Silentium Mandelstam. Osip Mandelstam, "Silentium": analysis of the poem

One of the most famous and at the same time the most controversial poems written by Osip Mandelstam is Silentium. This article contains an analysis of the work: what influenced the poet, what inspired him and how these famous poems were created.

Poems by Mandelstam "Silentium"

Recall the text of the work:

She hasn't been born yet

She is both music and words,

And therefore all living things

Unbreakable connection.

The seas of the chest breathe calmly,

But, like crazy, the day is bright,

And pale lilac foam

In a black-and-azure vessel.

May my lips find

initial silence,

Like a crystal note

What is pure from birth!

Stay foam, Aphrodite,

And return the word to the music,

And be ashamed of the heart of the heart,

Merged with the fundamental principle of life!

Below we present an analysis of this work of the great poet.

The history of the creation of the poem and its analysis

"Silentium" Mandelstam wrote in 1910 - the poems were included in his debut collection "Stone" and became one of the most striking works of the then nineteen-year-old beginner writer. While writing the Silentium, Osip studied at the Sorbonne, where he attended lectures by the philosopher Henri Bergson and the philologist Joseph Bedier. Perhaps it was under the influence of Bergson that Mandelstam came up with the idea to write this poem, which differs in philosophical depth from the author's earlier works. At the same time, the poet became interested in the work of Verlaine and Baudelaire, and also began to study the Old French epic.

The work "Silentium", overflowing with enthusiastic and sublime mood, belongs to the lyrical genre in free form and philosophical themes. The lyrical hero of the work tells about "one who has not yet been born", but is already music and a word, indestructibly uniting all living things. Most likely, Mandelstam's "she" is the harmony of beauty, which combines both poetry and music and is the apogee of everything perfect that exists in the world. The mention of the sea is associated with the goddess of beauty and love Aphrodite, who was born from sea foam, combining the beauty of nature and the height of the feelings of the soul - she is harmony. The poet asks Aphrodite to remain foam, implying that the goddess is too loud perfection.

Perhaps, in the second quatrain, the author hints at the biblical story of the creation of the world: dry land appeared from the sea, and under the light, barely separated from the darkness, beautiful shades became visible among the general blackness of the ocean. A day that was "bright as crazy" may mean some moment of insight and inspiration experienced by the author.

The last quatrain again refers to the biblical theme: hearts shamed by each other most likely allude to the shame experienced by Adam and Eve after they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Here Mandelstam calls for a return to the original harmony - "the fundamental principle of life."

Name and expressive means

It is impossible to analyze Mandelstam's "Silentium" without understanding what the title means. The Latin word silentium means "silence". This title is a clear reference to the poems of another famous poet - Fyodor Tyutchev. However, his work is called Silentium! - the exclamation point gives the form of an imperative mood, in connection with which the name is most correctly translated as "Be quiet!". In these verses, Tyutchev calls to enjoy the beauty of the outer world of nature and the inner world of the soul without further ado.

In his poem "Silentium", Mandelstam echoes the words of Tyutchev, but avoids a direct call. From this we can conclude that "silence" or "silence" is the harmony of beauty, which "has not yet been born", but is about to appear in the minds and hearts of people, allowing them to silently, in "initial dumbness" enjoy the surroundings. life splendor of natural feelings and emotions.

The main expressive means of this poem are syncretism and cyclic repetitions ("both music and the word - and the word return to music", "and pale lilac foam - remain foam, Aphrodite"). Picturesque images, characteristic of all Mandelstam's poetry, are also used, for example, "a pale lilac in a black-and-azure vessel."

Mandelstam uses iambic tetrameter and his favorite method of cyclic rhyming.

sources of inspiration

Having written "Silentium", Mandelstam for the first time is revealed as a serious original poet. Here, for the first time, he uses images that will then appear again and again in his work. One of these images is the mention of ancient Roman and ancient Greek themes - the poet has repeatedly admitted that it is in the plots of myths that he sees the harmony so desired for him, which he constantly seeks in the things around him. "Birth also prompted Mandelstam to use the image of Aphrodite.

The sea became the main phenomenon that inspired the poet. "Silentium" Mandelstam surrounded with sea foam, likening the silence to Aphrodite. Structurally, the poem begins with the sea and ends with the sea, and thanks to the sound organization, a harmonious splash is heard in every line. The poet believed that it was on the seashore that one could feel how silent and small a person is against the background of the spontaneity of nature.

Since the 1960s the attention of researchers to the poem is activated. Today, almost a hundred years after its inception, there are three issues under discussion. One is connected with the meaning of the name, which, following Tyutchev or in polemic with him, stimulates various interpretations of the images of silence and “initial dumbness”, ascending (including through the idea of ​​“the reverse flow of time” - 5) to pre-existence (6).

The other is determined by the name of Verlaine, in particular, by his poem

"L'art poetique" with the call: "Music - first of all!", with Verlaine's idea of ​​the basis of verbal art and - more broadly - a symbolist understanding of music as the origin of art in general (7).

Finally, there is the problem of interpreting the myth of the birth of Aphrodite - either as the main plot (8), or as a parallel to the plot of the word and silence (9).

Let's consider them in more detail, in order to then offer one more possible reading of Silentium. But first, the text itself (quoted from: Stone, 16):

She hasn't been born yet
She is both music and words,
And therefore all living things
Unbreakable connection.

The seas of the chest breathe calmly,

And pale lilac foam
In a black-and-azure vessel.

May my lips find
Initial dumbness -
Like a crystal note
That is pure from birth.

Stay foam, Aphrodite,
And, word, return to music,
And, heart, be ashamed of the heart,
Merged with the fundamental principle of life.
1910

Tyutchev and Mandelstam. It seems that no one, except Kotrelev, paid special attention to the non-identity of the names of the two Silentiums in Russian poetry. Meanwhile, the very absence of an exclamation gives Mandelstam's poem a different meaning, not necessarily polemical in relation to Tyutchev's, but definitely different (10). Tyutchev's imperative expresses the courageous despair of a spiritually rich personality, doomed because of this to misunderstanding by those around him and to ineffability, and therefore - lonely and closed in himself, like a Leibniz monad. Hence the order to myself: Silentium! - repeated four times in the text (with a through male rhyme), in all cases in a strong position, and this is not counting the branched synonymy of other imperative verbs.

In Mandelstam, the name is given as an object of reflection, which begins semantically indefinitely (anaphora Ona) with a description of a certain state of the world (11) and the initial substance underlying it as a connection of “everything alive”. Although outwardly 3 and 4 stanzas, like Tyutchev's text, are built in the form of an appeal, the meanings and nature of the appeals are completely different here. For Tyutchev, this is an appeal to oneself, an exclusively internal dialogue - between the implicit I and the autocommunicative (subjective) You. Moreover, the secrecy of the I gives the text universality: the opportunity for any reader to identify himself with the lyrical subject and feel himself in this situation as his own.

Otherwise - with Mandelstam. Here are several addressees of the appeal, and they appear only in stanzas organized by the grammatically manifested author's I, in his incarnation of the I-poet: "May my lips find ...". In addition, the heterogeneity of the addressees of his appeals predetermines the meanings and forms of the very appeal of the Self both inward and outward, and also (which is especially important!) The difference in the relationship of the Self with one or another addressee. The result is an image of a unique individual author's personality.

Essentially, two poems with almost the same title deal with different subjects. Tyutchev solves the philosophical problem (the relationship between thought and word), tragically feeling the impossibility for himself to personally express in a word the thought of his spiritual world and be understood by the Other. Mandelstam, on the other hand, speaks of the nature of lyrics, of the primordial connection between music and words, hence a different problematic in his attitude to his own word and to another person.

Both music and words. Let us digress now from what has already been said more than once about music in Silentium as an idea-image in itself: “For the sake of the idea of ​​Music, he agrees to betray the world ... to abandon nature ... and even poetry” (12); or - as about the fundamental principle of life: about "the Dionysian element of music, a means of merging with it" (13); or - “Mandelstam answers: by rejecting words, returning to pre-verbal ... all-unifying music” (14); or - ""Silentium" recalls the "Orphic cosmogony", according to which being was preceded by an "ineffable" beginning, about which it is impossible to say anything and therefore one should be silent" (Musatov, 65).

Let's talk about the role played by music in the formation of the specific personality of Osip Mandelstam (15), limiting the material, in accordance with our task, to the period of his early work and the problems of Silentium. Recalling his teenage and youthful impressions of music, Mandelstam writes in The Noise of Time:

The marvelous balance of vowels and consonants, in clearly pronounced words, imparted invincible power to the chants...

These little geniuses... with all the way they played, with all the logic and beauty of sound, did everything to fetter and cool the unbridled, peculiarly Dionysian element... (16).

Let us cite the poet's testimonies from the letters of 1909 about the impact that Vyach's ideas had on him. Ivanov during classes in versification at the "Tower" and after getting acquainted with his book "According to the Stars":

Your seeds have sunk deep into my soul, and I get scared looking at the huge sprouts...

Every true poet, if he could write books on the basis of the exact and immutable laws of his creativity, would write like you... (Stone, 205, 206-207, 343).

Recall some of the Sporadic Vyach. Ivanov concerning lyrics:

The development of the poetic gift is a refinement of the inner ear: the poet must catch, in all purity, his true sounds.

Two mysterious decrees determined the fate of Socrates. One, early, was: "Know thyself." Another, too late: "Surrender to the music." Who "was born a poet" hears these decrees at the same time; or, more often, he hears the second early, and does not recognize the first in it: but follows both blindly.

Lyrics, first of all, is the mastery of rhythm and number, as the driving and building principles of a person's inner life; and, through mastery of them in the spirit, communion with their universal mystery...

Her supreme law is harmony; she must resolve every discord into harmony ...

[The poet must make his personal confession] a universal experience and experience through the musical charm of the communicative rhythm (17).

M. Voloshin felt this “musical charm” in “Stone”: “Mandelstam does not want to speak in verse, he is a born singer” (Stone, 239). And the point is not only in the musicality of the verses themselves, but also in the special state that arose in Osip Mandelstam every time after the concert, when, as Arthur Lurie recalls, “verses saturated with musical inspiration suddenly appeared ... live music was a necessity for him . The element of music nourished his poetic consciousness” (18).

V. Shklovsky said about the state that precedes the writing of poetry in 1919: “There is no word denoting inner sound speech, and when you want to talk about it, then the word music is turned up, as a designation of some sounds that are not words; in this case, not yet words, since they, in the end, pour out word-like. Of contemporary poets, O. Mandelstam wrote about this: “Stay foam, Aphrodite, And, word, return to music” ”(19). Two years later, the poet himself will formulate: “The poem is alive in an internal way, in that sounding mold of the form that precedes the written poem. Not a single word yet, but the poem already sounds. It sounds like an inner image, it is the poet's ear that touches it” (C2, vol. 2, 171).
So, maybe the meaning of Silentium is not in the rejection of the word and not in the return to pre-existence or pre-verbalism, but in something else?

Foam and Aphrodite. K.F. Taranovsky saw in the myth of the birth of Aphrodite a "thematic outline of a poem" with an objective and static description of the world in which Aphrodite had not yet been born ("= she is not yet"). Thus, the researcher extends the designation of her name in the 4th stanza to the semantically unclear pronoun She at the beginning of the text, as a result of which the text acquires “integrity”, if not for the “rhetorical digression” of the 3rd stanza: “May my lips find ...” - as a "basic premise" in the polemic with Tyutchev. As a result of such reflection, the researcher comes to the conclusion: “Tyutchev emphasizes the impossibility of genuine poetic creativity ... Mandelstam speaks of its uselessness ... There is no need to break the original “connection of all living things”. We do not need Aphrodite, and the poet conjures her not to be born. We do not need a word, and the poet conjures him to return to music ”(20). For the same, see: “She in the first stanza is Aphrodite, born from the foam (second stanza) and directly named only in the last stanza” (21); “hearts will merge in this “fundamental principle of life”, and there will be no need for love-Aphrodite to bind them with understanding” (Gasparov 1995, 8).

V. Musatov offered his own interpretation of both plots: “The central motif of the entire poem is a pre-verbal formative force, still closed by the “mouth”, but already ready to come out, like Aphrodite from the “foam”, and sound like a “crystal note”, the purity and objectivity of the myth " (Musatov, 65) [italics mine - D.Ch.]. The conversation about temporal relations is based here on a syntactic construction that has not yet been born, interpreted differently: as a transition to the next stage of a certain process - from still to already (later Mandelstam will call these words “two luminous points”, “signalers and insurgents of shaping” - C2, t .2, 123). What is the meaning of this transition?

However, before (and in order to) answer this and other questions raised above, let's try to understand how much the text itself predetermines such discord. Let us turn to Viktor Hoffmann's (1899-1942) article on Mandelstam, written by him in 1926, then being revised for a long time - and published today (22). We single out for further discussion three main provisions of this work concerning the concepts of word, genre, plot:

1) unlike symbolism, acmeism, and specifically Mandelstam, is characterized by rationalization of the meaning of the word, the variety of its shades, objectivity of meaning, the acquisition of individuality by the word; apparent lexical poverty is in fact stinginess, justified both syntactically (logical and grammatical clarity and correctness) and genre, that is
2) a lyrical fragment, a small lyrical form, compressed to a minimum, with marginal cost savings; every stanza and almost every single verse strives for autonomy, hence -
3) a feature of the plot: its variability (mutability - lat. mutatio) from stanza to stanza and from verse to verse, which leads to the feeling of a verse as a riddle; the text moves through the interweaving of the main and peripheral plots; the plot signal in each of the plots can be a word (leit-word), which itself acts as the hero of a lyrical narration.

So what is the meaning of the transition from "not yet" to the rest of the text?

At what point in the process? Paying attention to the inconsistency of the text:

in the 1st stanza - She has not yet been born,
She is both music and word ... -
and in the 4th - Stay foam, Aphrodite,
And, word, return to music ... -

Kotrelev noted the echo of Mandelstam's poem with the "Maenad" by Vyach. Ivanov and raised a question that changes the angle of view on Silentium: at what point is the process taken?

The syntactic phrase “not yet born” does not necessarily mean that “Aphrodite is not yet” (by the way, S.S. Averintsev wrote about Mandelstam’s denials that logically justify a certain “yes”, including an example from this text, wrote S.S. Averintsev - 23). The birth of the goddess from the foam of the sea is a process, and two of its points are fixed in Silentium: 1) when Aphrodite is not yet:

The seas of the chest breathe calmly,
But, like crazy, the day is bright
And pale lilac foam
In a black-azure vessel, -

and 2) when she immediately appeared, that is, when she was both already Aphrodite, and also foam, "And therefore all living / Inviolable connection." The second point of the process signifies (we use Vyach. Ivanov's thought about lyrics) "one event - a chord of a moment that swept along the strings of the world lyre" (24). This moment is repeatedly captured in the visual and verbal arts, for example, in the famous relief of the so-called throne of Ludovisi (25): Aphrodite rises from the waves to the waist above the water, next to her are the nymphs. Or - in A.A. Fet's poem "Venus de Milo":

And chaste and bold,
Up to the loins shining with nakedness ... -

In connection with the above, it is appropriate to cite the observations of E.A. Goldina that Mandelstam’s time “is most fully manifested not in large intervals, but in small seconds, each of which acquires an amazing volume and weight ... This second, a small second, is added to any very gigantic period of time” (26). To the eternal present (the picture of the sea in the 2nd stanza) is added the moment of the birth of Aphrodite (the beginning of the 4th stanza), which in its significance is involved in eternity. I-poet wants to delay, stop this moment with his word, conjuring Aphrodite to remain foam...

Black-and-azure vessel. However, the poem is not about the myth as such, but about its embodiment in a small plastic form, as evidenced by the text itself:

And pale lilac foam
In a black-and-azure vessel.

The color characteristic of the vessel incorporates the geography of the vast sea space - the element that gave birth to Aphrodite. This is the Mediterranean basin from the Cote d'Azur to the Black Sea (by the way, before the author's amendment in 1935, the 8th line is known as: “In a black-and-azure vessel” - 27; we also recall that in 1933 the poet will write in “Ariosta” : "In one wide and fraternal azure / Let's merge your azure and our Black Sea").

The space of the text is organized as a sharp - funnel-shaped - narrowing from "everything alive" to the seascape, and from it to the vessel, thanks to which an event of a global scale becomes comprehensible, commensurate with human perception. (Compare with the poet's poem "In the cold modulations of the lyre ...":

Like a soothed vessel
With already settled solution,
Spiritual - accessible to the eyes,
And the outlines live ... - 1909).

It is at this moment of Silentium that the change of the lyrical subject will take place: the impersonal author's voice of the first two stanzas will give way to the I-poet, who directly here and now will turn to Aphrodite, as if contemplating her - in a "black-and-azure vessel" (like Fet, who wrote his poem under the impression of visiting the Louvre).

Based on the foregoing, the five lines associated with Aphrodite, apparently, constitute an anthological microplot of the text, peripheral in relation to the through plot, which, embracing the plot of Aphrodite, occupies 11 lines, that is, most of the text. We believe that the content of this plot is the process of the birth of poetry.

What are the stages of the birth of poetry? The beginning of this process is the word in the title - Silentium, silence, silence as a necessary condition and prerequisite for sharpening the poet's inner ear and tuning it to a "high tune". Mandelstam writes about this repeatedly in his early lyrics:

At watchful sunsets
I listen to my penates
Always enthusiastic silence... (1909)

Hearing sensitive sail strains ... (1910), etc.

The poet seems to paraphrase Verlaine (28), stating that in the process of the birth of poetry, it is not music, but "silence - first of all ...". This is the introduction.

At the next stage, the inner sounding image is born:

She hasn't been born yet
She is both music and words,
And therefore all living things
Unbreakable connection.

Here, the anaphora is the key word that determines its main plot for the rest of the text. It is here as a designation for the time being of that original inexpressible fusion of “both music and words”, which is not yet poetry, but to which the soul of the poet joins as the secret of creativity and at the same time - the secret of the world . Compare with the neighboring verses of the poet:

But secret catches signs
The poet is immersed in darkness.

He is waiting for a hidden sign... (1910)

And I follow - with everything alive
The threads that bind me... (1910)

At this stage, silence is no less significant, but its content is different. As N. Gumilyov wrote in the article “The Life of the Verse” (by the way, published in “Apollo” two issues before Silentium), “the ancients respected the silent poet, as they respect a woman who is preparing to become a mother” (29). We are talking about the maturation of the "internal cast of the sounding form." And a micro-plot is introduced in parallel, preparing the appearance of another event as the highest expression of the inviolable connection of all living things:

The seas of the chest breathe calmly,
But, like crazy, bright day ...

The impersonal form of speech equalizes these plots at this stage, giving them an equal scale, which will be preserved in the 3rd stanza, on the border between the two stages of the birth of poetry, when the I-poet turns to higher powers so that his lips can express the primordial purity of the inner sounding mold of the form .

From the final stanza it follows that the prayer was not heard, the poet's word did not become an event equal to the birth of beauty. His two spells are:

Stay foam, Aphrodite,
And, word, return to music ... -

syntactically parallel do not constitute semantic parallelism. Aphrodite, emerging from the foam, did not break the connection of all living things. Stay implies not a return to the foam, but a stopped moment - the spiritually highest point of being. The word fell away at birth from its basis. Only a poet who has heard the inner music of the original sound image knows about this. His appeal “return to music” is not a rejection of the word in general, but dissatisfaction with this word, spoken prematurely. In short: Stay - to keep the "unbreakable bond"; come back - to restore the broken connection.

In the essay “Francois Villon” (1910, 1912), Mandelstam wrote: “The present moment can withstand the pressure of centuries and retain its integrity, remain the same “now”. You just need to be able to tear it out of the soil of time without damaging its roots - otherwise it will wither. Villon knew how to do it” (Stone, 186). N. Struve drew attention to the fact that Silentium is “a manifestation of the exactingness of a young poet to himself” (30).

We believe that at this stage of the birth of poetry, the dissatisfaction of the I-poet with his word was expressed - a motif developed in many of Mandelstam's early poems, of which he will let only two into The Stone (1910 and 1912):

I stand dissatisfied and quiet,
I, the creator of my worlds,

Where the skies are artificial
And the crystal dew sleeps (1909).

In the calm of my gardens
Artificial niknet rose (1909).

Or you are more deserted than the melody
Those shells singing in the sand
What is the circle of beauty outlined by him
Not opened for the living? (1909)

And, word, return to music,
And, heart, be ashamed of hearts... (1910)
"God!" I said by mistake
Without even thinking to say...
It flew out of my chest...
And an empty cage behind... (1912)

For the same, see Jn. Annensky in the poem "My verse": "Unripe fields are compressed ..." (31). If the word is unripe, premature, if it does not resonate with the world, then the singer's chest, by its nature an ideal acoustic device, is felt like an empty cage. This is not Tyutchev’s problem, with his: “How can the heart express itself?”, But Mandelstam’s: how not to speak out until the word is identical to the inner sounding mold of the form?

Undoubtedly significant for the poet is an example of an ideal connection between “music and words”, cited by Vyach. Ivanov in the book "According to the Stars", when music is born under the influence of the Word, which in turn is an indivisible musical-verbal image. This is Schiller's Hymn (or Ode) to Joy. Fulfilled as an orchestral work, in which “silent instruments intensify to speak, strain to utter what is sought and inexpressible” (32), the Ninth Symphony in its apotheosis returns to resolving its Word, recreating “every living Indestructible bond ”- “the moment of the invasion of the living word into the symphony, unprecedented in the history of music” (33). But this music, which arose from the word, returned to the word, remaining music.

In this particular situation, the word of the I-poet, which had lost its original connection with music, turned out to be only a word: "colloquial", and not singing. Hence - the poet's dissatisfaction with himself: "word, return to music" - and the shame of the heart.

In this, by the way, we see another, purely Mandelstamian, denouement as a continuation of the variability of the main plot of the birth of poetry - in its uniquely individual experience.

At this stage, silence is semantized as the poet's inner dialogue with his heart. Pushkin theme: “You yourself are your highest court; / You know how to evaluate your work more strictly. / Are you satisfied with it, demanding artist? - receives Mandelstam's development: "And, heart, be ashamed of hearts ..." - despite the fact that this is a shame both in front of oneself and in front of the heart of the Other (35). Unlike Tyutchev, in Mandelstam's lyrics, the Other is initially felt as an unconditional moral value, cf.: "We did not interfere with anyone ..." (1909), "And the gentle ice of someone else's hand ..." (1911).

I-poet sees the meaning of his poetic word in not breaking the ties between people. The word not only proceeds from the "inviolable connection" of all living things, but also (through the poet's heart - through his mouth) must return to the "fundamental principle of life" - from heart to heart.

This is a quote from Beethoven's Solemn Mass (to which Kotrelev drew attention). At the beginning of the first number, which is the Greek chant "Lord, have mercy", the composer wrote: "This must go from heart to heart" (34).

Apparently the final lines of Silentium are:

And, heart, be ashamed of the heart,
Merged with the fundamental principle of life, -

mean that the heart is the center of a person (every person!), And it is most of all responsible for the deeds and words of everyone. With the depth of their hearts, all people are merged “with the fundamental principle of life”, which expands the potential semantics of this appeal as an appeal to any human heart.

Returning to the title of the poem, we note that neither the rhetorical appeal "Let them find ...", nor the metaphorical one - to Aphrodite, directed outward, nevertheless, do not break the silence, as well as (or even more so) and the appeal to one's word and to your heart (and the hearts of all people). From this we can conclude that the name Silentium is bifunctional: it is both the initial stage of the birth of poetry, and a necessary condition for the whole process, hence the variability (“mutability”) of its semantics at different stages.

With a long-range heart, "Poems about the Unknown Soldier" (1937) will open.

And the theme of shame (conscience, guilt) in the new historical era will become for Osip Mandelstam one of the defining ones in his relationship with his work and with other people:

I'm guilty of heart and heart part
To the infinity of the extended hour... (1937);

I sing when the larynx is free and dry,
And the gaze is moderately moist, and consciousness is not cunning ...

The disinterested song is self-praise,
Resin is a joy for friends and enemies...

Which is sung on horseback and on top,
Holding the breath freely and openly,
Caring only about honestly and angrily
To deliver the young to the wedding without sin. (1937)

NOTES

1. Apollo, 1910. No. 9. P.7.
2. See: “Of those published in Apollo, the best is:“ She has not yet been born ... ”(O.E. Mandelstam in the Diary entries and in the correspondence of S.P. Kablukov. - Osip Mandelstam. Stone. L. : Nauka, Leningrad Region, 1990. The publication was prepared by L. Ya. Ginzburg, A. G. Mets, S. V. Vasilenko, and Yu. L. Freidin (hereinafter: Stone - with page indication).
3. See in Kamen: N. Gumilyov (217, 220-221), V. Khodasevich (219), G. Gershenkroin (223), A. Deutsch (227), N. Lerner (229), A.S. [A.N. Tikhonov] (233), M. Voloshin (239).
4. From our recording of N.V. Kotrelev's report on the silence of Mandelstam and Vyach. Ivanov (International conference dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the death of O.E. Mandelstam. Moscow, December 28-29, 1998, RSUH). A number of observations of this report are referenced in the text by an indication - Kotrelev.
5. See: V. Terras. The Time Philosophy of Osip Mandel'stam. - The Slavonic and European Review. XVII, 109 (1969), p. 351.
6. N. Gumilev (Stone, 220).
7. See: “This poem - I would like to be “romance sans paroles” ...” (from a letter from O. Mandelstam to V.I. Ivanov on December 17 (30), 1909 about the poem “In the dark sky, like a pattern .. . "; cit. title of the book by P. Verlaine) - Stone, 209, 345; also: “Boldly negotiating Verlaine’s “L’art poetique”” (N. Gumilyov, ibid., 221); “Comparison of the word with primitive silence can be taken from Heraclitus, but most likely from Verlaine’s “Art poetique”” (V.I. P. 20. Hereinafter - M&A, indicating the page); about this also in a number of comments to Sobr. op. O. Mandelstam (see: N.I. Khardzhiev, P. Nerler, A.G. Mets, M.L. Gasparov).
8. See: Taranovsky K.F. Two "silences" of Osip Mandelstam // MiA, 116.
9. See: “It is not far from Aphrodite to hearts that are “ashamed” of each other. This is how the idea arises ... that the basis of being is the binding force of Eros, “the fundamental principle of life” ”(V. Musatov. Lyrics by Osip Mandelstam. Kyiv, 2000. P. 65. Later - Musatov, with page indication).
10. See: “Rather a poetic polemic with Tyutchev” (K.F. Taranovsky Decree op. // MiA, 117): “The title introduces the theme of Tyutchev’s article of the same name, resolved in a different key” (Stone, 290); “In contrast to Tyutchev’s thesis about the falsity of the “spoken thought”, “initial muteness” is affirmed here - as an objective possibility of absolute creative “utterance”” (Musatov, 65).
11. See: Taranovsky K.F. Decree. op. // MiA, 116.
12. Gumilyov N. // Stone, 217.
13. Osherov S.A. "Tristia" Mandelstam and ancient culture // MiA, 189.
14. Gasparov M.L. Poet and Culture: Three Poetics of Osip Mandelstam // O. Mandelstam. PSS. St. Petersburg, 1995. P.8. Later - Gasparov 1995, with page indication.
15. For details on this, see: Kats B.A. Defender and client of music // Osip Mandelstam. "Full of music, muses and torment...": Poetry and prose. L., 1991. Compilation, enter. article and comments by B.A. Katz.
16. Mandelstam O. Time noise // Mandelstam O.E. Works. In 2 vols. T.2. M., 1990. S. 17. Hereafter - C2, indicating the volume and page.
17. Ivanov Vyacheslav. By the stars. Articles and aphorisms. St. Petersburg: Publishing house "ORY". pp. 349, 350, 353.
18. Lurie A. Osip Mandelstam // Osip Mandelstam and his time. M., 1995. S. 196.
19. Op. by: O.E. Mandelstam. Sobr. op. in 4 vols. Ed. prof. G.P. Struve and B.A. Filippova. T. 1. Poems. M., 1991. [Reprint reproduction ed. 1967] C. 408 (V. Shklovsky. On poetry and abstruse language. "Poetics". Collections on the theory of poetic language. Petrograd, 1919. P. 22.)
20. Taranovsky K.F. Decree. op. // MiA, 117.
21. Gasparov M.L. Notes // Osip Mandelstam. Poems. Prose. M., 2001. S. 728.
22. Hoffman V. O. Mandelstam: Observations on the lyrical plot and the semantics of verse // Zvezda, 1991, No. 12. P. 175-187.
23. Averintsev S.S. The fate and message of Osip Mandelstam // C2, vol. 1, 13.
24. Ivanov Vyach. Decree. op., p. 350.
25. Myths of the peoples of the world. In 2 vols. M., 1980. Vol. 1, p. 134.
26. Goldina E.A. The Pendulum of the Word and the Embodiment of the "Small Second" in Mandelstam's Poetry // Death and Immortality of the Poet. M., 2001. S. 57, 60.
27. Khardzhiev N.I. Notes // O. Mandelstam. Poems. L., 1973. S.256.
28. Compare: “If Villon had been able to give his poetic credo, he would undoubtedly have exclaimed, like Verlaine: “Du mouvement avant toute chose!” (“Movement is first of all!” - French) - C2, v.2, 139.
29. Op. Quoted from: N.S. Gumilyov. Letters about Russian poetry. M., 1990. S. 47.
30. Struve N. Osip Mandelstam. London, 1988. S. 12.
31. Annensky In. Poems and Tragedies. L., 1959. S. 187.
32. Ivanov Vyach. Decree. ed. S. 67.
33. See on this: Alschwang A. Ludwig van Beethoven. Essay on life and creativity. Ed. 2nd, add. M., 1963. S. 485.
34. Alshwang A. Ibid., p. 450.
35. Wed. about this: “A strange “at first hearing” line ... the meaning of the whole work could be perfectly expressed in the last stanza without this third verse” (A.A. Beletsky. “Silentium” by O.E. Mandelstam. For the first time: Russian Philology. Scientific notes - 1996. Smolensk, 1996. S. 242). We note, however, that, unlike the researchers cited above, A.A. Beletsky did not doubt the meaning of the anaphora at the beginning of the text: “Mandelstam means poetry by the pronoun “she”” (p. 241).

This is a poem by O.E. Mandelstam was included in the debut collection entitled "Stone". It was first published in the then popular publication Apollo. The work attracted the attention of the public with its easy presentation of such a serious and philosophical topic. Among the debut works of the poet, this is what differs sharply from the rest of the subject, showing the depth of thought and the author's idea.

From the title of the verse, there is immediately a reference to the work of the same name by Tyutchev, who was one of the inspirers of Mandelstam. In the poem, Tyutchev speaks about the importance of precisely silent observation of external nature and the inner impulses of the human soul.

Mandelstam presents the theme in a softer and more mysterious way. The title of the poem does not contain a loud appeal, there is no exclamation mark. The very presentation of the poem is melodic, cyclical and light. The work begins with the sea, and ends with it. Until now, disputes have not subsided, who is the mysterious “she”, about which the poet speaks so enthusiastically.

Many see love in her, based on the mention of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Some speculate that it might be a thought. Beautiful and all-encompassing in the head, and losing its versatility when trying to put it into words.

However, the answer to this question is a more global and independent concept. This is harmony. A thin connecting thread between all the phenomena of the world. She is everything and nothing at the same time. And a person by his actions can upset its fragile balance. In this, Mandelstam's work is based on Tyutchev's poem about the silent admiration of nature, without violating its originality.

The author encourages everyone to find in themselves the purity given from birth, which gives the opportunity to see and enjoy the harmony of the world. At the same time, he asks nature to be more indulgent towards man. The desire to leave Aphrodite as mere foam is due to the highest degree of her ideality, such that an ordinary person cannot bear it. The goddess herself in the poet's creation personifies not just love, but the achievement of beautiful harmony between the forces of nature and spirituality.

Subsequently, Mandelstam repeatedly used ancient Greek and Roman themes in his work, in particular the image of Aphrodite. According to the poet, the myths of the ancient peoples were an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him, as well as works of art created on their basis.

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/ Analysis of the poem "Silentium!" O.E. Mandelstam

In the second half of the 1920s, Mandelstam did not write poetry, which was extremely difficult for him. He is engaged in newspaper chores, translates a lot and without pleasure, publishes a collection of articles “On Poetry” in 1928, a book of autobiographical prose “The Noise of Time” (1925), and the story “Egyptian Mark” (1928). One can rightly call this period of the poet's work "silence".

By the beginning of the 1930s, the poet realized that if everyone is against one, then everyone is wrong. Mandelstam began to write poetry and formulated his new position: “I divide all works of world literature into permitted and written without permission. The first are scum, the second are stolen air.”

During the Moscow period of his work 1930 - 1934. Mandelstam creates poems full of proud and worthy awareness of his mission.

Since 1935, the last Voronezh period of the poet's work begins.

Even the most ardent admirers of Mandelstam evaluate the Voronezh poems differently. Vladimir Nabokov, who called Mandelstam "luminiferous", believed that they were poisoned by madness. Critic Lev Anninsky wrote: “These poems of recent years are ... an attempt to extinguish the absurdity with the absurdity of pseudo-existence ... with the wheeze of a strangled man, the scream of a deaf-mute, the whistle and buzz of a jester.” Most of the poems are not finished or finished, the rhymes are inaccurate. Speech is hectic and slurred. Mandelstam's metaphors here are perhaps even bolder and more expressive than before.

"Silentium" is a true literary debut

O. E. Mandelstam, despite the fact that his first poetic publications appear since 1907. The poem "Silentium", along with four other verses, was published in the ninth issue of the magazine "Apollo" and subsequently became famous.

Silentium
She hasn't been born yet
She is both music and words,
And therefore all living things
Unbreakable connection.

The seas of the chest breathe calmly,

And pale lilac foam
In a black-and-azure vessel.

May my lips find
initial silence,
Like a crystal note
What is pure from birth!

Stay foam, Aphrodite,
And, word, return to music,
And, heart, be ashamed of the heart,
Merged with the fundamental principle of life!
1910, 1935

It seems that Mandelstam's poems arise from nothing. Like living life, poetry begins with love, with the thought of death, with the ability to be both silence and music, and in a word, with the ability to capture the moment of the beginning of beginnings.

Mandelstam begins his poem with the pronoun “she”: who or what is “she”? Perhaps the answer lies in the words "the only unbreakable connection." Everything in the world is interconnected, interdependent.

The poet says: "She is both the music and the word." If for Tyutchev nature is the second name of life, then for Mandelstam the beginning of everything is music:

You can not breathe, and the firmament is teeming with worms,
And no star says
But, God knows, there is music above us...
(“Concert at the station”, 1921)

Music for Mandelstam is an expression of the state in which poetic lines are born. Here's an opinion

V. Shklovsky: “Schiller admitted that poetry appears in his soul in the form of music. I think that poets have become victims of precise terminology. There is no word denoting inner sound speech, and when one wants to talk about it, the word “music” is turned up as a designation for some sounds that are not words; in the end they pour out word-like. Of the modern poets, O. Mandelstam wrote about this. In the last quatrain, this image reappears: “And, word, return to music.”

The second stanza begins with a serene picture of nature: “The seas of the chest breathe calmly ...”, then this peace is almost instantly interrupted:

But, like crazy, the day is bright,
And pale lilac foam
In a black-and-blue vessel.

Here is a contrast: “bright day” and “black-azure vessel”. Tyutchev's eternal confrontation between "day" and "night" comes to mind.

For me, the line was difficult to understand: “But, like crazy, the day is bright.” Why is the day crazy? Perhaps this is about the bright moment of the birth of creativity, because poetry arises from madness in the highest sense of the word.

The third stanza is a poetic interpretation of Tyutchev's "thought spoken is a lie":

May my lips find
initial silence,
Like a crystal note
What is pure from birth!

A person is born unable to speak as a baby, Mandelstam calls this "initial dumbness." Perhaps the poet, writing down these lines, recalls his childhood years spent in St. Petersburg.

The word merges with the music; like life itself with its inviolable bonds, the thought of holiness, the inviolability of the inner world of man enters our consciousness.

Stay foam, Aphrodite,
And, word, return to music,
And, heart, be ashamed of the heart,
Merged with the fundamental principle of life!

Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, fertility and eternal spring in Greek mythology. According to the myth, she was born from the sea foam, which was formed by the blood of the castrated Uranus.

Mandelstam was interested in antiquity. The poet had his own path to antiquity, like all major European poets who linked the search for lost harmony with antiquity.

Osip Mandelstam was a purely urban poet, more precisely the poet of the northern capital of Russia. His most significant poems are addressed to Petersburg. “Stone” embraced both the “yellowness of government buildings”, and the Admiralty “with an air boat and an untouchable mast”, and the great creation of the “Russian in Rome” - the Kazan Cathedral.

From cold Petersburg, the poet mentally leaves for the beautiful, bright Hellas, and with it the sea enters the world of “Stone”:

The seas of the chest breathe calmly ...
Stay foam, Aphrodite...

Love, beauty, word and music are the harmony of the world, “an unbreakable bond of all living things”.

If Tyutchev in his "Silentium!" unusually stingy with trails, then Mandelstam has more than enough of them. Metaphors: “seas of the chest” and “crazy, bright day”, “foam pale lilac”, - all are concentrated in the second stanza; very expressive epithets: “black-azure” or “crystal note”.

The poem is written in iambic, I think there is no disagreement about this:

She hasn't been born yet
She is both music and words,
And therefore all living things
Unbreakable connection.

No matter how much the Poet talks about silence, he cannot do without the Word.

The word is a bridge from the soul and earth to heaven. The ability to cross such a bridge is not given to everyone. “Reading poetry is the greatest and most difficult art, and the title of a reader is no less honorable than the title of a poet,” wrote Mandelstam.

She hasn't been born yet
She is both music and words,
And therefore all living things
Unbreakable connection.

The seas of the chest breathe calmly,
But, like crazy, the day is bright,
And pale lilac foam
In a black-and-azure vessel.

May my lips find
initial silence,
Like a crystal note
What is pure from birth!

Stay foam, Aphrodite,
And return the word to the music,
And be ashamed of the heart of the heart,
Merged with the fundamental principle of life!

More poems:

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  2. For the duration of these strange moments, For the look of half-closed foggy eyes, For the moisture of the lips that squeezed my lips, For the fact that here, on a slow fire, In one beating heart with heart ...
  3. The weary talk of people has died down, The candle by my bed has gone out, The dawn is near; I can't sleep for a long time... My heart hurts, it's tired. But who clung to the headboard with me? You...
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  5. Patterned fabrics are so unsteady, Hot dust is so white, No words or smiles are needed: Stay the same as you were; Remain vague, dreary, Pale autumn morning Under this drooping willow, On the mesh ...
  6. Poetry is dark, inexpressible in words: How this wild stingray excited me. Empty flint valley, sheepfold, Shepherd's fire and the bitter smell of smoke! Anxiety strange and joy tormented, I ...
  7. Be with me, as you used to be; Oh, tell me just one word; So that the soul finds in this word, What she wanted to hear for a long time; If a spark of hope is stored in my heart...
  8. Until the end, Until the quiet cross May the soul Remain pure! In front of this Yellow, provincial Side of my birch, In front of the stubble Cloudy and sad In the days of autumn Sorrowful rains, In front of this Strict village council, ...
  9. I don’t understand, then the heart beats, then the heart cries, then it gets sad, then it laughs ... What does this mean? I don't love him - I won't love him like that. But a word, an affectionate word...
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You are now reading the verse Silentium, poet Mandelstam Osip Emilievich