Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
BRONZE HORSEMAN
Petersburg story
Foreword
The incident described in this story is based on truth. The details of the flood are taken from contemporary magazines. The curious can cope with the news compiled V. N. Berkhom.
Introduction
On the shore of desert waves
stood he, full of great thoughts,
And looked into the distance. Wide before him
The river was rushing; poor boat
He strove for her alone.
Along mossy, swampy shores
Blackened huts here and there,
Shelter of a wretched Chukhonian;
And the forest, unknown to the rays
In the mist of the hidden sun
Noisy all around.
And he thought:
From here we will threaten the Swede,
Here the city will be founded
To the evil of an arrogant neighbor.
Nature here is destined for us
Cut a window to Europe
Stand with a firm foot by the sea.
Here on their new waves
All flags will visit us,
And let's hang out in the open.
A hundred years have passed, and the young city,
Midnight countries beauty and wonder,
From the darkness of the forests, from the swamp blat
Ascended magnificently, proudly;
Where before the Finnish fisherman,
The sad stepson of nature,
Alone by the low shores
Thrown into unknown waters
Your old net, now there,
Along busy shores
The slender masses crowd
Palaces and towers; ships
Crowd from all corners of the earth
They strive for rich marinas;
The Neva is dressed in granite;
Bridges hung over the waters;
Dark green gardens
The islands covered her
And in front of the younger capital
Faded old Moscow
As before a new queen
Porphyritic widow.
I love you, Peter's creation,
I love your strict, slender look,
Neva sovereign current,
Its coastal granite,
Your fences have a cast-iron pattern,
your thoughtful nights
Transparent dusk, moonless brilliance,
When I am in my room
I write, I read without a lamp,
And the sleeping masses are clear
Deserted streets, and light
Admiralty needle,
And, not letting the darkness of the night
To golden skies
One dawn to replace another
Hurry, giving the night half an hour.
I love your cruel winters
Still air and frost
Sledge running along the wide Neva,
Girlish faces brighter than roses
And shine, and noise, and the talk of balls,
And at the hour of the feast idle
The hiss of foamy glasses
And punch flame blue.
I love belligerent liveliness
Amusing Fields of Mars,
Infantry troops and horses
monotonous beauty,
In their harmoniously unsteady formation
Patchwork of these victorious banners,
The radiance of these copper caps,
On through those shot in battle.
I love, military capital,
Your stronghold smoke and thunder,
When the midnight queen
Gives a son to the royal house,
Or victory over the enemy
Russia triumphs again
Or breaking your blue ice
The Neva carries him to the seas
And, feeling spring days, rejoices.
Show off, city of Petrov, and stop
Unshakable as Russia,
May he make peace with you
And the defeated element;
Enmity and old captivity
Let Finnish waves forget
And vain malice will not be
Disturb Peter's eternal sleep!
It was a terrible time
She is a fresh memory...
About her, my friends, for you
I'll start my story.
My story is sad.
Part one
Above the darkened Petrograd
November breathed autumn chill.
Rushing in a noisy wave
At the edge of its slender fence,
Neva rushed about like a patient
Restless in your bed.
It was already late and dark;
The rain beat angrily against the window,
And the wind blew, sadly howling.
At the time of the guests home
Eugene came young ...
We will be our hero
Call by this name. It
Sounds nice; with him for a long time
My pen is also friendly.
We don't need his nickname
Although in the past
It may have shone.
And under the pen of Karamzin
In native legends it sounded;
But now with light and rumor
It is forgotten. Our hero
Lives in Kolomna; serves somewhere
It shy of the noble and does not grieve
Not about the deceased relatives,
Not about the forgotten antiquity.
So, I came home, Eugene
He shook off his overcoat, undressed, lay down.
But he couldn't sleep for a long time.
In the excitement of different thoughts.
What was he thinking about? About,
That he was poor, that he labored
He had to deliver
And independence and honor;
What could God add to him
Mind and money. What is there
Such idle happy ones
Mindless, sloths,
For whom life is easy!
That he serves only two years;
He also thought that the weather
Didn't let up; that river
Everything arrived; that hardly
Bridges have not been removed from the Neva
And what will he do with Parasha
Separated for two, three days.
Eugene here sighed heartily
And he dreamed like a poet:
"Marry? To me? why not?
It is hard, of course;
But well, I'm young and healthy
Ready to work day and night;
He somehow arrange himself
Shelter humble and simple
And I will calm Parasha in it.
It may take a year or two,
I'll get a place, - Parashe
I will entrust our economy
And raising kids...
And we will live, and so on to the grave
Hand in hand we will both reach,
And our grandchildren will bury us…”
So he dreamed. And it was sad
Him that night, and he wished
So that the wind howled not so sadly
And let the rain beat on the window
Not so angry...
Sleepy eyes
It finally closed. And so
The haze of a rainy night is thinning
And the pale day is coming...
Terrible day!
Neva all night
Rushed to the sea against the storm,
Without defeating their violent dope ...
And she couldn't argue...
In the morning over her shores
Crowded crowds of people
Admiring the splashes, the mountains
And the foam of angry waters.
But by the force of the winds from the bay
Blocked Neva
Went back, angry, turbulent,
And flooded the islands
The weather got worse
The Neva swelled and roared,
Cauldron bubbling and swirling,
And suddenly, like a wild beast,
Rushed to the city. before her
Everything ran; all around
Suddenly empty - water suddenly
Flowed into underground cellars,
Channels poured to the gratings,
And Petropolis surfaced like a triton,
Immersed in water up to my waist.
Siege! attack! evil waves,
Like thieves climbing through the windows. Chelny
With a running start, glass is smashed astern.
Trays under a wet veil,
Fragments of huts, logs, roofs,
thrifty commodity,
Relics of pale poverty,
Storm-blown bridges
A coffin from a blurry cemetery
Float through the streets!
People
Sees God's wrath and awaits execution.
Alas! everything perishes: shelter and food!
Where will take?
In that terrible year
The late tsar is still Russia
With glory rules. To the balcony
Sad, confused, he left
And he said: “With the element of God
Kings cannot be controlled." He sat down
And in the thought with mournful eyes
I looked at the evil disaster.
There were stacks of lakes,
And in them wide rivers
The streets poured in. Castle
It seemed like a sad island.
The king said - from end to end,
Through the streets near and far
On a dangerous journey through stormy waters
His generals set off
Rescue and fear obsessed
And drowning people at home.
Then, on Petrova Square,
Where a new house has risen in the corner,
Where above the elevated porch
With a raised paw, as if alive,
There are two guard lions
On a marble beast,
Without a hat, hands clenched in a cross,
Sitting motionless, terribly pale
Evgeniy. He was afraid, poor
Not for myself. He didn't hear
As the greedy wave rose,
Washing his soles,
How the rain hit his face
Like the wind, howling violently,
He suddenly took off his hat.
His desperate eyes
Pointed at the edge of one
They were motionless. Like mountains
From the disturbed depth
The waves got up there and got angry,
There the storm howled, there they rushed
Wreckage... God, God! there -
Alas! close to the waves
Near the bay
The fence is unpainted, yes willow
And a dilapidated house: there they are,
Widow and daughter, his Parasha,
His dream... Or in a dream
Does he see it? or all of our
And life is nothing, like an empty dream,
Heaven's mockery of the earth?
And he, as if bewitched,
As if chained to marble
Can't get off! around him
Water and nothing else!
And with his back turned to him,
In the unshakable height
Over the perturbed Neva
Standing with outstretched hand
Idol on a bronze horse.
PUBLISHING HOUSE "NAUKA"
Leningrad branch
Leningrad 1978
THE PUBLICATION IS PREPARED BY N. V. IZMAILOV
A. S. Pushkin. Bust by I. P. Vitali. 1837 Marble.
From the editorial board
The publications of the Literary Monuments series are addressed to that Soviet reader who is not only interested in literary works as such, regardless of their authors, era, circumstances of their creation, etc., but who is also not indifferent to the personality of the authors, the creative process of creating works, their role in historical and literary development, the subsequent fate of monuments, etc.
The increased cultural demands of the Soviet reader encourage him to study more deeply the concept of works, the history of their creation, and the historical and literary environment.
Each literary monument is deeply individual in its connections with readers. In the monuments, whose significance lies primarily in the fact that they are typical for their time and for their literature, readers are interested in their connections with history, with the cultural life of the country, with everyday life. Created by geniuses, monuments are primarily important for readers for their connections with the personality of the author. In the monuments, translated readers will be occupied (among other things) with their history on Russian soil, their impact on Russian literature, and participation in the Russian historical and literary process. Each monument requires its own approach to the problems of its publication, commenting, literary explanation.
Such a special approach is required, of course, when publishing the works of the genius of Russian poetry - A. S. Pushkin, and above all such a central monument for his work as The Bronze Horseman.
In Pushkin's works, we are interested in their entire creative history, the fate of every line, every word, every punctuation mark, if it has at least some relation to the meaning of this or that passage. “Following the thoughts of a great man is the most entertaining science” - these words of Pushkin from the beginning of the third chapter of “Arap Peter the Great” should be perceived by us primarily in relation to the one who wrote them, thinking not about himself, but about the world of geniuses surrounding him.
"Petersburg Tale" "The Bronze Horseman" is one of the most beloved works of every Soviet person, and the idea of \u200b\u200bthis poem and the ideas hidden in it disturb not only researchers, but also the general reader. "The Bronze Horseman" is a poem that goes in line with the central themes of Pushkin's work. Its idea has a long prehistory, and the subsequent fate of the poem in Russian literature - in the "Petersburg theme" of Gogol, Dostoevsky, Bely, Annensky, Blok, Akhmatova and many other writers - is completely exceptional in its historical and literary significance.
All this obliges us to treat the publication of The Bronze Horseman with exceptional care, not to miss any of the smallest nuances in the history of its concept, its drafts, editions, to restore the poem in its creative movement, to display it in the publication not as a fixed literary fact, but as a process genius creative thought of Pushkin.
Such is the purpose of the edition which is now offered to the demanding attention of the readers of our series. It is this purpose that explains the nature of the article and annexes, the inclusion of a section of options and discrepancies.
Bronze Horseman
Petersburg story
Foreword
The incident described in this story is based on truth. The details of the flood are taken from contemporary magazines. The curious can cope with the news compiled V. N. Berkhom.
Introduction
The beginning of the first white manuscript of the poem "The Bronze Horseman" - Boldin's autograph (manuscript PD 964).
On the shore of desert waves
He stood, full of great thoughts,
And looked into the distance. Wide before him
The river was rushing; poor boat
He strove for her alone.
Along mossy, swampy shores
Blackened huts here and there,
Shelter of a wretched Chukhonian;
And the forest, unknown to the rays
10 In the mist of the hidden sun
Noisy all around.
And he thought:
From here we will threaten the Swede.
Here the city will be founded
To the evil of an arrogant neighbor.
Nature here is destined for us
Stand with a firm foot by the sea.
Here on their new waves
All flags will visit us
20 And we will shut ourselves up in the open.
A hundred years have passed, and the young city,
Midnight countries beauty and wonder,
From the darkness of the forests, from the swamp blat
Ascended magnificently, proudly;
Where before the Finnish fisherman,
The sad stepson of nature,
Alone by the low shores
Thrown into unknown waters
Your old net, now there
30 Along busy shores
The slender masses crowd
Palaces and towers; ships
Crowd from all corners of the earth
They strive for rich marinas;
The Neva is dressed in granite;
Bridges hung over the waters;
Dark green gardens
The islands covered her
And in front of the younger capital
40 Faded old Moscow,
As before a new queen
Porphyritic widow.
I love you, Peter's creation,
I love your strict, slender look,
Neva sovereign current,
Its coastal granite,
Your fences have a cast-iron pattern,
your thoughtful nights
Transparent dusk, moonless brilliance,
50 When I am in my room
I write, I read without a lamp,
And the sleeping masses are clear
Deserted streets, and light
Admiralty needle,
And not letting the darkness of the night
To golden skies
One dawn to replace another
I love your cruel winters
60 Still air and frost,
Sledge running along the wide Neva,
Girlish faces brighter than roses
And the glitter and the noise and the talk of the balls,
And at the hour of the feast idle
The hiss of foamy glasses
And punch flame blue.
I love belligerent liveliness
Amusing Fields of Mars,
Infantry troops and horses
70 monotonous beauty,
In their harmoniously unsteady formation
Patchwork of these victorious banners,
The radiance of these copper caps,
Shot through and through in battle.
I love, military capital,
Your stronghold smoke and thunder,
When the midnight queen
Gives a son to the royal house,
Or victory over the enemy
80 Russia triumphs again,
Or breaking your blue ice
The Neva carries him to the seas,
And smelling spring days, rejoices.
Show off, city of Petrov, and stop
Unshakable as Russia.
May he make peace with you
And the defeated element;
Enmity and old captivity
Let Finnish waves forget
90 And they will not be vain malice
Disturb Peter's eternal sleep!
It was a terrible time
She is a fresh memory...
About her, my friends, for you
I'll start my story.
My story is sad.
Part one
Above the darkened Petrograd
November breathed autumn chill.
Rushing in a noisy wave
100 To the edges of your slender fence,
BRONZE HORSEMAN
Foreword
Petersburg story
The incident described in this story is based on truth. The details of the flood are borrowed from contemporary magazines. The curious can consult the news compiled by V. N. Berkh.
Introduction
On the shore of desert waves
He stood, full of great thoughts,
And looked into the distance. Wide before him
The river was rushing; poor boat
He strove for her alone.
Along mossy, swampy shores
Blackened huts here and there,
Shelter of a wretched Chukhonian;
And the forest, unknown to the rays
In the mist of the hidden sun
Noisy all around.
And he thought:
From here we will threaten the Swede,
Here the city will be founded
To the evil of an arrogant neighbor.
Nature here is destined for us
Cut a window to Europe
Stand with a firm foot by the sea.
Here on their new waves
All flags will visit us,
And let's hang out in the open.
A hundred years have passed, and the young city,
Midnight countries beauty and wonder,
From the darkness of the forests, from the swamp blat
Ascended magnificently, proudly;
Where before the Finnish fisherman,
The sad stepson of nature,
Alone by the low shores
Thrown into unknown waters
Your old net, now there,
Along busy shores
The slender masses crowd
Palaces and towers; ships
Crowd from all corners of the earth
They strive for rich marinas;
The Neva is dressed in granite;
Bridges hung over the waters;
Dark green gardens
The islands covered her
And in front of the younger capital
Faded old Moscow
As before a new queen
Porphyritic widow.
I love you, Peter's creation,
I love your strict, slender look,
Neva sovereign current,
Its coastal granite,
Your fences have a cast-iron pattern,
your thoughtful nights
Transparent dusk, moonless brilliance,
When I am in my room
I write, I read without a lamp,
And the sleeping masses are clear
Deserted streets, and light
Admiralty needle,
And, not letting the darkness of the night
To golden skies
One dawn to replace another
Hurry, giving the night half an hour.
I love your cruel winters
Still air and frost
Sledge running along the wide Neva,
Girlish faces brighter than roses
And shine, and noise, and the talk of balls,
And at the hour of the feast idle
The hiss of foamy glasses
And punch flame blue.
I love belligerent liveliness
Amusing Fields of Mars,
Infantry troops and horses
monotonous beauty,
In their harmoniously unsteady formation
Patchwork of these victorious banners,
The radiance of these copper caps,
On through those shot in battle.
I love, military capital,
Your stronghold smoke and thunder,
When the midnight queen
Gives a son to the royal house,
Or victory over the enemy
Russia triumphs again
Or breaking your blue ice
The Neva carries him to the seas
And, feeling spring days, rejoices.
Show off, city of Petrov, and stop
Unshakable as Russia,
May he make peace with you
And the defeated element;
Enmity and old captivity
Let Finnish waves forget
And vain malice will not be
Disturb Peter's eternal sleep!
It was a terrible time
She is a fresh memory...
About her, my friends, for you
I'll start my story.
My story is sad.
Part one
Above the darkened Petrograd
November breathed autumn chill.
Rushing in a noisy wave
At the edge of its slender fence,
Neva rushed about like a patient
Restless in your bed.
It was already late and dark;
The rain beat angrily against the window,
And the wind blew, sadly howling.
At the time of the guests home
Eugene came young ...
We will be our hero
Call by this name. It
Sounds nice; with him for a long time
My pen is also friendly.
We don't need his nickname
Although in the past
It may have shone.
And under the pen of Karamzin
In native legends it sounded;
But now with light and rumor
It is forgotten. Our hero
Lives in Kolomna; serves somewhere
It shy of the noble and does not grieve
Not about the deceased relatives,
Not about the forgotten antiquity.
So, I came home, Eugene
He shook off his overcoat, undressed, lay down.
But he couldn't sleep for a long time.
In the excitement of different thoughts.
What was he thinking about? About,
That he was poor, that he labored
He had to deliver
And independence and honor;
What could God add to him
Mind and money. What is there
Such idle happy ones
Mindless, sloths,
For whom life is easy!
That he serves only two years;
He also thought that the weather
Didn't let up; that river
Everything arrived; that hardly
Bridges have not been removed from the Neva
And what will he do with Parasha
Separated for two, three days.
Eugene here sighed heartily
And he dreamed like a poet:
Marry? Well… why not?
It is hard, of course;
But well, he's young and healthy
Ready to work day and night;
He somehow arranges himself
Shelter humble and simple
And Parasha will calm down in it.
"Perhaps a year or two will pass -
I'll get a place, - Parashe
I will entrust our economy
And raising kids...
And we will live, and so on to the grave
Hand in hand we will both reach,
And our grandchildren will bury us…”
So he dreamed. And it was sad
Him that night, and he wished
So that the wind howled not so sadly
And let the rain beat on the window
Not so angry...
Sleepy eyes
It finally closed. And so
The haze of a rainy night is thinning
And the pale day is already coming ...
Terrible day!
Neva all night
Rushed to the sea against the storm,
Without defeating their violent dope ...
And she couldn't argue...
In the morning over her shores
Crowded crowds of people
Admiring the splashes, the mountains
And the foam of angry waters.
But by the force of the winds from the bay
Blocked Neva
Went back, angry, turbulent,
And flooded the islands
The weather got worse
The Neva swelled and roared,
Cauldron bubbling and swirling,
And suddenly, like a wild beast,
Rushed to the city. before her
Everything ran; all around
Suddenly empty - water suddenly
Flowed into underground cellars,
Channels poured to the gratings,
And Petropolis surfaced like a triton,
Immersed in water up to my waist.
Siege! attack! evil waves,
Like thieves climbing through the windows. Chelny
With a running start, glass is smashed astern.
Trays under a wet veil,
Fragments of huts, logs, roofs,
thrifty commodity,
Relics of pale poverty,
Storm-blown bridges
A coffin from a blurry cemetery
Float through the streets!
People
Sees God's wrath and awaits execution.
Alas! everything perishes: shelter and food!
Where will take?
In that terrible year
The late tsar is still Russia
With glory rules. To the balcony
Sad, confused, he left
And he said: “With the element of God
Kings cannot be controlled." He sat down
And in the thought with mournful eyes
I looked at the evil disaster.
There were stacks of lakes,
And in them wide rivers
The streets poured in. Castle
It seemed like a sad island.
The king said - from end to end,
Through the streets near and far
On a dangerous journey through stormy waters
His generals set off
Rescue and fear obsessed
And drowning people at home.
Then, on Petrova Square,
Where a new house has risen in the corner,
Where above the elevated porch
With a raised paw, as if alive,
There are two guard lions
On a marble beast,
Without a hat, hands clenched in a cross,
Sitting motionless, terribly pale
Evgeniy. He was afraid, poor
Not for myself. He didn't hear
As the greedy wave rose,
Washing his soles,
How the rain hit his face
Like the wind, howling violently,
He suddenly took off his hat.
His desperate eyes
Pointed at the edge of one
They were motionless. Like mountains
From the disturbed depth
The waves got up there and got angry,
There the storm howled, there they rushed
The wreckage… God, God! there -
Alas! close to the waves
Near the bay
The fence is unpainted, yes willow
And a dilapidated house: there they are,
Widow and daughter, his Parasha,
His dream... Or in a dream
Does he see it? or all of our
And life is nothing, like an empty dream,
Heaven's mockery of the earth?
And he, as if bewitched,
As if chained to marble
Can't get off! around him
Water and nothing else!
And with his back turned to him,
In the unshakable height
Over the perturbed Neva
Standing with outstretched hand
Idol on a bronze horse. Part two
But now, satiated with destruction
And weary with impudent violence,
Neva pulled back
Admiring your indignation
And leaving with carelessness
Your prey. So villain
With his ferocious gang
Bursting into the village, aching, cutting,
Crushes and robs; screams, rattle,
Violence, abuse, anxiety, howl! ..
And burdened with robbery,
Afraid of the chase, weary,
The robbers hurry home
Dropping prey on the way.
The water has gone, and the pavement
Opened, and my Eugene
Hurries, soul freezing,
In hope, fear and longing
To the barely calm river.
But, the triumph of victory is full,
The waves were still seething,
As if a fire smoldered under them,
Still their foam covered,
And Neva was breathing heavily,
Like a horse running from a battle.
Eugene looks: he sees a boat;
He runs to her as if to a find;
He calls the carrier -
And the carrier is carefree
Him for a dime willingly
Through terrible waves lucky.
And long with stormy waves
An experienced rower fought
And hide deep between their rows
Hourly with daring swimmers
The boat was ready - and finally
He reached the shore.
Unhappy
Familiar street runs
To familiar places. looks,
Can't find out. The view is terrible!
Everything in front of him is littered;
What is dropped, what is demolished;
Crooked houses, others
Completely collapsed, others
Moved by the waves; around,
As if in a battlefield
Bodies are lying around. Evgeniy
Headlong, not remembering anything,
Exhausted from pain,
Runs to where he is waiting
Fate with unknown news
Like a sealed letter.
And now he is running through the suburbs,
And here is the bay, and the house is close ...
What is this?..
He stopped.
Went back and turned back.
Looks... goes... still looks.
Here is the place where their house stands;
Here is the willow. There were gates here
They took them down, you see. Where is the house?
And, full of gloomy care,
Everyone walks, he walks around,
Talking loudly to himself -
And suddenly, striking his forehead with his hand,
Laughed.
Night haze
She descended on the trembling city;
But for a long time the inhabitants did not sleep
And they talked among themselves
About the past day.
Morning beam
Because of the tired, pale clouds
Flashed over the quiet capital
And found no trace
The troubles of yesterday; scarlet
The evil was already covered up.
Everything was in order.
Already through the streets free
With your insensibility cold
People walked. official people,
Leaving your nocturnal shelter
Went to the service. brave trader,
Reluctantly, I opened
New robbed basement
Gonna take your loss important
On the near vent. From yards
They brought boats.
Count Khvostov,
Poet, beloved by heaven,
Already sang immortal verses
The misfortune of the Neva banks.
But my poor, poor Eugene...
Alas! his confused mind
Against terrible shocks
Didn't resist. Rebellious Noise
Neva and winds resounded
In his ears. Terrible thoughts
Silently full, he wandered.
Some kind of dream tormented him.
A week has passed, a month has passed
He did not return to his home.
His desert corner
I rented it out, as the term expired,
The owner of the poor poet.
Eugene for his good
Didn't come. He will soon light
Became a stranger. Walked all day,
And slept on the pier; ate
In the window filed piece.
The clothes are shabby on him
It tore and smoldered. Evil children
They threw stones at him.
Often coachman's whips
He was beaten because
That he did not understand the road
Never; it seemed he
Didn't notice. He is stunned
It was the sound of inner anxiety.
And so he is his unhappy age
Dragged, neither beast nor man,
Neither this nor that, nor the inhabitant of the world,
Not a dead ghost...
Once he slept
At the Neva pier. Summer days
Leaning towards autumn. breathed
Bad wind. Gloomy Shaft
Splashed on the pier, murmuring pennies
And beating on the smooth steps,
Like a petitioner at the door
He does not heed the judges.
The poor man woke up. It was gloomy
The rain was falling, the wind was howling dejectedly,
And with him away, in the darkness of the night
The sentry called...
Eugene jumped up; remembered vividly
He is a past horror; hastily
He got up; went to wander, and suddenly
Stopped and around
Quietly began to drive his eyes
With wild fear on his face.
He found himself under the pillars
Big house. On the porch
With a raised paw, as if alive,
There were guard lions,
And right in the dark sky
Above the walled rock
Idol with outstretched hand
He sat on a bronze horse.
Eugene shuddered. cleared up
It has terrible thoughts. He found out
And the place where the flood played
Where the waves of prey crowded,
Revolting viciously around him,
And the lions, and the square, and that,
Who stood still
In the darkness with a copper head,
Togo, whose fateful will
Under the sea, the city was founded ...
He is terrible in the surrounding darkness!
What a thought!
What power is hidden in it!
And what a fire in this horse!
Where are you galloping, proud horse,
And where will you lower your hooves?
O mighty lord of fate!
Are you not so above the abyss
At a height, an iron bridle
Raised Russia on its hind legs?
Around the foot of the idol
The poor madman walked around
And brought wild eyes
On the face of the ruler of the semi-world.
His chest was shy. Chelo
It lay down on the cold grate,
Eyes clouded over,
A fire ran through my heart,
The blood boiled up. He became gloomy
Before the proud idol
And, clenching his teeth, clenching his fingers,
As if possessed by black power,
“Good, miraculous builder! —
He whispered, trembling angrily,
Already you! .. ”And suddenly headlong
Started running. It seemed
Him, that formidable king,
Instantly ignited with anger,
The face turned slowly...
And he's empty
Runs and hears behind him -
As if thunder rumbles -
Heavy-voiced galloping
On the shaken pavement.
And, illuminated by the pale moon,
Stretch out your hand above
Behind him rushes the Bronze Horseman
On a galloping horse;
And all through the night the poor madman,
Wherever you turn your feet
Behind him everywhere is the Bronze Horseman
Jumped with a heavy thud.
And since then, when it happened
Go to that area to him
His face showed
Confusion. To your heart
He hurriedly pressed his hand,
As if pacifying his torment,
Worn-out symal cap,
I didn't raise my confused eyes
And walked to the side.
small island
Visible at the seaside. Sometimes
Mooring with a net there
A belated fisherman
And he cooks his poor supper,
Or an official will visit,
Boating on a Sunday
Desert island. not grown up
There is not a blade of grass. flood
There, playing, skidded
The house is dilapidated. Above the water
He remained like a black bush.
His last spring
They took it to the bar. He was empty
And all destroyed. At the threshold
Found my madman
And then his cold corpse
Buried for God's sake.
Notes
Written in 1833. The poem is one of Pushkin's most profound, daring and artistically perfect works. The poet in it, with unprecedented strength and courage, shows the historically natural contradictions of life in all their nakedness, without trying to artificially make ends meet where they do not converge in reality itself. In the poem, in a generalized figurative form, two forces are opposed - the state, personified in Peter I (and then in the symbolic image of a revived monument, the Bronze Horseman), and a person in his personal, private interests and experiences. Speaking of Peter I, Pushkin glorified his “great thoughts” with inspirational poems, his creation “the city of Petrov”, a new capital built at the mouth of the Neva, “under the sea”, on “mossy, swampy banks”, for military-strategic reasons, economic and to establish a cultural connection with Europe. The poet, without any reservations, praises the great state work of Peter, the beautiful city he created - "the beauty and wonder of full-night countries." But these state considerations of Peter turn out to be the cause of the death of an innocent Eugene, a simple, ordinary person. He is not a hero, but he knows how and wants to work (“... I am young and healthy, / I am ready to work day and night”). He swept away in the flood; “He was afraid, poor thing, not for himself. // He did not hear how the greedy wave was rising, // Washing his soles, he “daringly” swims along the “barely resigned” Neva to find out about the fate of his bride. Despite poverty, Eugene values "independence and honor" most of all. He dreams of simple human happiness: to marry his beloved girl and live modestly by his work. The flood, shown in the poem as a rebellion of the conquered, conquered elements against Peter, ruins his life: Parasha dies, and he goes crazy. Peter I, in his great state concerns, did not think about defenseless little people forced to live under the threat of death from floods.
The tragic fate of Yevgeny and the poet's deep sorrowful sympathy for her are expressed in The Bronze Horseman with tremendous power and poetry. And in the scene of the collision of the insane Yevgeny with the Bronze Horseman, his fiery, gloomy protest" of the frontal threat to the "miraculous builder" on behalf of the victims of this construction, the poet's language becomes as highly pathetic as in the solemn introduction to the poem. The Bronze Horseman ends with a mean, restrained, deliberately prosaic message about the death of Yevgeny:
… flood
There, playing, skidded
Old house…
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
His last spring
They took it to the bar. He was empty
And all destroyed. At the threshold
Found my madman
And then his cold corpse
Buried for God's sake.
Pushkin does not provide any epilogue that returns us to the original theme of majestic Petersburg, an epilogue that reconciles us with the historically justified tragedy of Yevgeny. The contradiction between the full recognition of the correctness of Peter I, who cannot take into account the interests of an individual person in his state “great thoughts” and affairs, and the full recognition of the correctness of a small person who demands that his interests be taken into account - this contradiction remains unresolved in the poem. Pushkin was quite right, since this contradiction did not lie in his thoughts, but in life itself; it was one of the most acute in the process of historical development. This contradiction between the good of the state and the happiness of the individual is inevitable as long as class society exists, and it will disappear along with its final destruction.
In artistic terms, The Bronze Horseman is a marvel of art. In an extremely limited volume (there are only 481 verses in the poem), there are many bright, lively and highly poetic pictures - see, for example, separate images scattered before the reader in the introduction, which make up the whole majestic image of St. Petersburg; saturated with strength and dynamics, from a number of private paintings, the emerging description of the flood, the image of the delirium of the insane Yevgeny, amazing in its poetry and brightness, and much more. What distinguishes The Bronze Horseman from other Pushkin's poems is both the amazing flexibility and the variety of his style, sometimes solemn and slightly archaic, sometimes extremely simple, colloquial, but always poetic. A special character is given to the poem by the use of techniques of almost musical structure of images: repetition, with some variations, of the same words and expressions (guard lions over the porch of the house, the image of a monument, “an idol on a bronze horse”), carrying through the entire poem in different changes of one and the same thematic motif - rain and wind, the Neva - in countless en aspects, etc., not to mention the famous sound writing of this amazing poem.
Pushkin's references to Mickiewicz in the notes to the poem refer to a series of Mickiewicz's poems about Petersburg in the recently published third part of his poem Dziady. Despite the benevolent tone of the mention of Mickiewicz, Pushkin in a number of places in the description of St. Petersburg, and about Russians in general.
The Bronze Horseman was not published during Pushkin's lifetime, since Nicholas I demanded from the poet such changes in the text of the poem that he did not want to make. The poem was published shortly after Pushkin's death in Zhukovsky's revision, which completely distorted its main meaning.
From earlier editions
From the manuscripts of the poem
After the verses “And what will he do with Parasha // Separated for two, three days”:
Here he broke down heartily
And he dreamed like a poet:
“But why? why not?
I'm not rich, there's no doubt about it
And Parasha has no name,
Well? what do we care
Is it only for the rich
Is it possible to marry? I will arrange
Your own humble corner
And I will calm Parasha in it.
Bed, two chairs; cabbage soup pot
Yes, he is big; what more do I need?
We will not whims, we know
Sundays in the summer in the field
I will walk with Parasha;
I will ask for a place; parashe
I will entrust our economy
And raising kids...
And we will live - and so on to the grave
Hand in hand we will both reach,
And our grandchildren will bury us…”
After the verse "And the drowning people at home":
From sleep, the senator goes to the window
And he sees - in a boat along the Sea
Floating military governor.
The senator froze: “My God!
Here, Vanyusha! become a little
Look: what do you see in the window?
- I see, sir: the general is in the boat
Floats through the gate, past the booth.
"By God?" - Exactly, sir. - "Besides a joke?"
- Yes, sir. The senator rested
And asks for tea: “Thank God!
Well! The Count made me anxious,
I thought I was crazy."
Draft description of Eugene
He was a poor official
Rootless, round orphan,
Himself pale, pockmarked,
Without family, tribe, connections,
Without money, that is, without friends,
And yet, a citizen of the capital,
What kind of darkness do you meet,
Nothing different from you
Not in the face, not in the mind.
Like everyone else, he was not strict,
Like you, I thought a lot about money,
How you, saddened, smoked tobacco,
Like you, he wore a uniform coat.
Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman" is a rather short poem, consisting of only 500 verses written in iambic tetrameter. However, such was the talent of the creator (who, by the way, called it “Petersburg Tale”, putting it in the subtitle) that his work contained everything he wanted to say, turning out to be both a majestic monument to the Petrine period and a realistic depiction of modernity. In order to achieve the ideal content and form corresponding to it, Pushkin constantly rewrote each verse several times, sometimes even more than ten. In the center of the narrative part of the poem "The Bronze Horseman", which can be read in full online or downloaded on our website, there is a real event - a terrible St. Petersburg flood, which in fact was just one of many disasters. The author shows a retrospective, what the decision of the great king led to is small sacrifices. The mythological and realistic plans of the poem intersect, closely interact, intertwine to eventually create a compositional unity in which there is a place for Peter's reflections, and the love of a little man, and the description of the “city of Petrov”.
The Boldin exile became one of the most fruitful periods in the creative life of Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich. The Russian poet then wrote many works that have become classics of Russian literature. This period ended with the creation of the poem "The Bronze Horseman", which was written in less than a month. In it, the poet, who has always been interested in the history of the Fatherland, and especially the personality of Peter 1, simultaneously reflects on the epoch-making influence of this tsar on the development of Russia. This is by no means a historical poem in the classical sense, since the king is not a character here, at least not in the usual sense, he is an “idol”, a monument and a myth.
The text of The Bronze Horseman must be read very carefully, since Pushkin put into it another important idea about the relationship between man and power, and the relationship is tragic, based on contradictions. Pushkin touches on two important issues that relate to social contradictions and the future of the country. The poet shows the reader the past, present and future events in Russia as a whole, as an inseparable important story. This topic has always interested the poet, but in this interpretation it is presented for the first time, subsequently reflected in a number of his poems. A book about a small man and a great city, about small troubles and great deeds, became one of the first works devoted not to a big drama or the hero’s internal conflict, but to the life of an inhabitant, in which there are also many tragedies, they are just as invisible as he himself.
