky, Alexei Tolstoy, Boris Lavrenev, Dmitri Furma­

nov and other prominent men of letters· paid tribute at that same time

to the unfading strength of his verse, and hailed· him as а great national

poet.

  The figure of Esenin, the poet and man, а striking and unique per­ sonality, is emerging ever clearer in our day. "Не was а Ьig, handsome man," recalled the sculptor and artist

Sergei Konenkov. "Even then, in his lifetime, his external appearance

  

.and his poetry seemed to те to Ье а phenomenon on а par with Cha­

liapin." Esenin could not stand falsity, hypocrisy or affectation, he "was

always himself'. Truthfulness was the main·trait of his talent. Не had

every justification to say of himself and his poetry: "1 never lie at heart."

Open-hearted and ready to give people everything he had, Esenin

was Ьу no means as simple as he appeared to some of his contemporaries.

The writer Nikolai Nikitin noted: "Не was а man both complex and