Elsa Triolet

Elsa Triolet (12.09.1896 year - the year 16.06.1970)

They were born in an intellectual Jewish family in Moscow. Parents are big fans of Goethe, was named in honor of the heroines of girls' favorite writer - Lily (later became Lily) and Elsa. The eldest, Lily, was born in 1891, Elsa - 12 (24) September 1896. The sisters received an excellent education, from childhood spoke French and German and, of course, played the piano.

Lily was bright red with huge brown eyes, and Elsa, the blonde, blue-eyed. While the elder sister was rushing to find a professional 'I' and build a family life with Osip Brik, younger successfully graduated from Architectural Institute. The summer of 1915 was an acquaintance of Elsa Triolet Vladimir Mayakovsky, she was busy with a poet's verse and his own. Acquainted with his sister. IV.. powerful love flooded a married Lily Brik. Elsa without a battle lost Volodya sister. Perhaps she felt that the left fan, but there were other, equally interesting writers. Especially blazed Viktor Shklovsky. 'I love you unthinkable - he wrote to Elsa Shklovsky. - Just lie down and die '.

Elsa, rejecting all domestic suitors, in 1918, she married a French officer, Andrц? Triolet and drove off with him to Paris, leaving hungry and cold Russia. The first part of the life of Elsa Kagan ended, began the second - Elsa Triolet. In one of the first letters to Elsa, Lily wrote: 'Andrew, as befits a French husband, I shpynyaet that I do not darn his socks, steaks are not zharyu and that disorder. Had become a rough mistress ... In all other cases, absolutely all - I have complete freedom ... '

Of course, when the 'full freedom', then the marriage is failing. Here and Elsa Triolet separated from her first husband, a few years later met his second chosen - Louis Aragon. Meeting October 6, 1928 in the cafe 'Font' in Montparnasse identified further way of two lives, draining them together.

32-year-old woman from Russia at once charmed the beautiful and intelligent Frenchman. Elsa Triolet, as Lilya Brik, was able to enslave men and dictate its will. Lily dominated Mayakovsky, Elsa sway over Aragon. She managed to drive off the French poet and a rebel from hobbies surrealism and homosexuality and forced him to worship the new religion - communism (to be Communists in France in those years had some pragmatic meaning). Aragon joined the Communist Party, cooperated with the newspaper 'L'Humanite', visited the Soviet Union. And only later, on the side of his life, Louis Aragon, receive your sight, made a sad confession: 'I'm not the one who you want me to submit. I ruined my life, that's all. "

But back to Elsa. Their marriage was successful, and it is surprising that the two creative people lived relatively quiet for 42 years. Here I wrote Maya Plisetskaya, when staying at Elsa and Louis in Paris: 'Live at the Aragon and Elsa was amusing. Both writers woke up at dawn, drinking a cup of black coffee and wrote, half-sitting up in bed until noon. In those hours I have for them does not exist. The questions are not answered calls at the door - and even more so, the phone did not fit. Quietness. Only the creaking of feathers posapyvaniya yes'.

Tirol's first book, written in Russian, 'Tahiti', published in 1925. The first book in French 'Good-evening, Teresa! " appeared in 1938. Collection Elsa Triolet 'for damage to cloth fine of 200 francs' in 1945, received the prize Goncourt, the highest literary award of France, for the first time in 40 years, award woman. In the novel 'Wedding Crashers' ( 'Appointment of strangers'), Elsa Triolet in May 1957 was awarded the 'Prize Fellowship' organization authorized by the movement against racism, antisemitism and in defense of peace.

. Elsa Triolet wrote a book on Chekhov, his stories translated into French, it is one of the authors of the script of the famous film 'Normandie-Niemen'
. Of course, it is translated by Vladimir Mayakovsky and promoted his work in France. During the visits to France, poet Elsa Triolet was a translator and guide his old friend. As noticed Mayakovsky, he said in Paris, only 'in the language of Tirol'.

Elsa Triolet spent 73 пЁпЎпЄп°. She died June 16, 1970. In the same year she released her latest novel 'The Nightingale stops at dawn'. Louis Aragon survived his wife for several years. They are buried together in the garden of his suburban home in St. Arnuan-Yvelines (Department of Seine and Oise). On the tombstone of a quotation from the novel by Elsa: 'The dead are defenseless. But we hope that our books will protect us'.