Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak (1887-1964) - Russian Soviet poet, playwright, translator, literary critic.

Laureate of Lenin (1963) and 4 Stalin Prizes (1942, 1946, 1949, 1951).

Samuil Marshak was born on November 3, 1887 in Voronezh in the settlement of Chizhovka, into a Jewish family. His father, Yakov Mironovich Marshak (1855-1924), worked as a foreman at a soap factory; mother - Evgenia Borisovna Gitelson - was a housewife. The surname "Marshak" is an abbreviation (Hebrew מהרש"ק‏‎‎‎) meaning "Our teacher Rabbi Aaron Shmuel Kaidanover" and belongs to the descendants of this famous rabbi and talmudist (1624-1676).

Samuil spent his early childhood and school years in the town of Ostrogozhsk near Voronezh. He studied in 1899-1906 at the Ostrogozhsk, 3rd St. Petersburg and Yalta gymnasiums. In the gymnasium, the teacher of literature instilled a love for classical poetry, encouraged the first literary experiments of the future poet and considered him a child prodigy.

One of Marshak's poetry notebooks fell into the hands of V. V. Stasov, a well-known Russian critic and art critic, who took an ardent part in the fate of the young man. With the help of Stasov, Samuel moved to St. Petersburg and studied at one of the best gymnasiums. He spends whole days in the public library where Stasov worked.

In 1904, at Stasov's house, Marshak met Maxim Gorky, who treated him with great interest and invited him to his dacha in Yalta, where Marshak lived in 1904-1906. He began to print in 1907, publishing the collection Zionides, dedicated to Jewish topics; one of the poems was written on the death of Theodor Herzl. At the same time, he translated several poems by Chaim Nachman Bialik from Yiddish and Hebrew.

When the Gorky family was forced to leave the Crimea due to the repressions of the tsarist government after the revolution of 1905, Marshak returned to St. Petersburg, where his father, who worked at a factory behind the Nevskaya Zastava, had moved by that time.

In 1911, Samuil Marshak, together with his friend, poet Yakov Godin, and a group of Jewish youth made a long journey through the Middle East: from Odessa they sailed on a ship, heading to the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean - Turkey, Greece, Syria and Palestine. Marshak went there as a correspondent for the Petersburg Vseobshchaya Gazeta and Blue Journal. The lyrical poems inspired by this trip are among the most successful in the work of the young Marshak ("We lived in a camp in a tent ..." and others).

On this trip, Marshak met Sophia Mikhailovna Milvidskaya (1889-1953), with whom they married soon after their return. At the end of September 1912, the newlyweds went to England. There Marshak studied first at the Polytechnic, then at the University of London (1912-1914). During the holidays, he traveled a lot on foot in England, listening to English folk songs. Even then he began to work on translations of English ballads, which later glorified him.

In 1914, Marshak returned to his homeland, worked in the provinces, published his translations in the journals Northern Notes and Russian Thought. During the war years, he was involved in helping refugee children.

In 1915, together with his family, he lived in Finland in the natural sanatorium of Dr. Lübeck.

In 1918 he lived in Petrozavodsk, worked in the Olonets provincial department of public education, then fled to the South - to Yekaterinodar, where he collaborated in the newspaper "Morning of the South" under the pseudonym "Doctor Friken". He published poems and anti-Bolshevik feuilletons there.

In 1919 he published (under the pseudonym "Doctor Friken") the first collection of "Satires and Epigrams".

In 1920, while living in Yekaterinodar, Marshak organized a complex of cultural institutions for children there, in particular, he created one of the first children's theaters in Russia and wrote plays for it. In 1923, he published his first poetic children's books (The House That Jack Built, The Caged Kids, The Tale of the Stupid Mouse). He is the founder and first head of the English language department of the Kuban Polytechnic Institute (now the Kuban State Technological University).

In 1922, Marshak moved to Petrograd, together with the folklorist Olga Kapitsa, he led the children's writers' studio at the Institute of Preschool Education of the People's Commissariat of Education, organized (1923) the children's magazine "Sparrow" (in 1924-1925 - "New Robinson"), where among others were published by such masters of literature as B. S. Zhitkov, V. V. Bianchi, E. L. Schwartz. For several years, Marshak also led the Leningrad editorial office of Detgiz, Lengosizdat, and the Young Guard publishing house. Was related to the magazine "Chizh". He led the "Literary Circle" (at the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers). In 1934, at the First Congress of Soviet Writers, S. Ya. Marshak made a report on children's literature and was elected a member of the board of the USSR Writers' Union. In 1939-1947 he was a deputy of the Moscow City Council of Workers' Deputies.

In 1937, the children's publishing house created by Marshak in Leningrad was destroyed, its pupils were repressed at different times - in 1941 A. I. Vvedensky, in 1937 N. M. Oleinikov, in 1938 N. A. Zabolotsky, in 1937 T. G. was arrested Gabbe, Kharms was arrested in 1942. Many have been fired. In 1938 Marshak moved to Moscow.

During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940) he wrote for the newspaper On Guard of the Motherland.

During the Great Patriotic War, the writer actively worked in the genre of satire, publishing poems in Pravda and creating posters in collaboration with the Kukryniksy. Actively contributed to fundraising for the Defense Fund.

In 1960, Marshak published the autobiographical story "At the Beginning of Life", in 1961 - "Education with a Word" (a collection of articles and notes on poetic skill).

Almost all the time of his literary activity (more than 50 years), Marshak continues to write both poetic feuilletons and serious, “adult” lyrics. In 1962, he published the collection "Selected Lyrics"; he also owns a separately selected cycle "Lyrical Epigrams".

In addition, Marshak is the author of classic translations of William Shakespeare's sonnets, songs and ballads by Robert Burns, poems by William Blake, W. Wordsworth, J. Keats, R. Kipling, E. Lear, A. A. Milne, J. Austin, Hovhannes Tumanyan, as well as the works of Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Armenian and other poets. He also translated poetry by Mao Zedong.

Marshak's books have been translated into many languages ​​of the world. For translations from Robert Burns, Marshak was awarded the title of honorary citizen of Scotland.

Marshak stood up for Brodsky and Solzhenitsyn several times. From the first, he demanded "to quickly get translations of texts on Lenfilm", for the second he stood up for Tvardovsky, demanding that his works be published in the Novy Mir magazine. His last literary secretary was V. V. Pozner.

Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak died on July 4, 1964 in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 2).

Family
In 1915, the Marshak family suffered a misfortune: in Ostrogozhsk, their daughter Nathanael (born in 1914 in England) died from burns, knocking over a samovar with boiling water.

The eldest son Immanuel (1917-1977), a Soviet physicist, winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree (1947) for the development of aerial photography, as well as a translator (in particular, he owns the Russian translation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice).
Grandson - Yakov Immanuelevich Marshak (b. 1946), narcologist.
The younger son Yakov (1925-1946) died of tuberculosis.
Sister Leah (ps. Elena Ilyina) (1901-1964), writer.
Brother Ilya (ps. M. Ilyin; 1896-1953), writer, one of the founders of Soviet popular science literature.

The name of Marshak Samuil Yakovlevich is known all over the world. More than one generation has grown up on the wonderful work of the writer. Basically, everyone knows Marshak as a children's writer, but Samuil Yakovlevich was also a poet, translator and playwright. Let's get acquainted with what works Marshak wrote during his creative life.

Earlier work of the writer

What works did Marshak write as a child? These were poems that the boy began to compose from the age of 4. The first works were written in Hebrew, since Marshak was born into a Jewish family. Little Samuil grew up in Ostrogozhsk, not far from Voronezh. The boy's father was an educated man and encouraged his interests. In search of a better job, the family often changed their place of residence. In 1902, the poet's father found a permanent job in St. Petersburg and moved his entire family there. Marshak's first works for children appeared when he was only 12 years old.

After moving to St. Petersburg, Samuil Yakovlevich meets the critic Vladimir Stasov, who favorably accepts the poet's work. During this period, Marshak created his first serious creations of a political nature. The writer meets Gorky and lives for two years with his family in Yalta. The first collection of Samuil Yakovlevich "Sionides" is published.

Marshak S. Ya. Poems for children

In 1912, the writer went to study in London, where he discovered new talents in himself - the translation of poetry. Marshak began to translate poems by famous writers such as Byron, Milne, Kipling. We are grateful to Samuil Yakovlevich for the poem "The House That Jack Built". The first book of the writer bears the name of this verse, and also contains English songs. The collection was published in 1923.

Returning to organizes the "Children's Town", which includes a theater and libraries. Marshak begins to stage plays based on his creations. With this, a new stage in the poet's work begins - poems-plays for children. What works did Marshak write for the little ones? These are “Children in a Cage”, “Circus”, “Yesterday and Today”, “Poodle”, “So Distracted” and many others, popular to this day. The writer's fairy tales: "Smart Things", "Cat's House" and "Twelve Months" gained particular fame.

Lyrics and satire in the writer's works

What works did Marshak write, besides children's poems? creations that the writer published since 1907 in almanacs and magazines. In the forties, Samuil published the collection "Poems 1941-1946", which includes 17 poems "From the Lyric Notebook". Over the course of his life, new works were added to this cycle. For the collection "Selected Lyrics" Marshak received the Lenin Prize in 1963.

Another style in which the writer worked is satire. Collections of satirical poems were published in 1959 and 1964. Marshak also published his feuilletons, epigrams and parodies in newspapers and magazines.

Poems, plays and other creations of the writer have been translated into many languages ​​and are popular all over the world. Marshak's tale "Twelve Months" is included in the school curriculum. Some of the writer's works were filmed and loved by young viewers.

Marshak S.Ya. - Russian poet, translator, playwright, screenwriter, literary critic, popular author of children's works. Thanks to light rhyme and simple style, his books resonate with the growing generation, open up the facets of the world around them, and teach goodness and justice. The above list of Marshak's works for children includes various poetic genres: plays, poems, fairy tales, jokes, nursery rhymes, tongue twisters.

Bus number twenty six

The work is an alphabet with the names of animals from the letter "B" to "Z". The animals are on the bus, some of them acting rude and impolite. The poem not only expands the horizons of the baby and teaches the alphabet, but also calls for compliance with the rules of behavior in public transport, mutual courtesy.

Baggage

The satirical work "Baggage" is known and loved by many generations of readers. The poem tells of a lady who checked in, among other things, a small dog and received back a huge, vicious dog. “During the journey, the dog could grow up!” - tell the woman. The piece attracts children with the repeated refrain of the lady's luggage, making it easy to remember.

Large pocket

The work tells about the thrifty boy Vanya, who puts in his pocket everything that falls into his hands: nuts, nails, an old faucet. Mom takes the baby to the nursery, but there are so many things there ... The boy's pocket turns into a suitcase, in which they find: a broken spoon, slippers, a pancake, a matryoshka doll, a canvas drum and much more.

Cheerful alphabet about everything in the world

The product will help the child learn the letters of the alphabet. A simple syllable and rhyme contribute to better memorization and assimilation of the alphabet. The poem expands the horizons of the baby, talks about animals, birds, plants, insects, natural phenomena, people and their activities, and much more. The book is suitable for the first independent reading.

A fun journey from A to Z

Marshak in his work invites children on a journey through the alphabet. A fascinating trip through the lines of the primer will not only help the baby remember the letters and learn to read, but also learn about the world around him. The book is intended to be read by adults to preschool children. Thanks to the fun content, the learning process arouses interest in the child. The poem is suitable for the first independent reading.

cheerful account

Marshak's work is designed to teach kids to count from 0 to 10. The poem contains stories about each number. Informative and cheerful text introduces children to the world around them, contributes to the rapid memorization of numbers. The book is suitable for the first independent reading.

War with the Dnieper

Marshak's work "War with the Dnieper" tells children about the confrontation between a man and a mighty river. The poem tells about the great construction work carried out on the Dnieper, powerful equipment. The author praises the human mind, the strength of people, their desire to replenish the country's reserves with natural resources.

Volga and Vazuza

Marshak's work "Volga and Vazuza" tells about the rivalry of 2 sister rivers. They are constantly arguing who is stronger, faster, smarter, and so on. And the rivers decided to run to the sea in the morning, whoever reaches it first is the main one. But Vazuza deceived her sister and set off earlier. The Volga caught up with the rival, she completely ran out of strength, and 2 rivers united. Since then, Vazuza wakes up his sister every spring to make his way to the sea.

Here's how scattered

The work tells about an absent-minded person living on Basseinaya Street. He gets into ridiculous situations, confusing things, household items, words in phrases. A simple trip from Leningrad to Moscow becomes a problem for a person. He goes to the station and spends 2 days in a detached car, believing that he is on the way. The age of the work is approaching a century, but the expression "scattered from Basseinaya Street" still remains a household word.

To be afraid of grief - happiness cannot be seen

The work “To be afraid of grief - not to see happiness” tells about Grief-Misfortune, which traveled the world, fraudulently passing from person to person. Having reached the king and ruined the state, Misfortune gets to a soldier who refuses to deceive people and pass misfortunes on. Grief tries to intimidate the servant with various troubles, but he does not give in to fears. By deceit, the serviceman locks Misfortune in a snuff box and returns to his bride Nastya. The snuffbox subsequently remains with the greedy king, woodcutter and merchant, and Woe takes them to hell. The soldier and Nastya are getting married.

Twelve months

The work "Twelve Months" tells about a hardworking and sympathetic girl who lives with a cruel stepmother and her arrogant daughter. On a cold January evening, an evil woman sends her stepdaughter to the forest for snowdrops and tells her not to return without them. In the bitter cold, she meets 12 months in the guise of people who decide to help the frozen girl, briefly switching roles. The stepdaughter returns home with flowers, but this is not enough for the stepmother and her daughter, they want richer gifts. The evil sister goes to the forest by 12 months, but behaves rudely and impolitely, for which she is punished - she is covered with snow. The stepmother is looking for her daughter, but she freezes herself. A kind girl grows up, starts a family, lives happily ever after.

Children in a cage

The work "Children in a Cage" is popular with preschool children. The book tells about the life of the Zoo and its inhabitants. The author tells about many animals: lions, kangaroos, crocodile, camel, elephant, hyena, bear, monkey and others. Cheerful quatrains are replaced by lines with sad and touching undertones.

If you are polite

The work "If you are polite" teaches the generally accepted rules of decency and behavior. A well-mannered person will give up his seat in transport, help a disabled person, will not make noise in class, interrupt adults, free his mother from household chores, will not be late, and so on. The poem teaches to protect the weak, not to be shy in front of those who are stronger, not to take other people's things without asking.

Ring of Jafar

The tale tells about the old Jafar, who moved with the help of porters. One day, on the way home from the market, the sage lost his ring. He asked his servants to look for the jewel, but they refused, arguing that it was not their responsibility. Then Jafar replied that in this case he would look for the ring himself and sat on the shoulders of the porters. The servants had to not only go in search of jewelry, but also carry the old sage on themselves.

The cat and the loafers

Marshak's work "The Cat and the Loafers" tells about lazy people who went to the skating rink instead of school. And they met a cat, upset that they didn’t come up with a school for animals, and in his year he was not trained in writing or literacy, and without them you will be lost in life. The loafers told in response that they were already in their twelfth year, but they did not know how, because they were too lazy to study. The cat was very surprised and replied that he met such lazy people for the first time.

furrier cat

The story is about a dog who brings a ram's skin to a furrier cat and asks him to sew a hat. The dog regularly comes for the order, but he is not ready. The dog guesses about the deception and swears with the cat. Animals are judged. After that, the furrier runs away, taking all the furs with him. Since then, cats and dogs have not gotten along.

cat house

The work "Cat's House" tells the story of a rich cat living in a luxurious house. She receives guests, but refuses food and lodging for the poor kitten nephews. Once a fire started in the house and it was not possible to save it: everything burned to the ground. The cat and the janitor cat Vasily ask for shelter from former guests. However, everyone refuses the fire victims under various pretexts. The cat and her companion are helped by poor kitten nephews. They live together all winter, and in the spring they build a new luxurious house.

All year round

Marshak's work "All the Year Round" tells the reader about 12 months, their features and signs. The poem helps the baby remember the seasons, learn to distinguish between them. Rereading the lines, the child will learn the months, the order in which they follow. The book is recommended for adults to read to preschool children. Suitable for first independent reading.

Master Lomamaster

The work tells about a boy who considers himself an excellent carpenter, but at the same time does not want to study. He thought of making a sideboard, but he couldn't handle the saw. I decided to make a stool, but could not cope with the ax. I took up the manufacture of a frame for a portrait, but only spoiled the material. All that was left of the boards was a pile of wood chips for kindling the samovar. Eh, master craftsman!

Miller, boy and donkey

A comic fairy tale tells about people who, no matter how hard they try, cannot please public opinion. An old man rides a donkey, a boy walks next to him - people gossip that this is wrong. Then the miller makes room for his grandson, and he sets off on foot. But even now people are dissatisfied - the young man makes the old man go. Then the boy and the miller together sit on a donkey, but now the people feel sorry for the animal. As a result, the kid and grandfather are walking, the donkey is sitting on top of the miller. But even now the people are not appeased: “The old donkey is lucky for the young!”.

Mister Twister

The satirical poem "Mr. Twister" satirizes racism. An anti-bourgeois feuilleton tells of a wealthy banker who came with his family to rest in the USSR. Mr. Twister, seeing a black man in the hotel, did not want to stay there anymore, and the family goes to look for another place to live, but to no avail. As a result, the porter arranged for them to spend the night in the Swiss room, in the hallway on a chair and on the buffet counter. Twister dreams that he is not allowed back to America. In the morning, the family agrees to live in the proposed 2 rooms, despite the presence of people of a different race in the neighbors.

Why does the moon have no dress

The work tells about the tailor's attempts to sew a dress for the month. However, the figure of the celestial body was constantly changing: now it became a full moon, then a crescent, then a thin sickle. The tailor had to take measurements again and alter clothes several times, but as a result he gave up and recommended to stay without a dress for a month.

First day of the calendar

Marshak's work "The First Day of the Calendar" tells about September 1. The author describes the first day of school after the summer holidays, when children from different countries, cities, villages, villages, auls, kishlaks go to school. For some of the guys, it is located in the mountains or on the seashore, for others - among the fields or in large settlements. All girls and boys are in a hurry to start the new school year.

Fire

The work "Fire" tells about the difficult and hard work of firefighters who are always ready to fight fire. Events in the poem are developing rapidly: mother goes to the market, Lenochka opens the stove door, and the flame bursts into the apartment. The brave and kind firefighter Kuzma selflessly fights the fire, saves a girl and a cat.

Mail

The work "Mail" tells about the work of postmen, about a registered letter that has flown around the world for its recipient. The poem tells the children about the joy of people receiving the long-awaited news, about the time when a man with a “thick shoulder bag” carried mail home and was practically the only link between settlements.

Adventures of Cipollino

The work tells about the cheerful Cipollino, his homeland, where lemons, oranges, mangoes and other fruits ripen. The onion boy tells about his origin and relatives: grandfather Cipollone, father, brothers and sisters. Cipollino's family lives in poverty, and he goes in search of a better life.

about two neighbors

The work tells about a beggar who asks his neighbor for a donkey to go to the market. At this time, the cry of an animal is heard from the barn, but the rich man continues to deceive the poor man. The beggar leaves with nothing, but on the way home he sees a neighbor's ram, strayed from the herd. He hides the animal in his dwelling. Now the poor neighbor is deceiving the rich man who came for the ram.

Poodle

A cheerful poem by Marshak "Poodle" tells about an old woman and her funny dog. Reading the adventures of the heroes, it is impossible to help laughing: either the poodle climbs into the buffet, then the hostess loses him and looks for 14 days, while he runs behind her, then the chicken pecks the dog in the nose, then he wrapped the whole apartment, grandmother and cat in a ball thread. And once the old woman decided that the dog had died and ran for the doctors, but he turned out to be alive and unharmed.

Story of an unknown hero

The work tells about the search for a young man who saved a girl from a fire and wished to remain anonymous. He was passing by a burning house on a tram and saw the silhouette of a child in the window. Jumping out of the car, the guy got through the drainpipe to the burning apartment. The firefighters who arrived could not find the child, but the hero came out of the gate with the girl in his arms, gave her to her mother, jumped onto the footboard of the tram and disappeared around the corner. The reason for writing the poem was a similar case of a citizen saving a woman from a fire in 1936.

Tale of the Silly Mouse

The work tells about a mouse that could not lull the mouse. The kid did not like her voice, and he asked to look for a nanny for him. However, no one's lullaby pleased him: no duck, no toad, no horse, no chicken, no pike. And only the sweet voice of the cat liked the little mouse. The mother returned, but the stupid baby is not on the bed ...

Tale of the smart mouse

The work is a continuation of the sad "Tale of the Silly Mouse". The cat takes the baby out of the mink and wants to play, but he runs away from the predator into a hole in the fence. There, a new danger awaits the mouse - a ferret. But the kid deceives him and hides under an old stump. On the way home, they meet a mouse, a hedgehog, an owl, but he managed to outwit everyone and return unscathed to his mother, father, brothers and sisters.

Tale of the goat

A fairy tale-play in 2 acts tells about a goat helping a woman and grandfather in the household. A kind animal cooks food, heats the stove, chop wood, brings water, spins yarn. While the grandfather and the woman are resting, the goat went to the forest for mushrooms, and 7 wolves attacked him. The beast was frightened that the old people would be lost without him, and began to desperately defend himself. At this time, the grandfather and the woman went to look for an assistant and frightened away the predatory flock with shouts. The old people rejoice that the goat is alive and well, and he promises them to bake a mushroom pie.

Old woman, close the door!

A comic work tells about a stupid argument between an old man and an old woman about who will close the door. They decide that the one who speaks the word first will do it. It's midnight and the door is still open. Strangers entered the dark house, took away the food prepared by the old woman, grandfather's tobacco, and they did not object, being afraid to argue with each other.

Silent fairy tale

In the work "A Quiet Tale" the author talks about the quiet life of a family of hedgehogs. They were very quiet, walking through the forest at night, while other inhabitants sleep peacefully. However, the two wolves cannot sleep and attack the family. Needles reliably protect hedgehogs, and evil predators retreat. The family quietly returns home.

Teremok

Marshak in the work-play "Teremok" slightly changes the traditional fairy tale plot, contrasting the peaceful inhabitants of the house with aggressive forest inhabitants - the Bear, the Fox, the Wolf. The story tells about weak, but friendly and brave friends who managed to repel evil predators. The aggressors are left with nothing and run back into the forest, and the frog, mouse, hedgehog, cockerel remain to live happily in the house.

Ugomon

The work tells about the elder brother of a restful sleep - Ugomon. He calms those who do not want to go to bed, makes noise and disturbs others. Ugomon visits trolleybus and tram parks, pavements, forests, trains, steamboats, airplanes. And even baby Anton he manages to put to sleep. But Ugomon not only comes at night, he is also indispensable at school to calm the noisy students.

Mustachioed - Striped

The touching story "Mustache-striped" tells about a girl caring for a kitten, like a child who does not want to bathe, sleep in a crib, learn to read. The work combines poetry and prose, the word game attracts young readers. Next to a stupid kitten, children feel big and smart.

smart things

The fairy tale-comedy "Smart Things" tells about a trading shop where an old man sold outlandish items: a self-assembled tablecloth, an invisibility hat, walking boots, and so on. Once a kind and honest musician liked a pipe and a mirror, but he had no money. The seller of the curiosity shop gave him the items for free with the condition of returning in a year. However, the musician was deceived by a greedy merchant and took possession of his things, and sent him to prison. However, smart items did not serve the new owner and did not bring him any benefit. Good triumphs over evil: the musician was released, and the greedy merchant was punished.

A good day

The poem "Good Day" tells about a boy who is glad that his dad has a day off and they will spend time together. Father and son make grandiose plans, and then bring them to life: they go to a shooting gallery, a zoo, ride a pony, a car, a trolleybus, a subway, a tram. After an adventure, a tired boy and his dad return home with a bouquet of lilacs.

six units

The work "Six Units" tells about a student who received 6 lowest marks for his answers in the lesson: he called the baobab a bird, the hypotenuse - a river, the zebra - an insect, and, according to the boy, kangaroos grow in the garden. Frustrated parents send their son to bed. And the negligent student had a dream in which his wrong answers were embodied.

Popular poems

The poems of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak will interest children in grades 1-2-3 and preschoolers.

• A, Be, Tse
• Artek
• White cat
• Grandma's favorites
• drum and trumpet
• Lamb
• bye bye, kids
• white page
• Vanka-vstanka
• Giant
• Visiting the Queen
• In the underground
• wolf and fox
• Meeting
• In the theater for children
• Where did you dine, sparrow?
• Two cats
• Ten blacks
• Orphanage
• Rain
• Doctor Faust
• Friends-comrades
• Fools
• greedy
• The hare wooed the fox
• Punctuation marks
• Captain
• boat
• kittens
• Who will find the ring?
• Who fell
• Blacksmith
• Lunar evening
• little fairies
• Bubble
• About boys and girls
• Why is the cat called a cat?
• What horses, hamsters and chickens talked about
• Gloves
• The Song of the Christmas Tree
• petya the parrot
• piglets
• Adventure on the road
• Adventures of Murzilka
• Signs
• About hippo
• Rainbow
• rainbow arc
• Talk
• Conversation with first class
• Robin Bobbin
• Robinson Crusoe
• Guinea pig
• The Tale of the King and the Soldier
• old lady
• Rhythm
• three wise men
• Three gifts
• Smart Vasya
• politeness lesson
• Fomka
• round dance
• brave men
• Four eyes
• Humpty Dumpty
• Schoolchild for memory
• I have seen

Marshak's translations

Marshak is recognized as one of the best translators, thanks to the ability to preserve the richness of the Russian language, while not changing the nature of the foreign original.

• Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll
• Alice in the Wonderland. Lewis Carroll
• The ballad of the royal sandwich. Alan Milne
• The house that Jack built. Jonathan Swift
• Heather honey. Robert Louis Stevenson.
• Lyrics. Robert Burns
• Tales of the Brothers Grimm
• Fairy tales. Rudyard Kipling
• Sonnets. William Shakespeare
• Cold heart. Wilhelm Hauff

Great about verses:

Poetry is like painting: one work will captivate you more if you look at it closely, and another if you move further away.

Little cutesy poems irritate the nerves more than the creak of unoiled wheels.

The most valuable thing in life and in poetry is that which has broken.

Marina Tsvetaeva

Of all the arts, poetry is most tempted to replace its own peculiar beauty with stolen glitter.

Humboldt W.

Poems succeed if they are created with spiritual clarity.

The writing of poetry is closer to worship than is commonly believed.

If only you knew from what rubbish Poems grow without shame... Like a dandelion near a fence, Like burdocks and quinoa.

A. A. Akhmatova

Poetry is not in verses alone: ​​it is spilled everywhere, it is around us. Take a look at these trees, at this sky - beauty and life breathe from everywhere, and where there is beauty and life, there is poetry.

I. S. Turgenev

For many people, writing poetry is a growing pain of the mind.

G. Lichtenberg

A beautiful verse is like a bow drawn through the sonorous fibers of our being. Not our own - our thoughts make the poet sing inside us. Telling us about the woman he loves, he delightfully awakens in our souls our love and our sorrow. He is a wizard. Understanding him, we become poets like him.

Where graceful verses flow, there is no place for vainglory.

Murasaki Shikibu

I turn to Russian versification. I think that over time we will turn to blank verse. There are too few rhymes in Russian. One calls the other. The flame inevitably drags the stone behind it. Because of the feeling, art certainly peeps out. Who is not tired of love and blood, difficult and wonderful, faithful and hypocritical, and so on.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

- ... Are your poems good, tell yourself?
- Monstrous! Ivan suddenly said boldly and frankly.
- Do not write anymore! the visitor asked pleadingly.
I promise and I swear! - solemnly said Ivan ...

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. "The Master and Margarita"

We all write poetry; poets differ from the rest only in that they write them with words.

John Fowles. "The French Lieutenant's Mistress"

Every poem is a veil stretched out on the points of a few words. These words shine like stars, because of them the poem exists.

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok

The poets of antiquity, unlike modern ones, rarely wrote more than a dozen poems during their long lives. It is understandable: they were all excellent magicians and did not like to waste themselves on trifles. Therefore, behind every poetic work of those times, a whole Universe is certainly hidden, filled with miracles - often dangerous for someone who inadvertently wakes dormant lines.

Max Fry. "The Talking Dead"

To one of my clumsy hippos-poems, I attached such a heavenly tail: ...

Mayakovsky! Your poems do not warm, do not excite, do not infect!
- My poems are not a stove, not a sea and not a plague!

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky

Poems are our inner music, clothed in words, permeated with thin strings of meanings and dreams, and therefore drive away critics. They are but miserable drinkers of poetry. What can a critic say about the depths of your soul? Don't let his vulgar groping hands in there. Let the verses seem to him an absurd lowing, a chaotic jumble of words. For us, this is a song of freedom from tedious reason, a glorious song that sounds on the snow-white slopes of our amazing soul.

Boris Krieger. "A Thousand Lives"

Poems are the thrill of the heart, the excitement of the soul and tears. And tears are nothing but pure poetry that has rejected the word.

According to Korney Chukovsky, poetry for Marshak was "a passionate passion, even an obsession." Marshak not only wrote poetry for children and adults, but also translated poets from different countries, participated in the creation of one of the first children's theaters in the Soviet Union and the first publishing house for children.

“I started writing poetry even before I learned to write”

Samuil Marshak was born in 1887 in Voronezh. The family moved several times, in 1900 they settled in Ostrogozhsk for a long time. Here Marshak entered the gymnasium, here he began to write his first works. “I started writing poetry even before I learned to write”, the poet recalled. Fascinated by ancient Roman and ancient Greek poetry, Marshak, already in the lower grades of the gymnasium, translated Horace's poem "In whom is salvation."

When the father of the future poet, Yakov Marshak, found a job in St. Petersburg, the whole family moved to the capital. Only Samuil Marshak and his younger brother remained in Ostrogozhsk: Jewish origin could prevent them from entering the capital's gymnasium. Marshak came to his parents for the holidays. During one of his visits, he accidentally met Vladimir Stasov, a well-known critic and art critic. Stasov helped the future poet to transfer to the St. Petersburg gymnasium - one of the few where, after the education reform, ancient languages ​​were taught.

While visiting Stasov, Samuil Marshak got acquainted with the creative intelligentsia of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg - composers and artists, writers and professors. In 1904, a critic introduced Marshak to Fyodor Chaliapin and Maxim Gorky. A month later, Gorky placed him in the Yalta gymnasium: since moving to St. Petersburg, Samuil Marshak was often ill. The following year, the young poet lived at the Peshkovs' dacha near Yalta. After the revolution of 1905, the writer's family left Yalta abroad, and Marshak returned to St. Petersburg.

Samuil Marshak. 1962 Photo: aif.ru

Samuil Marshak. Photo: s-marshak.ru

Samuil Marshak with children. Photo: aif.ru

"Playground"

In 1911 Samuil Marshak traveled to Turkey, Greece, Syria, Palestine. The poet went to the countries of the Mediterranean as a correspondent for the St. Petersburg publications Vseobshchaya Gazeta and Blue Journal. Returning from a trip, he wrote a cycle of poems "Palestine".

Noisy open taverns,
The tunes of distant lands are heard,
Goes, swaying, to the ancient city
Behind the caravan is a caravan.
But let the visions of mortal life
Closed the past like smoke
Millenniums are unchanged
Your hills, Jerusalem!
And there will be slopes and valleys
Keep here the memory of antiquity,
When the last ruins
They will fall, swept away for centuries.

Samuil Marshak, excerpt from the poem "Jerusalem"

During the trip, Samuil Marshak met his future wife Sophia Milvidskaya. Shortly after the wedding, the young couple went to England to study at the University of London.

“Perhaps, the university library made friends with English poetry the most. In cramped, closet-filled rooms overlooking the business-like Thames, swarming with barges and steamers, I first learned what I later translated - Shakespeare's sonnets, poems by William Blake, Robert Burns, John Keats, Robert Browning, Kipling.

During the holidays they traveled around England, the poet studied English folklore and translated ballads. He wrote: “I translated not by order, but by love - just like I wrote my own lyrical poems”.

Samuil Marshak and Karpis Surenyan. Photo: krisphoto.ru

Writer Samuil Marshak, artist Pyotr Konchalovsky and actor Solomon Mikhoels. 1940 Photo: aif.ru

Samuil Marshak and Alexander Tvardovsky. Photo: smolensklib.ru

In 1914 Samuil Marshak returned to Russia. He published his translations in the journals Northern Notes and Russian Thought. During the war years, the family often moved from place to place, and after the revolution, the Marshaks settled in Yekaterinodar (today Krasnodar): the poet's father served there.

In 1920, Krasnodar writers, artists and composers, among whom was Marshak, organized one of the first children's theaters in the country. Soon it turned into a "Children's Town" with a kindergarten, a school, a library and circles.

“The curtain is parting. We are ready for Petrushka to pull the children closer to him - to the screen. Samuil Yakovlevich - the main "responsible" for this moment - feels that the moment has come, that the children are about to get up and run to the screen and thereby disrupt the course of action. And then he gets up and makes, drawing attention to himself, a mischievous gesture - they say, let's go closer, but quietly and silently. Parsley involves the guys in a common game. All spectators and actors merge together. Laughter is mighty, the fantasy of children flares up. Everything is real! Everyone understands!”

Actress Anna Bogdanova

"Other Literature"

In the 1920s, Samuil Marshak and his family returned to St. Petersburg. Together with folklorist Olga Kapitsa, he ran a children's writers' studio at the Institute of Preschool Education. Marshak began to write his first poetic tales - "Fire", "Mail", "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse" - and translate English children's folklore.

The poet became the de facto editor of one of the first Soviet children's magazines - "Sparrow" (later it became known as "New Robinson"). The magazine talked about nature, technical achievements of those years and offered young readers answers to many questions. The publication published a regular column - "Wandering Photographer" by Boris Zhitkov, "Forest Newspaper" by Vitaly Bianchi, “In the Laboratory of the“ New Robinson ”of M. Ilyin (Ilya Marshak, who worked under a pseudonym). One of the first editorials said: “Fairy tales, fairies, elves and kings will not interest the modern child. He needs a different literature - realistic literature, literature that draws its source from life, calling to life.. In the 1930s, Samuil Marshak, together with Maxim Gorky, created the first publishing house for children's literature (Detizdat).

In 1938 the poet moved to Moscow. During the years of the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars, the poet collaborated with newspapers: he wrote epigrams and political pamphlets. For poetic captions for posters and cartoons in 1942, Samuil Marshak received the first Stalin Prize. Cover of Samuil Marshak's book "Smart Things". Artist May Miturich. Publishing house "Children's Literature". 1966

In the post-war years, books of his poems were published - “Military Post”, “Fairy Tale”, an encyclopedia in verse “From A to Z”. In theaters for children, performances based on the works of Marshak "Twelve Months", "Cat's House", "Smart Things" were staged.

In the 1950s, Samuil Marshak traveled around England, he translated the sonnets of William Shakespeare, the poems of Rudyard Kipling, George Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, the works of Alan Milne and Gianni Rodari. For the translation of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, Samuil Marshak received the title of honorary citizen of Scotland.

In 1963, Samuil Marshak's last book, Selected Lyrics, was published. The writer died in Moscow in 1964. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.