Give me a paw, Jim, for good luck,
I have never seen such a paw.
Let's bark with you in the moonlight
For quiet, quiet weather.
Give me a paw, Jim, for luck.
Please, darling, don't lick.
Understand with me at least the simplest.
'Cause you don't know what life is
You don't know what it's worth to live in the world.
Your master is both sweet and famous,
And he has many guests in the house,
And everyone, smiling, strives
To touch you on velvet wool.
You are devilishly beautiful like a dog,
With such a sweet trusting friend.
And without asking anyone,
Like a drunk friend, you climb to kiss.
My dear Jim, among your guests
There were so many different and different ones.
But the one that is all silent and sadder,
Did you come here by any chance?
She will come, I promise you.
And without me, in her staring gaze,
You gently lick her hand for me
For everything in which he was and was not guilty.
Analysis of the poem "Kachalov's Dog" by Yesenin
The poem "Kachalov's Dog" was written by Yesenin in 1925. It stands out among other works of the poet late period creativity. By the end of his life, Yesenin was often in a gloomy and depressed state. "Kachalov's Dog" is an optimistic and joyful work, only towards the end acquiring a sad character. It is based on real case. Yesenin came to visit his friend, the actor V. Kachalov. Togo was not yet at home, and the poet, while waiting for the owner, met his dog Jim. Returning home, Kachalov saw that Yesenin and the dog looked like bosom friends. After some time, the poet wrote a poem dedicated to the dog, and solemnly read it in front of the owner.
Despite the playful nature, the work contains a deep philosophical reflection. Yesenin could hardly hide his disappointment from life. He sought and did not find solace in alcohol and numerous novels. The poet is tired human society and more unnecessary obsessive glory to him. As a child, Yesenin felt his unity with nature, but city life gradually cut off this connection. A sincere conversation with a dog brings him back to childhood, when everything was clear and understandable. An animal cannot become a source of suffering, it will carefully listen to the bitter confession of any person.
Yesenin has a very serious philosophical conversation with Jim about the meaning of life. He understands that human passions are inaccessible to a dog and envies him for this. It doesn't matter to Jim what a person's past is and how others treat him. The evil fame of Yesenin makes him deeply appreciate this attitude. Many turned away from the poet, having learned about his violent antics. But the dog lives only in the present day and is always ready to silently listen to his repentance.
At the end of the poem, Yesenin moves on to a very personal topic. He asks Jim to ask forgiveness for him from the one "that is the most silent and sadder of all." Probably the poet feels so guilty that he is unable to do it himself. He cannot even appoint a person as mediators, since words will not fully convey his repentance. “Lick her hand gently,” is the only way Yesenin can express his humility and recognition of heavy guilt. It was never fully established who the poet had in mind. Given it hectic life, several women could apply for this role. The most common version is that this mysterious guest could be G. Benislavskaya, who had a long and very difficult relationship with Yesenin.
Loneliness. Emptiness envelops the tormented soul of the poet Yesenin. The heart languishing from melancholy does not allow to fall asleep. And I can’t believe that someday it will be different, and I don’t believe that it will ever be at all. But morning comes, and life changes: loud fame, casual acquaintances, grandiose drinking parties and eternal scandals. How long?
One day, Yesenin met the artist V.I. Kachalov, in whose house a four-month-old Doberman named Jim lived. “I went in,” Kachalov recalled, “I saw Yesenin and Jim — they had already met and were sitting on the sofa, huddled close to each other. Yesenin hugged Jim by the neck with one hand, and with the other held his paw and said in a hoarse bass voice: “What a paw, I have never seen such a paw.”
Jim rejoiced, licked Yesenin's nose and cheeks, and the poet, barely avoiding the manifestation of a dog's feelings, said:
“Wait, maybe I don’t want to kiss you anymore. Why are you, like a drunk, climbing to kiss all the time!
Then they drank tea for a long time, Yesenin read his favorite poems, and Jim did not take his devoted eyes off him. Saying goodbye, the poet cheerfully shook the paw of his new acquaintance and promised to dedicate poetic lines to him. So the poem "Kachalov's Dog" appeared. It combined loneliness, and remorse, and regret that he would never return. It was in the dog that the author found your soul mate able to understand what cannot be trusted to a person.
And yet, "Kachalov's Dog" is a poem about love. In it, the poet is sad about breaking up with a woman whom he could not love, and says goodbye to her, as if anticipating his imminent end. This makes the poem infinitely lyrical.
My dear Jim, among your guests
There were so many different and different ones.
But the one that is all silent and sadder,
Did you come here by any chance?
She will come, I promise you.
And without me, in her staring gaze,
You gently lick her hand for me
For everything in which he was and was not guilty.
Without a doubt, love is main theme the life of Sergei Yesenin. And although the poet himself could not find happiness in the family, could not warm his relatives and friends with his warmth, love inspires the poet and is a source of creativity.
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"Kachalov's Dog" Sergei Yesenin
Give me a paw, Jim, for good luck,
I have never seen such a paw.
Let's bark with you in the moonlight
For quiet, quiet weather.
Give me a paw, Jim, for luck.Please, darling, don't lick.
Understand with me at least the simplest.
'Cause you don't know what life is
You don't know what it's worth to live in the world.Your master is both sweet and famous,
And he has many guests in the house,
And everyone, smiling, strives
To touch you on velvet wool.You are devilishly beautiful like a dog,
With such a sweet trusting friend.
And without asking anyone,
Like a drunk friend, you climb to kiss.My dear Jim, among your guests
There were so many different and different ones.
But the one that is all silent and sadder,
Did you come here by any chance?She will come, I promise you.
And without me, in her staring gaze,
You gently lick her hand for me
For everything in which he was and was not guilty.
Analysis of Yesenin's poem "Kachalov's Dog"
The poem "Kachalov's Dog", written by Sergei Yesenin in 1925, is one of the most famous works poet. It is based on real events: dog Jim, to whom the author addressed these surprisingly tender and touching poems, really existed and lived in the house of the artist of the Moscow Art Theater Vasily Kachalov, who often visited Yesenin. According to eyewitnesses, between the dog and the poet, literally from the first days of their acquaintance, very friendly and trusting relationship. Freedom-loving Jim always rejoiced at the arrival of Yesenin, who spoiled him with various delicacies.
However, the poem dedicated to Jim has a deeper and more tragic undertone. This becomes clear from the very first stanza, when Yesenin offers the dog: “Let’s howl with you in the moonlight for quiet, noiseless weather.” What exactly lies behind such a spontaneous and absurd desire of a person who came to visit a friend, hoping to spend the evening in a pleasant company?
Researchers of the life and work of Sergei Yesenin associate the general mood of the poem "Kachalov's Dog", filled with sadness and regret for what can no longer be returned, with the names of several women. One of them is the Armenian teacher Shagane Talyan, whom the poet met in Batumi on the eve of 1925. Many attributed a passionate romance to them and believed that the depressed state of the poet was due to the fact that he had parted with his “Armenian muse”. However, Shagane Talyan refutes these conjectures, arguing that she had warm friendly relations with the poet.
The second woman who could be the cause heartache poet, is his wife, dancer Isadora Duncan, with whom Yesenin broke up after returning from a trip to the Caucasus. But this version turned out to be far from reality. After the death of the poet, it turned out that during his stay in Batumi, he had an affair with journalist Galina Beneslavskaya, who long years was in love with the poet, and he considered her his best and most devoted friend. About why Beneslavskaya and Yesenin met in Batumi, history is silent. However, it is known for certain that soon Isadora Duncan, who was at that time in Yalta on tour, received a telegram from her husband's mistress that he would not return to her again.
Subsequently, this is what happened, however, the poet soon broke up with Galina Beneslavskaya, saying that he really appreciates her as a friend, but does not love her as a woman. And it was from her, who also often visited Kachalov’s house, that Yesenin wanted to ask forgiveness for causing his to the best friend so much heartache.
It is worth noting that by the time the poem "Kachalov's Dog" was written, the poet was already married to Sofya Tolstaya, and was very burdened by this marriage. Only a few months remained before his fatal death.
Therefore, in the last line of the poem, when the poet asked to lick gently the hand of the one that is silent and sadder of all, "he not only asks Beneslavskaya for forgiveness" for what he was and was not guilty of, "but also says goodbye to her, as if anticipating quick death. And it is this presentiment that colors the work “Kachalov’s Dog” with special tenderness and sadness. In addition, among the lines, the loneliness of a person who is disappointed in love and has lost faith in the closest people is clearly visible. And - an acute sense of guilt for the fact that the author could not make truly happy those who sincerely loved him, despite the inconstancy of character, recklessness and the desire to be free from any obligations.
The work of Sergei Yesenin, uniquely bright and deep, is now firmly established in our literature and enjoys great success with numerous readers. The poet's poems are full of heartfelt warmth and sincerity, passionate love for the boundless expanses of native fields, the "inexhaustible sadness" of which he was able to convey so emotionally and so loudly.
Dog Kachalov
Give me a paw, Jim, for good luck,
I have never seen such a paw.
Let's bark with you in the moonlight
For quiet, quiet weather.
Give me a paw, Jim, for luck.
Please, darling, don't lick.
Understand with me at least the simplest.
'Cause you don't know what life is
You don't know what it's worth to live in the world.
Your master is both sweet and famous,
And he has many guests in the house,
And everyone, smiling, strives
To touch you on velvet wool.
You are devilishly beautiful like a dog,
With such a sweet trusting friend.
And without asking anyone,
Like a drunk friend, you climb to kiss.
My dear Jim, among your guests
There were so many different and different ones.
But the one that is all silent and sadder,
Did you come here by any chance?
She will come, I promise you.
And without me, in her staring gaze,
You gently lick her hand for me
For everything in which he was and was not guilty.
Read by V.Yakhontov
Yesenin Sergey Alexandrovich (1895-1925)
Yesenin! golden name. The murdered boy. The genius of the Russian land! None of the Poets who came into this world possessed such spiritual power, charming, all-powerful, soul-grabbing childish openness, moral purity, deep pain-love for the Fatherland! So many tears were shed over his poems, so many human souls sympathized and empathized with every Yesenin line, that if it were calculated, Yesenin's poetry would outweigh any and much more! But this method of evaluation is not available to earthlings. Although one could see from Parnassus - the people have never loved anyone so much! With Yesenin's poems they went to battle in the Patriotic War, for his poems they went to Solovki, his poetry excited souls like no other ... Only the Lord knows about this holy love of the people for their son. Yesenin's portrait is squeezed into wall-mounted family photo frames, put on a shrine on a par with icons ...
And not a single Poet in Russia has yet been exterminated or banned with such frenzy and perseverance as Yesenin! And they forbade, and hushed up, and belittled in dignity, and poured mud on them - and they still do it. Impossible to understand why?
Time has shown: the higher the Poetry with its secret lordship, the more embittered the envious-losers, and the more imitators.
Another great God's gift Yesenin - read his poems as uniquely as he created them. They sounded so in his soul! All that was left was to say it. Everyone was shocked by his reading. Note that great poets have always been able to recite their poems uniquely and by heart - Pushkin and Lermontov... Blok and Gumilyov... Yesenin and Klyuev... Tsvetaeva and Mandelstam... So, young gentlemen, a poet mumbling his lines from a piece of paper from the stage is not a Poet, but an amateur... A poet may not be able to do many things in his life, but not this!
The last poem "Goodbye, my friend, goodbye ..." is another secret of the Poet. In the same 1925 there are other lines: “You don’t know what life is worth living!”
Yes, in the deserted city lanes, not only stray dogs, "smaller brothers", but also big enemies listened to Yesenin's light gait.
We must know the true truth and not forget how childishly his golden head tossed back... And again his last gasp is heard:
"My dear, good-roshie ..."
"It's okay, I tripped over a rock, it'll all be healed by tomorrow." (with)
Give me a paw, Jim, for good luck,
I have never seen such a paw.
Let's bark with you in the moonlight
For quiet, quiet weather.
Give me a paw, Jim, for luck.
Please, darling, don't lick
Understand with me at least the simplest.
'Cause you don't know what life is
You don't know what life is worth.
Your master is both sweet and famous,
And he has many guests in the house,
And everyone, smiling, strives
To touch you on velvet wool.
You are devilishly beautiful like a dog,
With such a sweet trusting friend.
And without asking anyone,
Like a drunk friend, you climb to kiss
My dear Jim, among your guests
There were so many and there weren't any.
But the one that is all silent and sadder
Did you come here by any chance?
She will come, I give you a guarantee
And without me in her staring gaze,
<1925>
Isn't it true that often something long understood and familiar suddenly appears before us in a new, hitherto unseen image? How often do we just have to think a little, and something incomprehensible becomes quite understandable?! How many times have you read Sergei Yesenin's poem "Kachalov's Dog"? Most likely not once, but probably while under general impression stanzas created by the genius, have you ever wondered: who is Yesenin sad about, who are his thoughts about, which he shares with his beloved Jim?
In his research work I tried to reveal the secret of the image, which, without violating overall structure Yesenin’s poem “Kachalov’s Dog” makes it surprisingly touching and humane. In other words, I tried to find out if the prototype was for the one that is “silent and sadder than everyone”, why, remembering her, the poet feels a nagging feeling of guilt. Let us recall the final lines of the poem: “You gently lick her hand for me for everything you were and were not guilty of.”
I took up this topic because it helps to develop logical thinking, but becoming a real discoverer of the depths of the personal life of the poet S. Yesenin, not yet explored by Esein historians or just amateurs. Poets are people very extraordinary and for the most part fickle in love. But through the prism of the characters of their beloved, their features, you can unravel some of the character traits of the poets themselves. Isn't it interesting to learn about the life of a beloved poet that no one has guessed yet?!
The first step of the research will be to study the history of the creation of the poem "Kachalov's Dog".
Literary reference:
The artist of the Moscow Art Theater V.I. Kachalov, recalling the first meeting with Yesenin, which took place in the spring of 1925, writes: up the stairs and I hear the joyful barking of Jim, the very dog to whom Yesenin later dedicated poetry. Jim was only four months old then. I entered, saw Yesenin and Jim - they had already met and were sitting on the sofa, huddled close to each other. Yesenin with one hand hugged Jim by the neck, and with the other he held his paw and in a hoarse bass voice said: "What a paw, I have never seen such a paw."
Jim squealed with joy, rapidly stuck his head out of Yesenin's armpit and licked his face; when Yesenin read poetry, Jim carefully looked into his mouth. Before leaving, Yesenin shook his paw for a long time: “Oh, damn it, it’s hard to part with you. I will write poetry for him today.
From the dictionary:
Kachalov ( real name Shverubovich) Vasily Ivanovich (1875-1948) Soviet actor, People's Artist of the USSR. On stage since 1896, since 1900 at the Moscow Art Theater. Actor high intellectual culture, great charm. Kachalov was the performer of a number of roles in the plays of Chekhov, M. Gorky, where he played leading roles. He created outstanding images in the works: by Shakespeare (Hamlet - “Hamlet”), by A.S. Griboedov (Chatsky - "Woe from Wit"), F.M. Dostoevsky (Ivan Karamazov - "The Brothers Karamazov"), L.N. Tolstoy (author - "Resurrection").
Soviet encyclopedic Dictionary. Fourth edition. Moscow " Soviet Encyclopedia» 1988
Much to the surprise of Jim's host, the poet kept his word. Kachalov recalls: “I somehow come home shortly after my first acquaintance with Yesenin. My family says that Yesenin Pilnyak and someone else, it seems Tikhonov, came in without me. Yesenin had a top hat on his head, and he explained that he put on the top hat for the parade, that he came to Jim on a visit and with specially written poems for him, but since the act of handing poetry to Jim requires the presence of the owner, he will come another time ”( "Memories" pp. 417-420).
Kachalov recalled one visit to his hotel during the Baku tour of the Moscow Art Theater in May 1925: “A young, pretty, dark-skinned girl comes and asks:“ Are you Kachalov? - "Kachalov", - I answer. "One arrived?" - "No, with the theater." - "Didn't they bring anyone else?" I am perplexed: “My wife,” I say, “is with me, comrades.” - "Is Jim not with you?" - almost exclaimed. “No,” I say, “Jim stayed in Moscow.” - “A-yay, how Yesenin will be killed, he has been here in the hospital for two weeks, he is all delirious about Jim and says to the doctors:“ You don’t know what kind of dog this is! If Katchalov brings Jim here, I'll be healthy instantly. I will shake his paw - and I will be healthy, I will swim with him in the sea. The girl handed over the note and walked away from me, obviously distressed: “Well, I’ll somehow prepare Yesenin so that I don’t count on Jim.” As it turned out later, it was the same Shagane, a Persian.”
In the note I read: “Dear Vasily Ivanovich. I'm here. Here he published a poem for Jim (the poem was published in the Baku Worker newspaper in 1925, No. 77, April 7). On Sunday I will leave the hospital (sick with lungs). I would very much like to see you for the 57-year-old Armenian. BUT? I shake your hands. S. Yesenin.
But the well-known Yesenin scholar Ilya Schneider in his book “Meetings with Yesenin”, published in 1974 by the publishing house “ Soviet Russia", writes:
“This is an absolute mistake: Shagane Nersesovna Talyan met Yesenin in the winter of 1924 in Batumi. She was not in Baku during Yesenin's stay, which is confirmed by her own memoirs, in which she says: "At the end of January 1925, Sergei Yesenin left Batum, and since then we have not met with him."
Be that as it may, Yesenin's affection for Jim was actually noticeable and pleasant to all three: Yesenin, Kachalov and "dear" Jim.
Literary reference:
Sergei Alexandrovich met in Batumi a young Armenian woman named Shagane. She was an extremely interesting, cultured teacher of the local Armenian school, who was fluent in Russian. “The outward resemblance to the beloved girl and her melodious name evoked in Yesenin a great feeling of tenderness for Shagane” (as L. I. Povitsky recalls).
Shagane Nersesovna Terteryan (Talyan) is an Armenian teacher who became the prototype of a romantic female image that adorned the poetic cycle "Persian Motives", which was created by the poet during three trips to Georgia and Azerbaijan (to Persia, as Yesenin said in 1924-1925).
In one of the poems dedicated to her, another female image suddenly appears, which the poet compares with the beautiful Shagane.
Shagane you are mine, Shagane!
About wavy rye in the moonlight.
Shagane you are mine, Shagane.
Because I'm from the north, or something,
That the moon is a hundred times bigger there,
No matter how beautiful Shiraz is,
He is no better than Ryazan expanses
Because I'm from the north, or something.
I'm ready to tell you the field
I took this hair from the rye,
If you want, knit on your finger
I don't feel any pain at all.
I'm ready to tell you the field.
About wavy rye in the moonlight,
You can guess by my curls.
Darling, joke, smile
Do not wake up only the memory in me
About wavy rye in the moonlight.
Shagane you are mine, Shagane!
There's a girl in the north too
She looks a lot like you
Maybe he's thinking about me...
Shagane you are mine, Shagane.
Newspaper "Baku worker" 1925
Let's take a look at the last verse. "She looks a lot like you." Whom did the beautiful Armenian woman remind Yesenin? Does the image of a girl "terribly similar" to Shagane have a connection with the mysterious in a feminine way, sadly illuminating the poem "Kachalov's Dog"? Is it not about the one “that is more silent and sadder than everyone,” the poet recalls in another poem of the cycle “Persian Motives” - “I have never been to the Bosphorus ...”
I have never been to the Bosphorus
You don't ask me about him.
I saw the sea in your eyes
Blazing blue fire.
I did not go to Baghdad with a caravan,
I did not take silk and henna there.
Bend over with your beautiful figure,
Let me rest on my knees.
Or again, no matter how much I ask,
There is no business for you forever
What's in the distant name - Russia -
I am a famous, recognized poet.
Talyanka rings in my soul,
In the moonlight, I hear a dog barking.
Don't you want, Persian,
See the distant blue edge?
I didn't come here out of boredom.
You called me, invisible.
And me your swan hands
Wrapped around like two wings.
I've been looking for peace in fate for a long time,
And though past life I don't swear
Tell me something
About your funny country.
Drown in your soul the anguish of talyanka,
Drink the breath of fresh spells,
So that I'm talking about a far northerner
I didn’t sigh, I didn’t think, I didn’t get bored.
And although I have not been to the Bosphorus,
I'll think of it for you.
Anyway, your eyes. Like sea,
Blue swaying fire.
1924
Continuing the search, we will study Yesenin's letters written during the creation of "Persian Motifs". Perhaps they will shed light on the riddle and help to find out who the poet “thought” and “missed” and in whose blue eyes the poet "saw the sea blazing with blue fire"?
Most of the letters written during Yesenin's stay in the Caucasus are addressed to Galina Artlevel Benislavskaya. The study of memoirs related to the life and work of the poet allows us to establish that G.A. Benislavskaya (1897-1926) - a journalist who for several years, until her death, worked in the Moscow newspaper "Poor".
Literary reference:
Galina Arturovna Benislavskaya was the daughter of a French student and a Georgian. The parents separated shortly after the birth of the girl, the mother became mentally ill, and the girl was adopted by relatives, the Benislavsky family of doctors who lived in the Latvian city of Rezekne. Galina Benislavskaya studied at the Preobrazhenskaya Gymnasium in St. Petersburg and graduated with a gold medal in 1917.
Matvey Roizman recalled: “Benislavskaya was a member of the RCP (b), she studied at Kharkov University at the Faculty natural sciences, was well-read, versed in literature, in poetry. When the White Guard armies came to Ukraine, cutting off the roads from Kharkov, Galya decided to cross the front line and get to the Soviets. Probably, the news that the White Guards were brutally torturing the Communists and cracking down on them played a role in this decision. With great ordeals, delays, she finally reaches the Red Army unit, where she is arrested, suspecting that she is a White Guard spy, of which, by the way, there were many in those days. Benislavskaya's friend Yana Kozlovskaya, who lived in Moscow in the twenties, said that her father, an old Bolshevik, took part in the fate of Galya: she was released, left for Moscow and went to work as a secretary in the Cheka, and then moved to the same position in the editors of the newspaper "Poor". This twenty-three-year-old girl for her short life suffered as much as any other woman will not survive in her entire life. In the full sense of the word, she loved Yesenin more than her life, admired his poems, but when she considered it necessary, she sincerely criticized them, and Sergei listened to her opinion.
Benislavskaya was very fond of poetry, especially Blok, she often visited the literary cafe "Stall of Pegasus", which in the early twenties gathered the best poets Moscow to read their poems, argue, discuss, announce poetic manifestos. On one of the evenings in 1916, Benislavskaya saw Yesenin for the first time, heard how he reads his poems with inspiration (as I. Danchenko writes in his book “Love and Death of Sergei Yesenin”).
This is how Benislavskaya herself remembers this meeting; “Slightly throwing back his head and camp, he begins to read:
Spit, wind, armfuls of leaves,
- I'm the same as you, a bully.
He is the whole element, a mischievous, rebellious, unrestrained element, not only in poetry, but in every movement that reflects the movement of the verse. Flexible, violent, like the wind, the wind would take Yesenin's prowess. Where is he, where are his poems and where is his violent prowess - is it possible to separate ?! All this has merged into an unbridled impetuosity, and it is perhaps not so much the verses that capture as this spontaneity. Then he read "Blows, blows the death horn!..." What happened after reading it is difficult to convey. Everyone suddenly jumped up from their seats and rushed to the stage, to him. They not only shouted at him, they begged him: “Read something else” ... Recovering myself, I saw that I was also at the stage itself. How I ended up there, I do not know and do not remember. Obviously, this wind picked up and spun me too.
A competition of poets has been announced at the Polytechnical Museum... Our naivete towards Yesenin knew no bounds. Who are we to vote for? We timidly decide - for Yesenin, embarrassed, because we don’t understand - this is impudence on our part, or we are really right in our conviction that Yesenin is the first poet of Russia. But we will still vote for him. And suddenly - disappointment! Some small fry is participating, but Yesenin did not even pass. It became boring and uninteresting. Suddenly I turn my head to the left towards the entrance and... below, at the very door, I see a golden head! I jumped up and shouted to the whole hall: “Yesenin has come!” Immediately turmoil and turmoil. The howl began: "Yesenin, Yesenin, Yesenin!" Part of the public is shocked. Someone turned to me with a mockery: “What, do you want to hear about the moon?” She only snapped and continued to call Yesenin with others. Yesenin was dragged in his arms and put on the table - it was impossible not to read, they would not have let him go anyway. He read a little, did not participate in the competition, performed out of competition, but it was clear that he did not need to participate, it was clear that he, it was he, was the first.
She was fond of the poetry of Yesenin and Shagane Terteryan (Talyan). It is known that the poet often read new works to her, spoke with her about the merits Persian poets, took from her home library books (for example, the “Armenian Anthology” translated by V. Bryusov), and parting, he presented her with his poetry collection “Moscow Tavern” (1924), accompanied by a dedicatory inscription: “My dear Shagane. You are nice and sweet to me. S. Yesenin. Echoes of all this can be found in Persian motifs dedicated to Shagane.
Evening light of the saffron edge,
Silently roses run through the fields.
Sing me a song my dear
The one that Khayyam sang.
Silently roses run through the fields.
Shiraz is illuminated by moonlight,
A swarm of moths circles the stars.
I don't like Persians
Keep women and virgins under the veil.
Shiraz is illuminated by moonlight.
Or they froze from the heat,
Closing the body copper?
Or to be loved more
They don't want to burn their faces
Closing the body copper?
Dear, do not be friends with the veil,
Learn this commandment briefly,
After all, our life is so short,
Little happiness is given to admire.
Learn this commandment briefly.
Even everything ugly in rock
It overshadows its grace.
That's why beautiful cheeks
It is a sin to close before the world,
Kohl gave their mother nature.
Silently roses run through the fields.
The heart dreams of another country.
I'll sing to you myself, dear
The fact that Khayyam never sang...
Silently roses run through the fields.
There are also records of the memoirs of contemporaries about the first meeting between Galina Benislavskaya and Yesenin. This is how M. Reizman describes these events in the book “All that I remember about Yesenin”.
“On the night of June 10, 1921, we cheerfully glued leaflets in dark Moscow about“ General mobilization". Yesenin's friend Anya Nazarova and Galya Benislavskaya helped us.
Galya played a great noble role in Sergei's life. When he introduced me to her, he said:
"Treat her better than me! - Well, Seryozha! It will be done!" Yesenin, pleased, screwed up his right eye, and Benislavskaya was embarrassed. argued or laughed excitedly, something boyish looked through. She looked like a Georgian. Galya was distinguished by a peculiar beauty, attractiveness. Galya combed her short hair in a straight parting, like a young man, wore a modest dress with long sleeves and, when talking, liked to put it in her arms In the presence of Sergei, whom she loved very much, Galya blossomed, a gentle blush appeared on her cheeks, her movements became light. Sun rays, lit up like two emeralds. They knew about it. Jokingly, they said that she was from a breed of cats. Galya did not answer, smiling shyly. She walked with her legs moving in a straight line and raising her knees a little higher than required. It was as if she was riding a bicycle, which the observant Yesenin was the first to notice. They also knew about it. Someone behind her back called her Yesenin's cyclist.
It seems to me that between Shagane and Benislavskaya there was not only an external, but also a spiritual similarity.
“Since then, endless joyful meetings have gone on in a long string,” Benislavskaya recalled, “I lived in the evenings - from one to the other. His (Yesenin's) poems captured me no less than he himself. Therefore, each literary evening was a double joy: poetry and he.
Of course, Sergei's marriage to Isadora Duncan, his departure abroad were a heavy blow for Galya. Living alone in the cold, "ration" capital, without parents, without relatives, she was treated in a clinic for her nervous diseases. With trepidation, she waited for the arrival of Yesenin. I met her sometimes on the street, she always went with her friends, and her first question was:
Do you know when Sergei Alexandrovich will return?
The fact that Benislavskaya experienced after Yesenin's arrival from abroad can be read in her diary, in A.G. Samusevich's book "Wreath to Yesenin". Here are a few excerpts from her memoirs: “... After going abroad, Sergei Alexandrovich felt in my attitude towards him something that was not in relation to friends, that for me there are values higher than mine own well-being. I remember that one autumn night we walked along Tverskaya to the Aleksandrovsky railway station. T.K. Yesenin pulled us to the night tea room, then, naturally, the conversation turned to his illness (Yesenin and Verzhbitsky walked ahead). It was a period when Yesenin was on the edge, when he himself sometimes said that now nothing would help, and when he immediately asked for help to get out of this state and help finish Duncan ...
I. Schneider wrote about the role Benislavskaya played in breaking off relations between Yesenin and Duncan:
“I sent a telegram about the cancellation of performances. I telegraphed to Moscow, to the school that we are in Yalta. He sent the same telegram from Isadora to Yesenin.
The next evening, after dinner, we returned to the hotel, soaked. In the hall, the porter handed me two telegrams. One was addressed to Duncan. I opened her mail. Opened:
“Letters, telegrams to Yesenin no longer send. He is with me, He will never return to you. Galina Benislavskaya.
What is a telegram? Isadora asked.
From school.
Why two?
sent one after another.
In the morning Irma persuaded me to tell Isadora about the strange telegram that none of us knew from Bsnislavskaya. Isadora was wounded by the telegram, but pretended not to take it seriously. I told her that I had already telegraphed my deputy to Moscow and asked him to find out whether Sergei knew the contents of the unexpected telegram.
In the afternoon, Isadora and I went out to the Yalta embankment.
I felt that Isadora was trying in every possible way to distract herself from the cruel telegram that had tormented her. But this did not work, and soon we turned to the hotel.
What do you think, - she asked, - maybe the answer to your telegram is already?
Tonight will be...
We talked about something else...
Are you sure this is so? Isadora suddenly asked, interrupting an abstract conversation that had been started a lot. Seeing my puzzled face, she became embarrassed:
I'm talking about the answer to your telegram.. Will it be in the evening? But the telegram was already waiting for us: "The contents of the telegram are known to Sergei"...
Isadora slowly climbed the stairs. Seeing Irma, she whispered to her, and both bowed, like conspirators, over a sheet of paper. Soon Isadora, looking at me inquiringly, held out a telegram they had compiled:
Moscow, Yesenin. Petrovka, Bogoslovsky. Bakhrushin's house.
I received a telegram, it must be your servant Benislavskaya writing so that I don’t send telegram letters to Bogoslovsky anymore, unless I changed the address, please explain by telegram I love Isadora very much.
Many years later, I learned that Yesenin nevertheless answered Isadora's telegram.
On a piece of paper with a pencil, he began to sketch out the answer: “I said back in Paris that I would go to Russia, you embittered me, I love you, but I won’t live with you, now I’m married and happy, I wish you the same, Yesenin.”
Benislavskaya wrote in her diary that Yesenin gave her this telegram to read. She remarked that “if you finish, it’s better not to mention love,” etc. Yesenin turned the paper over and wrote on the back with a blue pencil.
"I love another, married and happy ..." and large block letters signed: Yesenin.
I thought that Isadora did not receive this telegram because it had not been sent, but a receipt was pasted to Yesenin's typewritten text, confirming that on October 13 a telegram worth 439 rubles was sent to Yalta. 50 kop. (money of those days)
Benislavskaya also recalls how everyone laughed at her telegram to Duncan, but “such a defiant tone,” she writes, was not at all in her spirit, it was all just “a scare and nothing more ...”
When Yesenin was in the Caucasus, he sent Benislavskaya letter after letter, in which he shared with her his creative plans, joys, sometimes confessed, scolded himself for worldly mistakes. Their large correspondence has been preserved. I will give a few excerpts from Yesenin's letters to Benislavskaya.
1. “Galya, dear! I am very ill and therefore I cannot write to you and tell you how I live in Batum. Only requests and requests. Reprint these verses and hand them over wherever you want. You can sell my books without asking me. I hope for your taste in compilation.
2. “Galya, my dear. Thanks for the letter, it made me happy. Darling, do everything as you find yourself. I have become too self-absorbed and know nothing of what I wrote yesterday and what I will write tomorrow. Only one lives in me now. I feel enlightened, I don't need this stupid playful fame, I don't need line-by-line success. I understood what poetry is.
In Galina Benislavskaya, a feeling of sublime love for the poet and a sense of understanding of his talent were inseparably combined. That is why she decided to devote herself publishing Yesenin and care for him and his loved ones, which, of course, allowed the poet to focus solely on creativity. Letters have been preserved that testify to how deeply Yesenin was grateful to his "guardian angel":
"Galya, dear! I repeat to you that you are very, very dear to me. Yes, and you yourself know that without your participation in my fate there would be a lot of deplorable things. It's much better and more than what I feel for women. You are so close to me in life without this that it is impossible to express (from S. Yesenin's letters to Benislavskaya, April 14, 1924).
Yesenin's friend, the imaginist poet Wolf Ehrlich, recalls how enthusiastically the poet pronounced the name of Benislavskaya at that time:
“Now you will see Galya! She's beautiful!... Well, that's it! Galya is my friend! More than a friend! Galya is my keeper! Every service rendered to Gala, you render me!”
Yesenin owed a lot to Benislavskaya. In a difficult time for him (1923), when he returned from foreign trip, decided to break the marriage ties with the American dancer Isadora Duncan, when a deep abyss formed between him and the Imagists (Mariengof, Shershenevich) and the poet was threatened by a spiritual vacuum, Galina Benislavskaya extended the hand of friendship to him. Yesenin settled in Bryusovsky Lane in her apartment (in which, by the way, his sisters, Ekaterina and Alexandra, who arrived in Moscow, soon began to live). Yesenin's friends gathered here: poets and writers - Pyotr Oreshin, Vsevolod Ivanov, Boris Pilnyak, Vasily Nasedkin, Wolf Erlich was a frequent guest, and Nikolai Klyuev also visited. This brightened up the everyday life of Yesenin’s life, made it possible to communicate with fellow writers: “I work and write devilishly well for me,” we read in one of Yesenin’s letters.
Let us turn again to the diary entries of Galina Benislavskaya in 1926, published by A. G. Samusevich:
“When Sergei Alexandrovich moved in with me, he gave me the keys to all the manuscripts and, in general, to all things, since he himself lost his keys, handed out manuscripts and photographs, and what he didn’t hand out, they dragged from him themselves. He noticed the loss, grumbled, cursed, but he did not know how to protect, store and demand back. As for manuscripts, letters, and other things, he said that, as they accumulate, everything unnecessary in this moment transfer for storage to Sasha (Sakharov); - He has my archive, he has a lot in St. Petersburg. I give everything to him."
Friendship is what winter road. Getting lost in it is a trifle, ”Wolf Ehrlich later wrote,“ Especially at night in separation. On the Volga, as soon as the ice gets stronger, snow falls and the first sledges run over it, they begin to put up landmarks. They put it exactly, two fathoms from one another. It happens - a blizzard will cause snow, the road will fall asleep, and then they go along the landmarks. We had our own landmarks. Galina Arturovna Benislavskaya put them not two fathoms, less often, but she put them all the same. They wandered along them, until June of the 25th year ... "
But back to the poem "Kachalov's Dog"
You gently lick her hand for me
For everything in which he was and was not guilty.
Perhaps there are still doubts as to whether direct relationship these lines of the poem to Galina Benislavskaya. So let's continue our research.
From the memoirs of Ilya Schneider:
“This girl, smart and deep, loved Yesenin devotedly and selflessly. Yesenin responded with a great friendly feeling.
Yesenin met Benislavskaya before meeting Duncan, but he never told us about her. She silently survived the whole affair and marriage with Duncan and departure abroad. How can one not recall the words "The one that is silent and sadder than all" ...
I would also like to quote some excerpts from Benislavskaya's diary, kept in those difficult times for her:
I would like to know what liar said that you can not be jealous! By God, I would like to see this idiot! That's nonsense! You can superbly control yourself, you can not give a look, Moreover- you can play happy when you really feel that you are the second; you can, finally, even deceive yourself, but still, if you truly love, you can’t be calm when your loved one sees, feels another. Otherwise, it means - little love. You cannot calmly know that he prefers someone to you, and not feel pain from this consciousness. It's like you're drowning in this feeling. I know one thing - I won’t do stupid things and tricks, but that I’m drowning and, choking, I want to get out, this is completely clear to me. And if, besides me, there was another, it's nothing. If that's the case - very, very good, but because. she is in front of me ... And yet I will love, I will be meek and devoted, in spite of any suffering and humiliation.
The book of youth is closed
All, alas, already read.
And ended forever
Clear joy spring ...
Yes, it was already closed that year, and I, slow-witted, now saw it! I know that all my strength should be directed so that I don’t want to read it again and again, again and again, but I know that I will love again and again, my blood will burn more than once, but so, so I will not love anyone, with all my being, leaving nothing for himself, but giving everything. And I will never regret that it was so, although it was more painful than good, but “joy - suffering is one thing”, and yet it was good, there was happiness; I am grateful for him, although involuntarily I want to repeat:
Youth, youth! how may night
You rang like bird cherry in the province
My God! Has the time come?
It turned out ... it seemed like yesterday ...
My dear... dear... good...
And when I overcome everything in myself, the warm and the best in me will still remain - to him. After all, it's funny, but when the Polytechnic calls, it thunders; "Yesenin" - I have a happy pride, like me.
And how devastated everything is inside, no, and you will not find anything equal, with which you can fill all the devastated.
My attitude to life and to everything has changed, it has changed. So I realized that there is more than one Yesenin in life, that he can and should be loved, as the main thing, but to love it disinterestedly, not with greedy love, demanding something from him, but the way you love the forest, without demanding that the forest lived according to me, or he was where I am.
If I want to be not a girl, if my feminine began to speak in me, even if it woke up thanks to him, then I must be sincere to the end, and not just admit in words that this does not give me any rights. If, despite everything, I suffer inside, then I want to have these rights. Could it be that this longing for them is love? Sometimes I think so. ... I used to often think - is there greatest proof my love is a victory over physical need; it seemed to me that, having retained "physical innocence", I would make the most difficult sacrifice of love for Ye / senin /. Nobody but him. But it would not be at the same time proof that I was waiting and that this caused my attitude, my devotion to precisely this artificial fidelity .... And if I want to be a woman, then no one dares to forbid me or reproach me for this! (His words). ...There is no more fire, there is an even flame. And it’s not the fault of E / senin /, if I don’t see people among those around me, everyone is boring to me, he has nothing to do with it. I remember when I "cheated" /him/ with Yi, and it's terribly funny to me. Is it possible to change a person whom you “love more than yourself?” And I “cheated” with bitter anger on / Yesenin / and tried to inflate the slightest movement of sensuality in myself, however, curiosity was mixed with this ... "
“Yesenin never prevaricated. Loving and appreciating Galina as his rarest friend, at the same time in March 1925, when nothing seemed to threaten their friendship-love, he wrote her a short letter: “Dear Galya! You are close to me as a friend, but I don’t love you at all as a woman,” wrote I. Schneider. He continued: “It was a hard blow, but, nevertheless, Benislavskaya did not leave him and took care of him. Only when two years passed after her telegram to Yalta, which led to a break between Duncan and Yesenin, Yesenin's marriage to Leo Tolstoy's granddaughter Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya forced Benislavskaya to move away from him. Yesenin took this departure of a friend hard.
Of course, the break with Benislavskaya could not but affect the state of soul of S. Yesenin. The "pegs" that Wolf Ehrlich wrote about were broken, and it was far from easy to find new ones. Probably, sad about friendship with Galina Arturovna, Yesenin wrote:
I remember, love, I remember
Shine of your hair.
Not happy and not easy for me
I had to leave you.
I remember autumn nights
Birch rustle of shadows
Let the days be shorter then
The moon shone brighter for us.
I remember you told me:
"The blue years will pass,
And you will forget, my dear,
With another me forever.
Today blooming linden
Remind me with a feeling again
How gently then I poured
Flowers on a curly strand.
And the heart, not ready to cool down
And sadly loving another
Like a favorite story
On the other hand, he remembers you.
1925
Marriage with S.A. Tolstoy was not happy for Yesenin.
“On one of these days of longing,” recalls Sophia Vinogradskaya
“He came to say goodbye. It was the summer of 1925. His face was crumpled, he often stroked his hair, and great inner pain looked from his eyes.
Sergei Alexandrovich, what is the matter with you, why are you like this?
Yes, you know, I live with the unloved. Why did you get married?
Well-u-u! What for? Hell yes, that's how it turned out. Left Gali, but nowhere to go.
In December 1925, a tragedy occurred at the Angleterre Hotel. The day before his death, Yesenin gave Wolf Erlich famous poem, last poem written by the poet.
Goodbye my friend, goodbye
My dear, you are in my chest.
Destined parting
Promises to meet in the future.
Goodbye, my friend, without a hand, without a word,
Do not be sad and do not sadness of the eyebrows, -
In this life, dying is not new,
But to live, of course, is not newer.
1925
On December 24, 1925, Yesenin arrived in Leningrad from Moscow and stayed at the Angleterre Hotel. On December 25, 26, 27 he met with his friends, many of them were in his room.
E. A. Ustinova, who lived in this hotel, recalled that on the afternoon of December 27 she went into Yesenin’s room: “Sergei Alexandrovich began to complain that there was not even ink in this“ lousy ”hotel, and he had to write with blood today. Soon came the poet Erlich. Sergei Alexandrovich went up to the table, tore out the poem he had written from his notebook in the morning, and thrust it into Erlich's inner pocket of his jacket. Erlich reached out with his hand for a piece of paper, but Yesenin stopped him; "You'll read it later, don't!" ("Memories" p. 470).
V. Erlich recalls: “About eight o'clock I got up to leave. Goodbye. I returned from Nevsky a second time: I forgot my briefcase ... Yesenin sat at the table calmly, without a jacket, throwing on a fur coat, and looked through old poems. There was an open folder on the table. Forgive a second time. ("Memories" p. 466).
Why did Yesenin hand over his poem, poetic
revelation to Erlich? Is it because he was sure that he would show it to Galina Benislavskaya (after all, it was Erlich who the poet spoke so sublimely about the one “that is more silent and sadder than all”). Perhaps it is to her that the last poem by Sergei Yesenin is dedicated.
By the way, saying goodbye to Shagane Terteryan (Talyan), Yesenin wrote:
Goodbye, peri, goodbye,
Let me not be able to open the door
You gave beautiful suffering
About you in my homeland I sing.
Goodbye, peri, goodbye.
The poem "There are such doors in Khorossan ...", 1925. There are some common motives, and they evoke the same associations.
The circle of research is almost closed. The last line of the poem "Kachalov's Dog" ("For everything he was and was not to blame") expresses an anxious feeling that did not leave Yesenin, perhaps until last day his life.
From the memoirs of I. Schneider:
“Galina Benislavskaya, almost a year after the death of the poet, on December 3, 1926, committed suicide on Yesenin’s grave and bequeathed to bury her next to him.
She left two notes on Yesenin's grave. One is a simple postcard: “December 3, 1926. I killed myself here, although I know that after that even more dogs will hang on Yesenin ... But it doesn’t matter to him or me. In this grave, everything is dearest to me ... ” Apparently, Galina came to the grave in the afternoon. She had a revolver, a finca, and a box of Mosaic cigarettes. She smoked the whole box and, when it got dark, broke off the lid of the box and wrote on it: “If the finca is stuck in the grave after the shot, it means that even then she did not regret it. If it’s a pity, I’ll throw it far away. ” In the darkness, she wrote another crooked line: "I misfire." There were several more misfires, and only on the sixth time did a shot sound. The bullet hit the heart ... "
Afterword I
I visited the museum of Sergei Yesenin, the one on Bolshoi Strochenovsky Lane. I must say that there is almost no material on Bepislavskaya, and the guide did not add anything to what I found about this woman. But it was there, in the museum, that I saw a recording of a short film where a famous actress reads Benislavskaya's diaries.
They supplemented my idea of the mysterious image that is presented in Yesenin's poetic short stories.
I realized how much Esenin was to blame for Galina. In her words - great love to the poet, the desire to help him, to support him in last years lives spent mostly in taverns, drunkenness, scandals. But at the same time, I heard about the deep emotional pain, about the great resentment that had accumulated in the tormented soul of this woman.
I confess, I wanted to say to Sergei Yesenin: “Dear Sergei Alexandrovich! If you never loved Benislavskaya as a woman, why did you give hope, returned to her. This is not fair, because for her you were everything: Motherland, mother and father, friend, beloved - everyone."
During the tour, I saw a room in which the great poet lived for some time.
Afterword 2
On the Vagankovsky cemetery late fall. On the grave of Yesenin, armfuls of fresh flowers. And one flower, just one, on a small chest - a pedestal, under which lies the heroine of my story, the main person of my research - Galina Arturovna Benislavskaya.
I look at these two monuments and remember the lines of the poem "Vagankovo", written by my literature teacher A.V. Vladimirova:
There every weekday and Sunday
The sunset burns with a bright candle.
And from his height Sergei Yesenin
He speaks with Galina Benislavskaya.
Yes, I think, perhaps their souls talk to each other for a long time. winter evenings. She loved, He did not love. Does it matter now?
You are right, Dostoevsky, indeed "man is a mystery."
