Vladislav Khodasevich

(1886 19Rodilsya Vladislav Wiktor Khodasevich May 28, 1886 in Moscow, died after fifty-three years in Paris. Fate had destined him to stress self-determination in culture: born in the Polish-Jewish Catholic family, he was reared by the Russian Orthodox peasant woman - physically - and the Russian classical literature - spiritually. The vast geography of Unforced and forced wanderings (Italy before the Revolution, Germany, Czech Republic, France - in the period of emigration) taught him to keep his home in a. The explosion over the external life, frequent changes of circumstances forced to look for a small counterweight to the cultural spaces, small-time stories. This was a small counterweight to the eternal happily rediscovered them in the beginning, which is in the conversation on Khodasevich taken to determine how Pushkin. Pushkinskaya harmony kept him from disharmony and social upheaval, and the aggressive and seductive poetic 'isms'.

Began to be published in 1905 (both poetry and criticism), Khodasevich soon won fame in literary circles in Moscow just as the critic. Earlier the same collections of verse ( 'Youth' - 1908, . 'Happy House' - 1914) are important primarily as an indication of the gradual separation of the author with the subject and the poetics of symbolism; mature Khodasevich treated them very self-critical and 'poetry collection' in 1927 did not include,
. Interestingly, the first of these compilations poet for several years preparing to re-publish with significant changes, this fact - evidence of active creative evolution *

. 'In part because of the circumstances of privacy, . partly due to illness (tuberculosis) '- in his own words - Khodasevich was unable to complete a course at Moscow University, . but in the literary life of the early twentieth century, he took an active part,
. In 1900-1910-s he published poems, articles, reviews in the leading Russian literary magazines ( 'Balance', 'Russian idea', and others), creatively communicates with B. Bryusov, A. White, M. Voloshin and many other writers, speaking at gatherings of the Moscow literary and artistic circle, makes a successful creative on a trip to Italy. But at the same time - continuing illness, severe disruption of the three deaths: both parents and best friend - the poet Samuel Kissin.

Disharmony that continues after the October Revolution, which Khodasevich, according to his wife, 'received with great joy'. On the one hand, is constantly increasing its prestige as the master and connoisseur of poetry: how pushkinoveda he appreciates M. Gershenzon, his poems were so different but admire the creative method and penchant writers as a. White and M. Gorky, he gives classes to young poets Proletkult, works in the reign of the All-Russia Union of Writers, published by 'World literature' ... And - continues to write and publish poetry: in 1920 and 1922 fall collections 'Through the grain' and 'heavy lira' *, which have become major events, and Russian poetry and brought real glory, and the author of widely known. But there was 'other side': very soon disappointment in the cultural potential of the revolution, . experiences, coupled with the Civil War, . lasting disease, . to which were added nervous breakdowns due to difficult family situation, . lack of necessary drugs and did not improve their material situation ..,
. All these circumstances led to the fact that in 1922 Khodasevich together with H. Berberova (which later became his wife) going abroad. Initially, it was not emigration, but only the creative trip from Narcompros, but gradually comes to a decision not to return to Russia.

Khodasevich lived in Berlin, Saarow (Germany), Prague, and often stayed for long at Gorky in Sorrento, and in 1925 settled in Paris and lived there for fourteen years.

As often happens with the poets 'lines are not accumulated' wealth and Vladislav Khodasevich - though he worked in the emigration of many. They were written last, . fifth book of poems 'European night', . which has been included along with 'Through the grain' and 'Heavy lyre' in Paris 'collection of poems' in 1927, . Dozens reviews, . memoir 'Necropolis', . remarkable work 'poetic economy Pushkin', . belletrizovannaya biography Derzhavina ..,
. But the poems after 1928, he almost did not write. 'There shall be removed, do not deny ... (...) You have robbed Lyric '- called' silent 'in a letter Khodasevich 1934 M. Tsvetaeva, but the fates willed it turned out that, against which she rebelled: 'get o6oytis poet without verse, drawn from the poet - novelist and writer of the dead'. Vladislav Wiktor died after a major operation June 14, 1939 in a Paris hospital for the poor.

LYRIC

Entering the turn of the 1920's in the hole, artistic maturity, Khodasevich in his poems are more and farther departs from symbolist aesthetics, searching for and finding new poetic orientation. Appear poems with mundane, everyday images. 'My Rock! Person approached me! " - Appealing lyrical hero in 1907. 'Well, poskripi, cricket! Well, cpoy, dear zapechny! " - He asks in 1910. And then the function successfully found a widening of the epithet: 'For the life of the slow, uncomplaining, carefully zapechnoy Fate brought us together' ( 'dear friend'). 'Small gods', 'Laramie', 'honored guests' and 'honest interlocutors' referred to as a mouse in a small loop in 1913 *. 'Faithful cheesecake' opens the lyrical hero of the new values of life:

. Do not share too ardent fantasies,

. Do you like just cheese, Swiss and simple

. Rarely you go on a pantry nearby,

. Teach life clarity, a poor and holy


. Apparently, . Khodasevich precisely during the creation of poems, then included in the book 'Happy House' (1908-1913 yy) finally parted with the symbolist worldview, . but 'life is clear, . poor and the holy '(except, . perhaps, . second definition), he was not destined to,
. The tragic events in Russia, personal loss and dislocation brought the poet in a state of complete despair, when 'All vysvistano, prosobacheno', 'When in the soul of all that is pure dead'. And if in 1915, more lyrical 'gives life' privacy ( 'In the darkness of the soul but it will sprout / mysterious escape of inspiration' - 'Solitude'), . then six years he has had to overcome 'inert, . impoverished scarcity 'its' hopeless life' under 'the sun in sixteen candles' with sound' heavy lyre ':,

. And there is no plaster sky

. And the sun in sixteen candles:

. On the smooth black rocks

. Stops it bases - Orpheus


. ( 'Ballad')

. Closed world, overcome loneliness is a breakthrough time, initiation of world culture.

. A year later, already knowing the 'European night' *, which Russian culture was not so necessary, the hero 'welcomes' a very different way out of loneliness:

. Light flashed curtain soared,

. Fast shadow of the wall temper --

. Happy is he who falls head-down:

. The world for him for a moment - and a
.

Aesthetization otherwise, upside-down world - generally one of the landmarks of poetry Khodasevich. Epatage, paradox, oxymoron - that's his favorite tricks. Very often paradoxical, shocking concluded in his 'approval' death (as in the poem quoted above), as opposed to life:

That man is. Stab him with a knife --

Leaned against the fence and not ohnet.



And people come running black ants

From the street, with courtyards and will be between us

And they will ask for what and how to kill, --

And no one will understand how I loved him

. Modern literary critics see this as the motif of 'the murder of love' line, . reaching from Plato: teething and dropping 'away / worn-out shell of' the spirit leaves the body 'hands clench wound, . Scream and fight in your world '(' From the Diary ', . 1921),
. Sinister paradox Khodasevich read in this context as a reminder to man of his spiritual essence. Perhaps the most telling in this sense sounds laconic poetic declaration in 1922:

I do not believe in the beauty of the earth

And the truth I do not want the local.

And the one whole,

Simple happiness do not teach

. At the tender flesh of humane

. My knife holds scarlet burns:

. Let me kissed shoulders

. Again sprout wings!

. More transparent and provides motivation for the landing and the other way 'European nights': 'for the beer counter' is a girl, whose future is easy to 'read' a hero, does not bode well
. And if so, then --

It would be better - I hardly dare

Think to myself that --

To fall would you villain

In desert grove in the evening.

It would be better in a few moments

And shame to know and accept death,

And the two imperishable, two corruption

Not separate, not to separate

. 'And fun, and hard ...',' The Bride ',' March ',' Storage '- these and many other poems, too, contain a contradiction of a' cultural axiom ', sometimes ending with an unexpected ending, ballet shoes.

. Unusually bright Khodasevich oxymoron: 'All that is so tenderly and so venomously hate to love', 'In fairness empty ...',' gives life inspiration breath I cursed my age '
. The poet seemed to be looking for 'middle ground' - an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, and it is at this 'crossroads' expects to see a spark of truth. He is aware of how risky this situation, and not by chance in 1921. complements his earlier poem on the acrobats, who's all - like scales', but 'quickly and quietly goes' but a rope over deserted excitement people. Khodasevich adds four lines:

. And if, tearing, zany fall

. And, groaning, she crossed herself lying people, --

. Poet, come with an apathetic face:

. You did not so whether you live remeslomN

. Border state (between being and nothingness, sleeping and waking, etc.) and its reflection - surely one of the most important motives lyric Khodasevich
. It is striking that this borderline state in its interpretation entirely devoid of affect: 'easily and calmly, as an acrobat, he goes -' with an apathetic face 'or' smile '- but the verge of being.

'Without Words', 'game', 'Episode', 'Variation', 'When I'd lived a long time in the world ...' - These and other poems present us with a hero, wittingly or unwittingly falling into the border region, striving or dreaming about it. Purely household object in his hands immediately acquire the features of the model being:

It can be seen, the hidden stitch,

That in life, in death darting ...

And, smiling, your handkerchief

I turned, my dear.

And the thought of coming last days of the stay on the ground is devoid of the usual sombre tone:

The eye rests, ear can not hear,

Life is good in secret,

And the sky unhindered breathing

Almost free soul.

Particularly notable in this series 'episode' (1918). Attention to this great poem by increasing the light Avtokommentariem Khodasevich, from which we learn that describes a real case, but a day of writing works - 'one of the busiest days' in the life of the author. This poem, . written by one of the favorite Khodasevich - we can say, . 'spacious' - size (unrhymed iambic freestyle - with a predominance of iambic), . detail, . psychologically and visual accurately depicts the time of lung separation of the soul from the body and heavy in Pego return,
. This is one of the most perfect poems Khodasevich, in which the rhythmic movement and the movement of thought are in perfect harmony.

Khodasevich general masterfully uses the expressive possibilities of poetic speech. In this area, it targets all the same 'middle way', which finds and in Pushkin's 'extraordinary equilibrium' 'logical and sound'. Moreover, . he considers, . that the change in the spiritual guidance of the poet must necessarily entail changing the formal side of his work (that, . example, . his record Esenine: 'Internally, breaking with Soviet Russia, . Yesenin broke and literary forms, . being dominated,
. One could say that before his death, he emigrated to the soul of Pushkin '). The search for such a poetic harmony (as well as other, more private properties), of course, relatives Khodasevich Russian poets such as Pushkin, Baratynskij, Tiutchev, but from the immediate predecessors and older contemporaries - Blok and Gumilev.

Can not, however, say that Khodasevich not think it necessary to experiment with verse, 'to try' on new forms. We can find his poems with consistently sustained anisosyllabic rhyme ( 'This happens for some reason ...' - 1920), with a unique rhythmic construction - odnostopnym shestislozhnikom ( 'On the streets of Berlin ...' - 1923). we can find an extremely rare form of the sonnet - with one-syllable verse ( 'Funeral', 1928), poems with self-sufficient prosody - in the spirit of Balmont ( 'Apollinazm'). Some poems stressed allusive and full of literary allusions. Such, for example, 'paeons and caesura' (podzago-clever - 'Shamrock meanings') - a form here and back to. Annensky *: 'Suddenly, from behind the clouds get rich ...' - With Tyutchev formulas and motifs. 'Quotational' Khodasevich generally akin to poetry, nor for the end of XX century ... However, he himself was aware that 'culture does not hold those who sigh for the past, and those who work for the present and future'. As a gifted cultural historian, he left a huge (still not fully taken into account) the number of works, most of them - it attempts to open or to explore just such creative personalities.



ROMAN-BIOGRAPHY

Emphasis on activity and volume of research in this series clearly distinguished Derzhavin and Pushkin. Connoisseurs of talent Khodasevich-linguist, theorist and biographer, has not waited for the second half of 1930 conceived of the biography of Pushkin *. It is no exaggeration to say, . that was waiting for her appearance all read Russian emigration, . Hope that formulated V. Weidle: 'This book, . where life and work would be understood in conjunction, . where Pushkin was to the whole (what is not denied, . sure, . inexhaustible genius, and even every individual), . only Khodasevich and could give us, . because he has a sufficiently combined knowledge of the subject with the penetration of his inner life, . in its meaning ',
. Weidle had the right to such a categorical assertion: the book, corresponding to such high demand, Khodasevich written. But this book - about Derzhavin.

Appearance of the pen Khodasevich belletrizovannoy biography 'Derzhavin' (1929-1931) natural. Singer Felicia, stand apart among the poets of Catherine's era, could not attract attention precisely such poet, as Khodasevich and Tsvetaeva **, - emphasized independent of literary fashion. New book about Derzhavin, summed up the individual, but the constant and repeated appeals Khodasevich to this topic, a fact not only historical and literary, analytical, 'information'.

However, even in this familiar incarnation labor Khodasevich significant. This establishment logic creativity Derzhavina, . and a new rationale for the allocation of the stages of evolution of the poet, . and some analytical findings (eg, . Genesis of Odes 'On the death Meshcherskiy'), . and most importantly - a deep psychological study of continuity 'poetry and services' Derzhavina as 'two-field single civilian heroism',
. Poet (artist), and power - in the development of this urgent problem Khodasevich thinking about Derzhavin were largely parallel to the ideas of Mikhail Bulgakov ( 'Moliere' and others. texts). Hidden secrets of his birth - page 'Derzhavina', . like below, . evokes appeared somewhat later 'varykinskie Heads' 'Doctors' Zhivago "by Boris Pasternak:" In the life of each poet (unless he was destined to remain forever imitator) is minute, . when polusoznaniem, . poluoschuscheniem (but infallible), he suddenly comprehends a system of images, . thoughts, . feelings, . sounds, . related both, . as hitherto they have not been contacted in any com,
. His future suddenly poetry sends a signal. He guessed it - do not mind, heart, rather. This moment inexplicable and quivering, as conceived. If it was not - can not pretend that it was: a poet, or start it, or not start at all. After all her future - only the development and nurturing of the word (it requires a mind, and patience, and love) '.

But 'Derzhavin' - a phenomenon more and aesthetic. Khodasevich able to tell the time on poslepushkinskomu dopushkinskoy era - the language and style is quite Pushkin. Even in 1917 ( 'shaken tripod') Khodasevich assumed that Pushkin - is the name of who will be Russian 'halloo to one another: a call to the impending darkness'. Pushkin 'echo' to 'Derzhavin' eighteenth century to the twentieth century.



However, in the history of literature Khodasevich interested not only historically distant figure. In 1939, shortly before his death, he published a book of literary memoirs 'Necropolis'. In its basis - the portraits of those, . whom now associate the concept of 'Silver Age': Bruce, . White, . Gumilev, . Block, . Sologub, . Yesenin, . Gorky: Portraits of these Khodasevich built 'only on, . what: he was a witness', . and managed to ensure, . that the biographical notes became part of a coherent concept of creativity of an author,
. Such, in particular, the essay on Gorky - perhaps the most objective and insightful glimpse into the fate of the writer - the creator of 'elevating deceptions, which he loved so much and that eventually killed him'.

Khodasevich always talked about the 'prophetic' nature of Russian Poetry. He talked about the fact that history is constantly trying it, that poetry, 'exterminate'. Unkindly turned it to the very Khodasevich. He shared the fate of many poets emigrants 'first wave': he (like M. Tsvetaeva, George and Ivanov, G. Adamovich, and many others) was not in the life of the reader, which he earned. But, not being a prolific poet, not looking for recognition, he was elected and took the path is not futile. When he left Russia, he is firmly aware of their mission - the preservation of Russian culture, Russian tradition. Save in your soul and approval of his creativity. While in Russia, he wrote:

Yes! Small, that here, in me,

And explosive, and precious,

What all the grandeur of shocks

In my country, burning ...

And in this sense is not an exaggeration - the famous paraphrase Khodasevich of Pushkin: 'But: eight little volumes, no more - and their entire motherland, my'. Tu Russia, which Khodasevich wanted to save, he really was leaving, he took with him. Took with him - and gave us 'secret' word of a great culture. And his creativity has created for her 'distinct ode'.

Vice and death yazvyat single sting.

And only one of their ulcer would run away

Who holds the secret to the heart of the word --

Uteshny key to being a.





-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

* Mature Khodasevich generally quite strongly 'disassociating' from almost all printed in the early period. Thus, in a letter to 1922. to PN Zaitsev his poems of those years he calls "terribly bad ', and the critical work announces' is now deeply alien and even nasty in spirit'.

* The fact. that is not only an image, but also an element of attitude shows the poet's wife, Anna Ivanovna, and she remembered that he 'loved and felt sorry for the mice and try to get them something to feed.

. * The sequence of names of most poetic books of the poet ( 'Happy House' - 'Through the grain' - 'Heavy lira' - 'European night') says a lot about the outlook of the author.

. * Activity Khodasevich creative dialogue with contemporary literary Ann are both in the field of formal, . and the content: I. Tolstoy, . example, . spoke about the continuity of philosophy of suffering from Annenskogo to Khodasevich as "the heir of despondency.,

. * The task was daunting for Khodasevich; of objective and subjective reasons for this, see: Surat and
. Pushkinist Vladislav Khodasevich. M., 1994. P.83-96.

* 'Fully recognize myself in Derzhavin' waterfall '- wrote Tsvetaeva in 1934, and in a private letter reported a desire to be sure to complete Derzhavin.





39).