In these lines of his famous poem "Being famous is ugly," Boris Pasternak raises the problem of the loss of the true, high meaning of creativity for a person, the problem of spiritual temptation by fame, which is both the main idea of the work and the burning problem of all human society.
The author draws our attention to the phrase "meaning nothing" - there is nothing attractive in becoming famous without having committed any significant, worthy deeds; on the contrary, it is shameful. It's shameful to feel like a celebrity and realize that not a single good deed preceded this.
Yes, I fully share the position of the writer. After all, the concepts of "activity" and "creativity" imply a certain behavior, human actions aimed at transforming the environment and creating something new, respectively. However, undeserved, empty glory does not imply any transformation of the environment, any creation of cultural or material values. People who are not famous for some noble act, as a rule, have no conscience; shame on such people.
Take modern show business. Russian pop stars are often glorified not due to their talent, but due to their appearance, some extravagant acts on stage, in the end, connections decide a lot, if not everything. And there are very few truly talented people.
Stories of bad people are another rock of this problem. After all, as history shows, you can become famous both for good deeds and for bad deeds. The stories of Napoleon, Hitler, Chikatilo, Boni and Clyde are examples of this.
Thus, it is better to be glorified by good deeds, virtues. Bad deeds and fame by any means is immoral. This problem is still relevant, since many people dream of becoming famous on the Internet, and there are many ways for this, including shameful ones.
Damn you, darlings! Why this particular poem, why this particular damn lesson, this disgusting Monday? Oh, burn in hell - I'm with you.
Being famous is not nice.
It's not what lifts you up.
No need to archive
Shake over manuscripts.
The goal of creativity is self-giving,
Not a hype, not a success.
It's shameful to mean nothing
Be a parable on everyone's lips.
Hear the call of the future.
And leave gaps
In fate, not among papers,
Places and chapters of a whole life
Underlining in the margins.
And dive into the unknown
And hide your steps in it
Others on the trail
But defeat from victory
You don't have to be different.
And owe not a single slice
Don't back away from your face
Alive and only until the end.
The poem “Being famous is ugly” was written in 1956 and is included in Boris Pasternak’s lyrical cycle “When it clears up” (1956-1959). In addition, it includes 44 more poems. The basis of this cycle of reflections on time, being, truth, life and death, art and other philosophical topics. The release of the cycle of poems "When it clears up" is associated with the refusal in the USSR to publish the novel "Doctor Zhivago".
The theme of the poem is philosophical.
We can say that this poem “Being famous is ugly” is instructive, and Boris Pasternak himself is in the role of a mentor. He notices that “to be famous is ugly”, explains “the goal of creativity is self-giving”, and then begins to teach in 3, 4, 5 stanzas about how to live, what to do
But we must live without imposture,
Live so that in the end
Attract the love of space
Hear the call of the future.
And leave gaps
In fate, not among papers,
Places and chapters of a whole life
Underlining in the margins.
And dive into the unknown
And hide your steps in it
How the area hides in the fog,
When you can't see anything in it.
And in the last 2 stanzas, explaining, gives instructions
Others on the trail
They will go your way span by span,
But defeat from victory
You don't have to be different.
And owe not a single slice
Don't back away from your face
But to be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only until the end.
The mood of the poem is sublime, solemn, aimed at success, desiring it. The poet's creative life was difficult, so he tried to understand why everything was happening this way, what he was doing wrong, and most importantly, how long would it continue?
Perhaps, at the same time, he noticed that there are many in Russia who write specifically for fame, height, “noise” and “success”, at the same time not at all betraying the importance of what to write and what to write about.
Read the poem and learn. You learn to understand the whole essence of writing, you learn to understand your role, not to become "noise", but "to attract the love of space." This poem uplifts, inspires, inspires
But to be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only until the end.
The rhyme of the poem is cross. There are practically no epithets, personifications, metaphors and comparisons in the text. It is filled with verbs, participial phrases, complex and complex sentences - the author tried to give movement to his instructions, to encourage movement, to life, because "there is no standing position: either you move forward or backward." With frequent alliterations to the solid sounds “n”, “p”, “d”, “t”, “g”, Pasternak gives his instructions firmness, steadfastness, confidence, thereby expressing his position in life.
The writing
“In the field of words, I love prose most of all,
but he wrote most of the poetry. Poem
regarding prose - this is also an etude
regarding the picture. Poetry seems to me
great literary sketchbook.
B.L. Parsnip
The work of Boris Leonidovich Pasternak stands apart in the history of Russian literature. He lived and worked in a very difficult time for Russia. The old canons collapsed, the old life changed harshly, people and destinies broke down ... And in the midst of all this - a wonderful poet with a subtle soul and a peculiar vision of the world. Born at the turn of fate, Boris Pasternak managed to become one of the symbols of his age.
Poems occupy a separate place in his work. From his pen came many wonderful lines. The last collection of poems, called “When it clears up”, which was never published during Pasternak’s lifetime, absorbed the author’s selected works. The theme of renewal, hope, is clearly audible in the book, which became a reflection of the changes taking place in the country. It was in this collection that the poem "Being famous is ugly ..." was printed, which can be called a kind of set of rules for a real poet. It is in this work that Pasternak reveals his attitude to creativity.
The poem has a programmatic meaning, as if continuing Pushkin's appeal to the "Poet". The lyrical hero, continuing the idea of the great poet about the independence of the artist from the "love of the people", introduces a moral assessment into his judgment:
Being famous is not nice. It's not what lifts you up. No need to start an archive, Shake over manuscripts.
The goal of creativity is self-giving,
Not a hype, not a success.
It's shameful, meaning nothing
Be a parable on everyone's lips.
We see that Pasternak does not accept empty, undeserved fame, it is easier for him to sink into obscurity than to be on the lips of everyone without doing anything for this. Such a position deserves only respect. The artist paves his lonely way "in the fog", where "not a single sight can be seen", hearing only the "future call" ahead. He must leave a "living trace" in modernity, which will be continued by "others".
The unique fate of the poet is understood by Pasternak as a link between the past and the future in a single chain of art, loyalty to the vocation:
And owe not a single slice
Don't back away from your face
But to be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only until the end.
Once having chosen this path, the poet should never deviate from it.
Also an important work for revealing the image of the poet in the view of Pasternak can be the poem “In everything I want to get to the very essence ...”, written in the same year as the first, and included in the same collection.
In everything I want to reach
To the very essence.
At work, in search of a way,
In heartbreak.
From this quatrain follows the aspiration of the lyrical hero, who can conditionally be equated with Pasternak himself. The desire for life, for the knowledge of its secrets and mysteries, the thirst for activity and feelings. In this poem, the lyrical hero sets himself an almost impossible task - to penetrate the secret essence of life, deduce its laws, unravel its secrets ... He tries to grab the "thread of fate, events." But the task is complicated by the fact that he seeks not only to understand, but also to express in words the general law of being:
Oh if only I could
Although in part
I would write eight lines
About the properties of passion.
Discarding empty words, he is looking for the main, basic ones. Is this not the task and goal of poetry in general and of each poet in particular? .. Pasternak always believed that what is significant does not have to be complex. The truth of things and phenomena lies precisely in their simplicity. Hence the poet's desire to express in eight lines the properties of passion, which for Pasternak is life, because only when a person feels does he actually live. This is the recipe for penetrating the mystery of life.
The role of nature in the work of Pasternak in general and in this poem in particular is interesting. She miraculously comes to life, but not as a cluster of living and inanimate objects of the world around us, but as embodied poetry:
I would break poetry like a garden.
With all the trembling of the veins, the lindens would bloom in them in a row,
Guskom, in the back of the head.
The world of poetry and the world of nature are intertwined, and it is not entirely clear where one ends and the other begins, and the poet's lindens line up in orderly rows, like words in a line...
“Being famous is ugly ...” analysis of the work - the theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, problems and other issues are disclosed in this article.
Lyric poem by Boris Pasternak “Being famous is ugly…”, ironically, is famous, like its author himself. The first line, which has long become an aphorism, is an example that proves how important it is for the beginning of a literary work to instantly grab the reader and make them read the text with greed until the very end. In fact, already in the first line of his programmatic poem, the author formulates an artistic and personal position, which is very unusual for a poet. After all, it is known that people of creativity at all times were in dire need of understanding and success. Often doubting everything, it is thanks to an enthusiastic attitude towards themselves that they understand that they are not doing in vain. However, Pasternak clearly distinguishes between the concepts "hype" and "space love" ("future call"). This is the main antithesis poems, and it is supported by intonational cross-rhyme.
The poet emphasizes: recognition, if it has already come, should be a natural consequence "self-giving" in art, not "imposters". He seems to foresee the coming glory of the true creator:
Others on the trail
They will go your way span by span,
- and immediately insists that the person "must not distinguish" "defeat from victory". He needs complete acceptance of everything that happens to him as a sign of fate.
Modesty and dignity - this is what Boris Pasternak teaches his reader. And it seems that at the same time he addresses himself, his inner voice and possible impulses of ambition in his own soul. Is it so? ... Let's see at what time and under what circumstances of the poet's life this poem was created.
Dated 1956, the work was born in the late period of the life and work of Boris Pasternak. By this moment, the “great leader of the Soviet people” I. Stalin, who had been glorified by a romantic poet a few years ago, had already passed away. Already left behind a short period of public recognition of Pasternak in the Soviet Union and membership in the Union of Writers. The poet moved away from the general near-literary fuss and increasingly devoted himself to translating the works of foreign authors and risky activities to protect and support disgraced friends, among whom were Akhmatova and her son. The life of the writer included a rethinking of the events of past years and his own path, and in this sense, it would not be wrong to assume that "Being famous is ugly..."- a reminder to himself and his fellow writers about true values and, of course, to readers who, in fact, create a destructive hype around their idols.
Literary critics suggest that in this poem, Boris Pasternak openly dissociates himself from the creative path of another famous contemporary of his and former like-minded person, Vladimir Mayakovsky. By that time, it was customary to praise him, without knowing the measure, as "the best poet of our time." The words belonged to Stalin, which for a long time determined the “immunity” of Mayakovsky, who had already become a cult poet in the eyes of the people. In this "court way" Pasternak saw a terrible danger for a creative person. And yet, the lyrical hero of his poem does not at all salivate slander and does not conceal in his words and intonations resentment against the whole world for his own lack of recognition.
In every phrase one hears a conscious and hard-won truth. This is a strict sermon addressed to those who have the divine gift to inspire and "raise up" and who has forgotten or can forget his destiny on earth. "There is no need to start an archive, the author writes, Shake over manuscripts". And openly pronounce judgment
It's shameful, meaning nothing
Be a parable on everyone's lips.
Some exaggeration of the denial of the gift in this case should work like a tub of cold water. This is the beginning of the awakening from sleep, and it is compositionally expressed in the first two stanzas. Further, the author nevertheless proceeds to reasoning about what a poet should be like (both in the narrow and in the broad sense of the word).
A poem written in complex, ever-changing verse size(spondeus - pyrrhic - pyrrhic - iambic), has no external plot- only internal. This is the movement of the thought of the poet-philosopher from the denial of glory to the affirmation of the great power of the gift.
… leave spaces
In fate, not among papers.
Metaphor "gaps" here takes on the meaning of understatement, motive for learning and search for oneself, and the lexical repetition of a word "alive" convinces the reader of the need to strive for spiritual life - "only"!
Everyone endures glory in different ways - someone puts on the armor of pride, the other tries to pass by the laurels unnoticed, without being distracted from serving the muse. Boris Pasternak, who does not accept fame, considers creativity, and not celebrity, to be the goal of the second type.
This position is clearly visible in the poem “Being famous is ugly”, the analysis of which I propose. Already in the second quatrain, Pasternak clearly outlines the purpose of creativity:
The goal of creativity is self-giving,
Not a hype, not a success.
Without dedication, a celebrity will melt like ice under the July sun - one-time laurels cannot be tried on for a long time, but it is better to walk past them altogether. The poems were written in 1956, two years before the Nobel Prize, not so much for readers as for colleagues. Many of them are chasing fame like a cat after a mouse, losing ideals in this running around and smearing themselves in time. The imminent presentation of the award confirms the poet's correctness.
Pasternak lived a difficult life, trying not to compromise his ideals and not close himself into a shell of self-sufficiency. It was Pasternak who stood up for Akhmatova's husband when he was arrested and no one spoke in his defense. Boris Leonidovich wrote a few poems to Stalin, and then fell into disgrace, which was reflected in the style of creativity.
These moments are important for a deep analysis of the lines, as they help to understand the life of Pasternak and the conditions in which the lines are written. In the poem "Being famous", the poet expresses his opinion about the celebrity and shares it with colleagues in the poetic workshop. He does not blame them, does not point the way, but simply expresses his opinion, which he transferred to his life. The author urges to live honestly, to work at maximum dedication and not to rest on our laurels. According to Boris Leonidovich, life and work are inseparable - one cannot act meanly, but be a great poet!
Lines of interest:
Others on the trail
They will go your way span by span,
But defeat from victory
You don't have to be different.
There will be many who will try to copy the path of a celebrity, take her thoughts and ideas, setting them out in their own form. This is plagiarism and you should not pay attention to it, whether you won or lost in the battle of creativity, the future will decide. You should not consider yourself to be a person of genius - the judgment will happen tomorrow.
The most important, the most intimate, Pasternak left for the last quatrain:
And owe not a single slice
Don't back away from your face
But to be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only until the end.
The most important thing in creativity is to stay alive and not deviate from the path under the influence of external circumstances. Remaining a man in the first place, you can be a good poet, becoming a bad person, you can not count on the delight of the public. Going through life with your head up, not bashfully hiding your eyes, making mistakes, correcting mistakes and moving on with an open visor, without reducing dedication in creativity with success - this is the main message of the poem.
Being famous is not nice.
It's not what lifts you up.
No need to archive
Shake over manuscripts.
The goal of creativity is self-giving,
Not a hype, not a success.
It's shameful, meaning nothing
Be a parable on everyone's lips.
But we must live without imposture,
So live so that in the end
Attract the love of space
Hear the call of the future.
And leave gaps
In fate, not among papers,
Places and chapters of a whole life
Underlining in the margins.
