VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKI
POETA RUSSO, DESIGNER GRÁFICO, MILITANTE CULTURAL FUTURISTA E POLÍTICO, HOMEM SÓ CORAÇÃO - 1893-1930.
Museu Maiakovski, praça da Lubianka, Moscou.
Nasceu em Baghdati, Império Russo, em 19 de
julho de 1893.
Faleceu (suicídio)
em Moscou, Rússia,
União Soviética, em 14 de abril de 1930.
Museu Maiakovski, praça da Lubianka, Moscou.
Vladimir
Mayakovski
Fonte: Blog Pensador
http://pensador.uol.com.br/autor/vladimir_maiakovski/biografia/
Vladimir Mayakovsky nasceu na Geórgia, então Rússia, em 1893.
Entrou para a facção bolchevique do Partido Social-Democrático
Operário Russo ainda na adolescência, sendo preso várias vezes.
Junto com David Burlyuk, Khlebnikov e Kruchonykh, publica o
manifesto cubo-futurista intitulado Uma bofetada no gosto do público.
Após a Revolução de Outubro 1917, trabalhou na Agência Telegráfica
Russa, foi redator da revista LEF (de Liévi Front, Frente de Esquerda),
escreveu teatro, fez inúmeras viagens pelo país, aparecendo diante de vastos
auditórios para os quais lia os seus versos.
Nuvem de calças, publicado em 1915, foi talvez o seu primeiro grande
poema a ser editado. Suicidou-se com um tiro, aos quase 37 anos de idade, em 14
de Abril de 1930.
Vladimir Mayakovski [1893 – 1930]
Nasceu em Baghdati, em 19 de julho de 1893;
faleceu (suicídio) em Moscou, em 14 de abril de 1930
Origem: Wikipédia, a enciclopédia
livre.
Vladimir
Maiakovski
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Mayakovsky 1929 a.jpg / Mayakovsky
em 1929
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Data de
nascimento
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19 de julho de 1893
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Local de
nascimento
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Nacionalidade
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Data de
morte
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14 de
abril de 1930 (36 anos)
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Local de
morte
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Gênero(s)
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Pseudónimo(s)
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Vladimir
Mayakovsky
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Cidadania
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Período de
atividade
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1912—1930
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Influenciados
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Vladimir Mayakovsky (em russo: Владимир Владимирович Маяковский; nasceu em Baghdati, Império Russo, 19 de julho de 1893; faleceu em Moscou, Rússia, 14 de abril de 1930. Também chamado
de "o poeta da Revolução",
foi um poeta, dramaturgo e teórico russo, frequentemente
citado como um dos maiores poetas do século XX, ao lado deEzra Pound e T.S. Eliot, bem como "o maior poeta do futurismo". [2] [3]
Biografia
Vladimir Vladimirovitch Mayakovsky
nasceu e passou a infância na aldeia de Baghdati, nos arredores de Kutaíssi, na Geórgia, Império Russo. [4] [5] Lá
cursou o ginásio e, após a morte súbita do pai, a família ficou na miséria e
transferiu-se para Moscou, onde Vladimir continuou seus
estudos. [4]
Fortemente impressionado pelo movimento
revolucionário russo e impregnado desde cedo de obras socialistas, ingressou
aos quinze anos na facção bolchevique do Partido Social-Democrático Operário
Russo. Detido em duas ocasiões, foi solto por falta de provas, mas em 1909-1910
passou onze meses na prisão. Entrou na Escola de Belas Artes, onde se encontrou
com David Burliuk, que foi o grande incentivador de sua iniciação poética. Os
dois amigos fizeram parte do grupo fundador do assim chamado cubo-futurismo russo, ao lado de Khlebnikov, Kamiênski e outros. [6] Foram
expulsos da Escola de Belas Artes. Procurando difundir suas concepções
artísticas, realizaram viagens pela Rússia.
Após a Revolução de
Outubro, todo o grupo manifestou sua adesão ao novo regime. Durante
a Guerra Civil, Mayakovsky se dedicou a desenhos e legendas para cartazes de
propaganda e, no início da consolidação do novo Estado, exaltou campanhas
sanitárias, fez publicidade de produtos diversos, etc. Fundou em 1923 a revista
LEF (de Liévi Front,
Frente de Esquerda), que reuniu a “esquerda das artes”, isto é, os escritores e
artistas que pretendiam aliar a forma revolucionária a um conteúdo de renovação
social. [4]
Fez numerosas viagens pelo país, aparecendo
diante de vastos auditórios para os quais lia os seus versos. Viajou também
pela Europa Ocidental, México e Estados Unidos. Entrou frequentemente em
choque com os "burocratas" e com os que pretendiam reduzir a poesia a
fórmulas simplistas. Foi homem de grandes paixões, arrebatado e lírico, épico e
satírico ao mesmo tempo. Era fanático pela equipe de futebol Spartak Moscou. [carece de
fontes]
Oficialmente, suicidou-se com um tiro em
1930, sem que isto tivesse relação alguma com sua atividade literária e social. [7] [8] [9] Tal
fato tem sido questionado, pois na época o poeta estaria sendo pressionado
pelos programas oficiais que desejavam instaurar uma literatura simplista e
dita realista, dirigidos por MViatcheslav
Molotov, que teria perseguido antigos poetas revolucionários como
Maiakovski. [4] [10] Em vista disso, aponta-se a
possibilidade real de um suicídio forjado por motivos políticos. [11] [7]
Obra
Lápide de Vladimir Majakovski em Moscou (no cemitério
Nowodewitsche)
Sua obra, profundamente revolucionária
na forma e nas idéias que defendeu, apresenta-se coerente, original, veemente,
una. A linguagem que emprega é a do dia a dia, sem nenhuma consideração pela
divisão em temas e vocábulos “poéticos” e “não-poéticos”, a par de uma
constante elaboração, que vai desde a invenção vocabular até o inusitado arrojo
das rimas. [4] [5]
Fazendo parte do grupo
"Hylaea", que daria origem ao chamado cubo-futurismo, seu primeiro livro de
poemas, no entanto, seria de estética influenciada pelo simbolismo, e nunca chegaria a público,
tendo sido escrito quando o poeta estava na prisão e apreendido pela polícia no
momento da sua libertação. [12] [13]
Aproximando-se de David Burliuk na década de 1910, passa a escrever em
um estilo aproximado do cubismo e
do futurismo, influenciado pelo primitivismo eslavista e pelalinguagem
transracional de Velimir Khlebnikov e outros, repleto de imagística urbana
e surpreendente, com um certo ar impressionista e, ainda, simbolista. Esta fase de sua
poesia é a mais apreciada por poetas como Boris Pasternak, em função de ainda manter
alguns recursos simbolistas e métrica rigorosa em alguns poemas. [4] [5]
Em seguida, já na década de 1920, sua
poesia, apesar de haver uma continuidade no que diz respeiro à inovação
rítmica, à rimas inusitadas, ao uso da fala cotidiana e mesmo de imagens
inusitadas, assume um tom direto. [14]
Ao mesmo tempo, o gosto pelo
desmesurado, o hiperbólico, alia-se em sua poesia desta época à dimensão
crítico-satírica. Criou longos poemas e quadras e dísticos que se gravam na
memória. Traduções sem preocupação com a forma dos poemas produzidos nesta
época têm dado ao público uma imagem errônea do poeta, fazendo-o parecer um
"gritador". [14]
Na realidade, era um poeta rigoroso, que
chegava a reescrever sessenta vezes o mesmo verso e recolhia muito material
informativo e linguístico para posterior uso nos seus poemas. Criou também
ensaios sobre a arte poética e artigos curtos de jornal; peças de forte sentido
social e rápidas cenas sobre assuntos do dia; roteiros de cinema arrojados e
fantasiosos e breves filmes de propaganda. [14]
Tem exercido influência profunda em todo
o desenvolvimento da poesia russa moderna, bem como sobre outros poetas e
movimentos no mundo inteiro, como Hamid
Olimjon, Nazım Hikmet, Hedwig
Gorski, Vasko Popa e Caetano Veloso [1] .
Referências
1.
↑ Ir para:a b Zcastel. O amor de
Maiakóvski…, de Gal, e de Caetano!. Visitado em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
3.
Ir para cima↑ Karpinski, Joanne B.. Poetics and Polemics: Strategies of Ezra Pound and Vladimir
Mayakovsky (em inglês).Colorado: University of Colorado at Boulder,
1980. 572 p. OCLC 7647562 Página visitada em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
4.
↑ Ir para:a b c d e f v-mayakovsky.com. Vladimir
V. Mayakovsky (em rússo). Visitado em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
5.
↑ Ir para:a b c v-mayakovsky.com. Владимир
Маяковский "Я сам" (em rússo). Visitado em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
6.
Ir para cima↑ ITINERÁRIOS – Revista de Literatura. Suprematismo,
Cubo-futurismo e a Tragédia, de Maiakóvski (PDF). Visitado em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
7.
↑ Ir para:a b Pravda.ru (26 de outubro de 2005). The
death of the poet of communism, Vladimir Mayakovsky, remains mysterious (em inglês) Pravda.ru. Visitado em 22 de fevereiro de 2014.
8.
Ir para cima↑ Boym, Svetlana. Death in Quotation Marks: Cultural Myths of the
Modern Poet (em inglês). [S.l.]: Harvard University Press, 1991. 291 p.
p. 168. ISBN
9780674194274
9.
Ir para cima↑ Wilson, Jason. A Companion to Pablo Neruda: Evaluating Neruda's
Poetry (em inglês). [S.l.]: Tamesis Books, 2008. 255 p. p. 5. ISBN
9781855661677
10.
Ir para cima↑ Arquivo Marxista na Internet (julho de 2005). O
Suicídio de Maiakovsky. Visitado em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
11.
Ir para cima↑ Fernando A. S. Araújo (julho de 2005). O
Suicídio de Maiakovsky Marxists Internet Archive. Visitado em 22 de fevereiro de
2014.
12.
Ir para cima↑ Encyclopedia of World Biography (2004). Vladimir
Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (em inglês). Visitado em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
13.
Ir para cima↑ M. Lawton, Anna; Eagle, Herbert. In: LLC. Words in Revolution:: Russian Futurist Manifestoes, 1912-1928(em inglês). [S.l.]: New Academia Publishing,
2005. 353 p. p. 11. ISBN
0974493473 Página visitada em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
14.
↑ Ir para:a b c Mayakovsky,
Vladimir; Daniels, Guy. Mayakovsky: Plays: European Drama Classics Series (em inglês). [S.l.]: Northwestern University Press,
1968. 274 p. ISBN
0810113392 Página visitada em 04 de janeiro de 2013.
Fonte: Jornal GGN; Miluduarte; Seg, 02/11/2015 -
17:30
Acesso RAS em 27jan2016
O Museu
Mayakovski, um dos mais diferentes e originais de Moscou, situado na praça da
Lubianka, é um dos passeios obrigatórios que o turista que visita a capital
russa deve fazer. Tanto pela importância histórica, quanto literária e cultural
de Vladimir Maiakovski. Como diz a apresentadora do vídeo postado a seguir,
"a excursão pelo Museu Maiakovski é parte de um processo educativo que
nunca acaba". O museu apresenta as cartas, os desenhos, objetos pessoais
do poeta, tudo numa disposição meio anárquica, refletindo o pensamento
tumultuado de Vladimir Maiakovski. Em suma, este museu procura retratar o
mundo, o pensamento e a época do poeta russo, homem sempre atual,de sentimentos
intensos e coração ardente.
Me furto à tentação de colocar sua biografia
neste post, salientando, apenas, que além de poeta, ele era um desenhista de primeira, assim como seus
pais e irmã. Durante os anos da guerra civil, se dedicou a fazer desenhos para
cartazes de propagandas. Fez, também, mais tarde, campanhas institucionais e
propagandas para divulgação da poesia. Muitos de seus desenhos eram de cunho
satírico.
Deixo alguns de exemplo neste espaço.
Agora, ao passeio virtual pelo museu: se você
quiser fazer este passeio em RUSSO, clique AQUI.
Caso não seja da
turminha que conhece ou estuda o idioma do poeta e quiser fazer a visita em
INGLÊS, clique AQUI. Este site, também, oferece um passeio
virtual bastante interativo e nele você vai ouvir a voz do próprio poeta:
Outra opção de
conhecer virtualmente o museu, é este vídeo que se segue:
Finalizo
deixando este link de uma excursão em 3D por todo o museu. Você vai clicando
nas setas ou nas palavras "следующий раздел", localizadas no canto
direito inferior da página, para ir mudando de ambiente. Entre nesta viagem e
se sinta no próprio museu.
E já que o tema
do post é Maiakovski, aí vai um vídeo com raras cenas do poeta. Você poderá
vê-lo por alguns momentos...Cenas do funeral do poeta:
Fontes:
www.youtube.com,
vídeos de debjutlv, Sun Glory e Galina Benislavskaya
http://www.mayakovsky.info/virt/
http://mayakovsky.museum//tour.html
[MAIAKOVSKI COMO DESIGNER GRÁFICO]
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Maiakovski: Lembrem-se
disto, camaradas! é único o vosso partido dos trabalhadores: o dos
comunistas!
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Maiakovski: desenho de abril
de 1921
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Maiakovski: Caricatura de
Hugo Gellert, muralista e ilustrador húngaro, contida nas anotações do poeta,
caderno n.33, lista 27, em 1925.Na parte de baixo, dedicatória de Maiakovski
a Gellert, em inglês.
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Maiakovski: Auto-charge
pouco conhecida, feita para o jornal "chkval", de Odessa, em 1926
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Texto e desenhos de
Maiakovski, 1920
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Cartaz feito
por Maiakovski, onde se lê: Rádio, em caixa alta, e, logo
abaixo, o nome do próprio poeta (entre parênteses, ao lado de seu nome,
escrito de forma abreviada 'desenhista". A seguir, os nomes de Vadim
Baian, (ligado ao movimento literário russo do início do século XX), Boris
Popliavski(poeta), entre outros mais desconhecidos desta iletrada blogueira
[Milu Duarte].
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Maiakovski: desenho de
julho de 1930
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Maiakovski: "Semana
do movimento Sindical. Fortaleça os sindicatos
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Saindo dos desenhos, passemos um pouco ao acervo
de fotos do poeta:
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Maiakovski em 1900
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Maiakovski . Ainda
ginasiano, em 1904
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Maiakovski em 1908
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Maiakovski em 1910
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Maiakovski em 1913
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Maiakovski em 1911, quando
de seu ingresso na Escola de Belas Artes
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Maiakovski em 1915
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Maiakovski em 1918
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Maiakovski em 1927
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Maiakovski em 1929
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MAYAKOVSKI - Poemas Traduzidos Selecionados
http://www.poesiaspoemaseversos.com.br/maiakovski/#.Vqkxf_krKM8
BLUSA FÁTUA
Costurarei calças pretas
com o veludo da minha garganta
e uma blusa amarela com três metros de poente.
Pela Niévski do mundo, como criança grande,
andarei, donjuan, com ar de dândi.
com o veludo da minha garganta
e uma blusa amarela com três metros de poente.
Pela Niévski do mundo, como criança grande,
andarei, donjuan, com ar de dândi.
Que a terra gema em sua mole indolência:
“Não viole o verde de as minhas primaveras!”
Mostrando os dentes, rirei ao sol com insolência:
“No asfalto liso hei de rolar as rimas veras!”
“Não viole o verde de as minhas primaveras!”
Mostrando os dentes, rirei ao sol com insolência:
“No asfalto liso hei de rolar as rimas veras!”
Não sei se é porque o céu é azul celeste
e a terra, amante, me estende as mãos ardentes
que eu faço versos alegres como marionetes
e afiados e precisos como palitar dentes!
e a terra, amante, me estende as mãos ardentes
que eu faço versos alegres como marionetes
e afiados e precisos como palitar dentes!
Fêmeas, gamadas em minha carne, e esta
garota que me olha com amor de gêmea,
cubram-me de sorrisos, que eu, poeta,
com flores os bordarei na blusa cor de gema!
garota que me olha com amor de gêmea,
cubram-me de sorrisos, que eu, poeta,
com flores os bordarei na blusa cor de gema!
( Maiakóvski – tradução: Augusto
de Campos )
E ENTÃO, QUE QUEREIS?
Fiz ranger as folhas de jornal
abrindo-lhes as pálpebras piscantes.
E logo
de cada fronteira distante
subiu um cheiro de pólvora
perseguindo-me até em casa.
Nestes últimos vinte anos
nada de novo há
no rugir das tempestades.
abrindo-lhes as pálpebras piscantes.
E logo
de cada fronteira distante
subiu um cheiro de pólvora
perseguindo-me até em casa.
Nestes últimos vinte anos
nada de novo há
no rugir das tempestades.
Não estamos alegres,
é certo,
mas também por que razão
haveríamos de ficar tristes?
O mar da história
é agitado.
As ameaças
e as guerras
havemos de atravessá-las,
rompê-las ao meio,
cortando-as
como uma quilha corta
as ondas.
é certo,
mas também por que razão
haveríamos de ficar tristes?
O mar da história
é agitado.
As ameaças
e as guerras
havemos de atravessá-las,
rompê-las ao meio,
cortando-as
como uma quilha corta
as ondas.
( Maiakóvski,
tradução de E. Carrera Guerra )
*(De outro livro, outro tradutor, outro poema:)
AMO
A Lila Brik
COMUMENTE É ASSIM
Cada um ao nascer
traz sua dose de amor,
mas os empregos,
o dinheiro,
tudo isso,
nos resseca o solo do coração.
Sobre o coração levamos o corpo,
sobre o corpo a camisa,
mas isto é pouco.
Alguém
imbecilmente
inventou os punhos
e sobre os peitos
fez correr o amido de engomar.
Quando velhos se arrependem.
A mulher se pinta.
O homem faz ginástica
pelo sistema Müller.
Mas é tarde.
A pele enche-se de rugas.
O amor floresce,
floresce,
e depois desfolha.
traz sua dose de amor,
mas os empregos,
o dinheiro,
tudo isso,
nos resseca o solo do coração.
Sobre o coração levamos o corpo,
sobre o corpo a camisa,
mas isto é pouco.
Alguém
imbecilmente
inventou os punhos
e sobre os peitos
fez correr o amido de engomar.
Quando velhos se arrependem.
A mulher se pinta.
O homem faz ginástica
pelo sistema Müller.
Mas é tarde.
A pele enche-se de rugas.
O amor floresce,
floresce,
e depois desfolha.
GAROTO
Fui agraciado com o amor sem limites.
Mas, quando garoto,
a gente preocupada trabalhava
e eu escapava
para as margens do rio Rion
e vagava sem fazer nada.
Aborrecia-se minha mãe:
“Garoto danado!”
Meu pai me ameaçava com o cinturão.
Mas eu,
com três rublos falsos,
jogava com os soldados sob os muros.
Sem o peso da camisa,
sem o peso das botas,
de costas ou de barriga no chão,
torrava-me ao sol de Kutaís
até sentir pontadas no coração.
O sol se assombrava:
“Daquele tamaninho
e com um tal coração!
Vai partir-lhe a espinha!
Como, será que cabem
neste tico de gente
o rio,
o coração,
eu
e cem quilômetros de montanhas?”
Mas, quando garoto,
a gente preocupada trabalhava
e eu escapava
para as margens do rio Rion
e vagava sem fazer nada.
Aborrecia-se minha mãe:
“Garoto danado!”
Meu pai me ameaçava com o cinturão.
Mas eu,
com três rublos falsos,
jogava com os soldados sob os muros.
Sem o peso da camisa,
sem o peso das botas,
de costas ou de barriga no chão,
torrava-me ao sol de Kutaís
até sentir pontadas no coração.
O sol se assombrava:
“Daquele tamaninho
e com um tal coração!
Vai partir-lhe a espinha!
Como, será que cabem
neste tico de gente
o rio,
o coração,
eu
e cem quilômetros de montanhas?”
ADOLESCENTE
A juventude tem mil ocupações.
Estudamos gramática até ficar zonzos.
A mim
me expulsaram do quinto ano
e fui entupir os cárceres de Moscou.
Em nosso pequeno mundo caseiro
brotam pelos divãs
poetas de melenas fartas.
Que esperar desses líricos bichanos?
Eu, no entanto,
aprendi a amar no cárcere.
Que vale comparado com isto
a tristeza do bosque de Boulogne?
Que valem comparados com isto
suspiros ante a paisagem do mar?
Eu, pois,
me enamorei da janelinha da cela 103
da “oficina de pompas fúnebres”.
Há gente que vê o sol todos os dias
e se enche de presunção.
“Não valem muito esses raiozinhos”
dizem.
Eu, então,
por um raiozinho de sol amarelo
dançando em minha parede
teria dado todo um mundo.
Estudamos gramática até ficar zonzos.
A mim
me expulsaram do quinto ano
e fui entupir os cárceres de Moscou.
Em nosso pequeno mundo caseiro
brotam pelos divãs
poetas de melenas fartas.
Que esperar desses líricos bichanos?
Eu, no entanto,
aprendi a amar no cárcere.
Que vale comparado com isto
a tristeza do bosque de Boulogne?
Que valem comparados com isto
suspiros ante a paisagem do mar?
Eu, pois,
me enamorei da janelinha da cela 103
da “oficina de pompas fúnebres”.
Há gente que vê o sol todos os dias
e se enche de presunção.
“Não valem muito esses raiozinhos”
dizem.
Eu, então,
por um raiozinho de sol amarelo
dançando em minha parede
teria dado todo um mundo.
MINHA UNIVERSIDADE
Conheceis o francês,
sabeis dividir,
multiplicar,
declinar com perfeição.
Pois, declinai!
Mas sabeis por acaso
cantar em dueto com os edifícios?
Entendeis por acaso
a linguagem dos bondes?
O pintainho humano
mal abandona a casca
atraca-se aos livros
e a resmas de cadernos.
Eu aprendi o alfabeto nos letreiros
folheando páginas de estanho e ferro.
Os professores tomam a terra
e a descarnam
e a descascam
para afinal ensinar:
“Toda ela não passa dum globinho!”
Eu com os costados aprendi geografia.
Não foi à toa que tanto dormi no chão.
Os historiadores levantam
a angustiante questão:
- Era ou não roxa a barba de Barba Roxa?
Que me importa!
Não costumo remexer o pó dessas velharias!
Mas das ruas de Moscou
conheço todas as histórias.
Uma vez instruídos,
há os que propõem
a agradar às damas,
fazendo soar no crânio suas poucas idéias,
como pobres moedas numa caixa de pau.
Eu, somente com os edifícios, conversava.
Somente os canos dágua me respondiam.
Os tetos como orelhas espichando
suas lucarnas atentas
aguardavam as palavras
que eu lhes deitaria.
Depois
noite a dentro
uns com os outros
palravam
girando suas línguas de catavento.
sabeis dividir,
multiplicar,
declinar com perfeição.
Pois, declinai!
Mas sabeis por acaso
cantar em dueto com os edifícios?
Entendeis por acaso
a linguagem dos bondes?
O pintainho humano
mal abandona a casca
atraca-se aos livros
e a resmas de cadernos.
Eu aprendi o alfabeto nos letreiros
folheando páginas de estanho e ferro.
Os professores tomam a terra
e a descarnam
e a descascam
para afinal ensinar:
“Toda ela não passa dum globinho!”
Eu com os costados aprendi geografia.
Não foi à toa que tanto dormi no chão.
Os historiadores levantam
a angustiante questão:
- Era ou não roxa a barba de Barba Roxa?
Que me importa!
Não costumo remexer o pó dessas velharias!
Mas das ruas de Moscou
conheço todas as histórias.
Uma vez instruídos,
há os que propõem
a agradar às damas,
fazendo soar no crânio suas poucas idéias,
como pobres moedas numa caixa de pau.
Eu, somente com os edifícios, conversava.
Somente os canos dágua me respondiam.
Os tetos como orelhas espichando
suas lucarnas atentas
aguardavam as palavras
que eu lhes deitaria.
Depois
noite a dentro
uns com os outros
palravam
girando suas línguas de catavento.
ADULTOS
Os adultos fazem negócios.
Têm rublos nos bolsos.
Quer amor? Pois não!
Ei-lo por cem rublos!
E eu, sem casa e sem teto,
com as mãos metidas nos bolsos rasgados,
vagava assombrado.
À noite
vestis os melhores trajes
e ides descansar sobre viúvas ou casadas.
A mim
Moscou me sufocava de abraços
com seus infinitos anéis de praças.
Nos corações, nos relógios
bate o pêndulo dos amantes.
Como se exaltam as duplas no leito de amor!
Eu, que sou a Praça da Paixão,
surpreendo o pulsar selvagem
do coração das capitais.
Desabotoado, o coração quase de fora,
abria-me ao sol e aos jatos dágua.
Entrai com vossas paixões!
Galgai-me com vossos amores!
Doravante não sou mais dono de meu coração!
Nos demais – eu sei,
qualquer um sabe -
o coração tem domicílio
no peito.
Comigo
a anatomia ficou louca.
Sou todo coração -
em todas as partes palpita.
Oh! quantas são as primaveras
em vinte anos acesas nesta fornalha!
Uma tal carga
acumulada
torna-se simplesmente insuportável.
Insuportável
não para o verso
de veras.
Têm rublos nos bolsos.
Quer amor? Pois não!
Ei-lo por cem rublos!
E eu, sem casa e sem teto,
com as mãos metidas nos bolsos rasgados,
vagava assombrado.
À noite
vestis os melhores trajes
e ides descansar sobre viúvas ou casadas.
A mim
Moscou me sufocava de abraços
com seus infinitos anéis de praças.
Nos corações, nos relógios
bate o pêndulo dos amantes.
Como se exaltam as duplas no leito de amor!
Eu, que sou a Praça da Paixão,
surpreendo o pulsar selvagem
do coração das capitais.
Desabotoado, o coração quase de fora,
abria-me ao sol e aos jatos dágua.
Entrai com vossas paixões!
Galgai-me com vossos amores!
Doravante não sou mais dono de meu coração!
Nos demais – eu sei,
qualquer um sabe -
o coração tem domicílio
no peito.
Comigo
a anatomia ficou louca.
Sou todo coração -
em todas as partes palpita.
Oh! quantas são as primaveras
em vinte anos acesas nesta fornalha!
Uma tal carga
acumulada
torna-se simplesmente insuportável.
Insuportável
não para o verso
de veras.
O QUE ACONTECEU
Mais do que é permitido,
mais do que é preciso,
como um delírio de poeta
sobrecarregando o sonho:
a pelota do coração tornou-se enorme,
enorme o amor,
enorme o ódio.
Sob o fardo,
as pernas vão vacilantes.
Tu o sabes,
sou bem fornido,
entretanto me arrasto,
apêndice do coração,
vergando as espáduas gigantes.
Encho-me dum leite de versos
e, sem poder transbordar,
encho-me mais e mais.
mais do que é preciso,
como um delírio de poeta
sobrecarregando o sonho:
a pelota do coração tornou-se enorme,
enorme o amor,
enorme o ódio.
Sob o fardo,
as pernas vão vacilantes.
Tu o sabes,
sou bem fornido,
entretanto me arrasto,
apêndice do coração,
vergando as espáduas gigantes.
Encho-me dum leite de versos
e, sem poder transbordar,
encho-me mais e mais.
CLAMO
Levantei-o como um atleta,
levei-o como um acrobata,
como se levam os candidatos ao comício,
como nas aldeias se toca a rebate
nos dias de incêndio.
Clamava:
“Aqui está, aqui! Tomai-o!”
Quando este corpanzil se punha a uivar,
as donas
disparando
pelo pó, pelo barro ou pela neve,
como um foguete fugiam de mim.
- “Para nós, algo um tanto menor,
algo assim como um tango…”
Não posso levá-lo
e carrego meu fardo.
Quero arremessá-lo fora
e sei, não o farei.
Os arcos de minhas costelas não resistem.
Sob a pressão
range a caixa torácica.
levei-o como um acrobata,
como se levam os candidatos ao comício,
como nas aldeias se toca a rebate
nos dias de incêndio.
Clamava:
“Aqui está, aqui! Tomai-o!”
Quando este corpanzil se punha a uivar,
as donas
disparando
pelo pó, pelo barro ou pela neve,
como um foguete fugiam de mim.
- “Para nós, algo um tanto menor,
algo assim como um tango…”
Não posso levá-lo
e carrego meu fardo.
Quero arremessá-lo fora
e sei, não o farei.
Os arcos de minhas costelas não resistem.
Sob a pressão
range a caixa torácica.
TU
Entraste.
A sério, olhaste
a estatura,
o bramido
e simplesmente adivinhaste:
uma criança.
Tomaste,
arrancaste-me o coração
e simplesmente foste com ele jogar
como uma menina com sua bola.
E todas,
como se vissem um milagre,
senhoras e senhoritas exclamaram:
- A esse amá-lo?
Se se atira em cima,
derruba a gente!
Ela, com certeza, é domadora!
Por certo, saiu duma jaula!
E eu de júbilo
esqueci o jugo.
Louco de alegria
saltava
como em casamento de índio,
tão leve,
tão bem me sentia.
A sério, olhaste
a estatura,
o bramido
e simplesmente adivinhaste:
uma criança.
Tomaste,
arrancaste-me o coração
e simplesmente foste com ele jogar
como uma menina com sua bola.
E todas,
como se vissem um milagre,
senhoras e senhoritas exclamaram:
- A esse amá-lo?
Se se atira em cima,
derruba a gente!
Ela, com certeza, é domadora!
Por certo, saiu duma jaula!
E eu de júbilo
esqueci o jugo.
Louco de alegria
saltava
como em casamento de índio,
tão leve,
tão bem me sentia.
IMPOSSÍVEL
Sozinho não posso
carregar um piano
e menos ainda um cofre-forte.
Como poderia então
retomar de ti meu coração
e carregá-lo de volta?
Os banqueiros dizem com razão:
“Quando nos faltam bolsos,
nós que somos muitíssimo ricos,
guardamos o dinheiro no banco”.
Em ti
depositei meu amor,
tesouro encerrado em caixa de ferro,
e ando por aí
como um Creso contente.
É natural, pois,
quando me dá vontade,
que eu retire um sorriso,
a metade de um sorriso
ou menos até
e indo com as donas
eu gaste depois da meia-noite
uns quantos rublos de lirismo à toa.
carregar um piano
e menos ainda um cofre-forte.
Como poderia então
retomar de ti meu coração
e carregá-lo de volta?
Os banqueiros dizem com razão:
“Quando nos faltam bolsos,
nós que somos muitíssimo ricos,
guardamos o dinheiro no banco”.
Em ti
depositei meu amor,
tesouro encerrado em caixa de ferro,
e ando por aí
como um Creso contente.
É natural, pois,
quando me dá vontade,
que eu retire um sorriso,
a metade de um sorriso
ou menos até
e indo com as donas
eu gaste depois da meia-noite
uns quantos rublos de lirismo à toa.
O QUE ACONTECEU COMIGO
As esquadras acodem ao porto.
O trem corre para as estações.
Eu, mais depressa ainda,
vou a ti,
atraído, arrebatado,
pois que te amo.
Assim como se apeia
o avarento cavaleiro de Púchkin,
alegre por encafuar-se em seu sótão,
assim eu
regresso ati, amada,
com o coração encantado de mim.
Ficais contentes de retornar à casa.
Ali vos livrais da sujeira,
raspando-vos, lavando-vos,
fazendo a barba.
Assim retorno eu a ti.
Por acaso,
indo a ti não volto à minha casa?
Gente terrena ao seio da terra volta.
Sempre volvemos à nossa meta final.
Assim eu,
em tua direção sempre me inclino
apenas nos separamos
mal acabamos de nos ver.
O trem corre para as estações.
Eu, mais depressa ainda,
vou a ti,
atraído, arrebatado,
pois que te amo.
Assim como se apeia
o avarento cavaleiro de Púchkin,
alegre por encafuar-se em seu sótão,
assim eu
regresso ati, amada,
com o coração encantado de mim.
Ficais contentes de retornar à casa.
Ali vos livrais da sujeira,
raspando-vos, lavando-vos,
fazendo a barba.
Assim retorno eu a ti.
Por acaso,
indo a ti não volto à minha casa?
Gente terrena ao seio da terra volta.
Sempre volvemos à nossa meta final.
Assim eu,
em tua direção sempre me inclino
apenas nos separamos
mal acabamos de nos ver.
DEDUÇÃO
Não acabarão com o amor,
nem as rusgas,
nem a distância.
Está provado,
pensado,
verificado.
Aqui levanto solene
minha estrofe de mil dedos
e faço o juramento:
Amo
firme,
fiel
e verdadeiramente.
nem as rusgas,
nem a distância.
Está provado,
pensado,
verificado.
Aqui levanto solene
minha estrofe de mil dedos
e faço o juramento:
Amo
firme,
fiel
e verdadeiramente.
( Maiakóvski )
(1922 – em Maiacovski – Antologia Poética – tradução E. Carrera Guerra, ed. Max Limonad/SP).
(1922 – em Maiacovski – Antologia Poética – tradução E. Carrera Guerra, ed. Max Limonad/SP).
*
“É melhor morrer de Vodka do que morrer de tédio.”
( Maiakóvski )
*
A EXTRAORDINÁRIA AVENTURA VIVIDA POR VLADÍMIR MAIAKOVSKI NO VERÃO
NA DATCHA
(Púchkino, monte Akula, datcha de Rumiántzev, a 27 verstas
pela estrada de ferro de Iaroslávl)
A tarde ardia com cem sóis.
O verão rolava em julho.
O calor se enrolava
no ar e nos lençóis
da datcha onde eu estava.
Na colina de Púchkino, corcunda,
o monte Akula,
e ao pé do monte
a aldeia enruga
a casa dos telhados.
E atrás da aldeia,
um buraco
e no buraco, todo dia,
o mesmo ato:
o sol descia
lento e exato.
E de manhã
outra vez
por toda a parte
lá estava o sol
escarlate.
Dia após dia
isto
começou a irritar-me
terrivelmente.
Um dia me enfureço a tal ponto
que, de pavor, tudo empalidece.
E grito ao sol, de pronto:
“Desce!
Chega de vadiar nessa fornalha!”
E grito ao sol:
“Parasita!
Você, aí, a flanar pelos ares,
e eu, aqui, cheio de tinta,
com a cara nos cartazes!”
E grito ao sol:
“Espere!
Ouça, topete de ouro,
e se em lugar
desse ocaso
de paxá
você baixar em casa
para um chá?”
Que mosca me mordeu!
É o meu fim!
Para mim
sem perder tempo
o sol
alargando os raios-passos
avança pelo campo.
Não quero mostrar medo.
Recuo para o quarto.
Seus olhos brilham no jardim.
Avançam mais.
Pelas janelas,
pelas portas,
pelas frestas,
a massa
solar vem abaixo
e invade a minha casa.
Recobrando o fôlego,
me diz o sol com voz de baixo:
“Pela primeira vez recolho o fogo,
desde que o mundo foi criado.
Você me chamou?
Apanhe o chá,
pegue a compota, poeta!”
Lágrimas na ponta dos olhos
- o calor me fazia desvairar -
eu lhe mostro
o samovar:
O verão rolava em julho.
O calor se enrolava
no ar e nos lençóis
da datcha onde eu estava.
Na colina de Púchkino, corcunda,
o monte Akula,
e ao pé do monte
a aldeia enruga
a casa dos telhados.
E atrás da aldeia,
um buraco
e no buraco, todo dia,
o mesmo ato:
o sol descia
lento e exato.
E de manhã
outra vez
por toda a parte
lá estava o sol
escarlate.
Dia após dia
isto
começou a irritar-me
terrivelmente.
Um dia me enfureço a tal ponto
que, de pavor, tudo empalidece.
E grito ao sol, de pronto:
“Desce!
Chega de vadiar nessa fornalha!”
E grito ao sol:
“Parasita!
Você, aí, a flanar pelos ares,
e eu, aqui, cheio de tinta,
com a cara nos cartazes!”
E grito ao sol:
“Espere!
Ouça, topete de ouro,
e se em lugar
desse ocaso
de paxá
você baixar em casa
para um chá?”
Que mosca me mordeu!
É o meu fim!
Para mim
sem perder tempo
o sol
alargando os raios-passos
avança pelo campo.
Não quero mostrar medo.
Recuo para o quarto.
Seus olhos brilham no jardim.
Avançam mais.
Pelas janelas,
pelas portas,
pelas frestas,
a massa
solar vem abaixo
e invade a minha casa.
Recobrando o fôlego,
me diz o sol com voz de baixo:
“Pela primeira vez recolho o fogo,
desde que o mundo foi criado.
Você me chamou?
Apanhe o chá,
pegue a compota, poeta!”
Lágrimas na ponta dos olhos
- o calor me fazia desvairar -
eu lhe mostro
o samovar:
“Pois bem,
sente-se, astro!”
Quem me mandou berrar ao sol
insolências sem conta?
Contrafeito
me sento numa ponta
do banco e espero a conta
com um frio no peito.
Mas uma estranha claridade
fluía sobre o quarto
e esquecendo os cuidados
começo
pouco a pouco
a palestrar com o astro.
Falo
disso e daquilo,
como me cansa a Rosta,
etc.
E o sol:
“Está certo,
mas não se desgoste,
não pinte as coisas tão pretas.
E eu? Você pensa
que brilhar
é fácil?
Prove, pra ver!
Mas quando se começa
é preciso prosseguir
e a gente vai e brilha pra valer!”
Conversamos até a noite
ou até o que, antes, eram trevas.
Como falar, ali, de sombras?
Ficamos íntimos,
os dois.
Logo,
com desassombro,
estou batendo no seu ombro.
E o sol, por fim:
“Somos amigos
pra sempre, eu de você,
você de mim.
Vamos poeta,
cantar,
luzir
no lixo cinza do universo.
Eu verterei o meu sol
e você o seu
com seus versos.”
O muro das sombras,
prisão das trevas,
desaba sob o obus
dos nossos sóis de duas bocas.
Confusão de poesia e luz,
chamas por toda a parte.
Se o sol se cansa
e a noite lenta
quer ir pra cama,
marmota sonolenta,
eu, de repente,
inflamo a minha flama
e o dia fulge novamente.
Brilhar pra sempre,
brilhar como um farol,
brilhar com brilho eterno,
gente é pra brilhar,
que tudo mais vá pro inferno,
este é o meu slogan
e o do sol.
1920
( Maiakóvski ) (tradução de Augusto de Campos)
(1. Datcha – casa de veraneio.
2. Versta – medida itinerária equivalente a 1,067m.
3. Rosta – A Agência Telegráfica Russa, para a qual Maiakovski executou cartazes satíricos de notícias – as “janelas” Rosta -, de 1919 a 1922.)
2. Versta – medida itinerária equivalente a 1,067m.
3. Rosta – A Agência Telegráfica Russa, para a qual Maiakovski executou cartazes satíricos de notícias – as “janelas” Rosta -, de 1919 a 1922.)
*
A
PLENOS PULMÕES
Primeira Introdução ao Poema
Caros
camaradas
futuros!
Revolvendo
a merda fóssil
de agora,
pesquisando
estes dias escuros,
talvez
perguntareis
por mim.
camaradas
futuros!
Revolvendo
a merda fóssil
de agora,
pesquisando
estes dias escuros,
talvez
perguntareis
por mim.
Ora,
começará
vosso homem de ciência,
afagando os porquês
num banho de sabença,
conta-se
que outrora
um férvido cantor
a água sem fervura
combateu com fervor(1).
Professor,
jogue fora
suas lentes de arame!
A mim cabe falar
de mim
de minha era.
Eu ? incinerador,
eu ? sanitarista,
a revolução
me convoca e me alista.
começará
vosso homem de ciência,
afagando os porquês
num banho de sabença,
conta-se
que outrora
um férvido cantor
a água sem fervura
combateu com fervor(1).
Professor,
jogue fora
suas lentes de arame!
A mim cabe falar
de mim
de minha era.
Eu ? incinerador,
eu ? sanitarista,
a revolução
me convoca e me alista.
Troco pelo front
a horticultura airosa
da poesia ?
fêmea caprichosa.
Ela ajardina o jardim virgem
vargem
sombra
alfombra.
“É assim o jardim de jasmim,
o jardim de jasmim do alfenim.”
Este verte versos feito regador,
aquele os baba,
boca em babador, ?
bonifrates encapelados,
descabelados vates ?
entendê-los,
ao diabo!,
quem há-de…
Quarentena é inútil contra eles
? mandolinam por detrás das paredes:
“Ta-ran-tin, ta-ran-tin,
ta-ran-ten-n-n…”
Triste honra,
se de tais rosas
minha estátua se erigisse:
na praça
escarra a tuberculose;
putas e rufiões
numa ronda de sífilis.
Também a mim
a propaganda
cansa,
é tão fácil
alinhavar
romanças, ?
Mas eu
me dominava
entretanto
e pisava
a garganta do meu canto.
Escutai,
camaradas futuros,
o agitador,
o cáustico caudilho,
o extintor
dos melífluos enxurros:
por cima
dos opúsculos líricos,
eu vos falo
como um vivo aos vivos.
Chego a vós,
à Comuna distante,
não como Iessiênin,
guitarriarcaico.
Mas através
dos séculos em arco
sobre os poetas
e sobre os governantes.
Meu verso chegará,
não como a seta
lírico-amável,
que persegue a caça.
Nem como
ao numismata
a moeda gasta,
nem como a luz
das estrelas decrépitas.
Meu verso
com suor
rompe a mole dos anos,
e assoma
a olho nu,
palpável,
bruto,
como a nossos dias
chega o aqueduto
levantado
por escravos romanos.
No túmulo dos livros,
versos como ossos,
se estas estrofes de aço
acaso descobrirdes,
vós as respeitareis,
como quem vê destroços
de um arsenal antigo,
mas terrível.
Ao ouvido
não diz
blandícias
minha voz;
lóbulos de donzelas
de cachos e bandós
não faço enrubescer
com lascivos rondós.
Desdobro minhas páginas?
versos como ossos,
se estas estrofes de aço
acaso descobrirdes,
vós as respeitareis,
como quem vê destroços
de um arsenal antigo,
mas terrível.
Ao ouvido
não diz
blandícias
minha voz;
lóbulos de donzelas
de cachos e bandós
não faço enrubescer
com lascivos rondós.
Desdobro minhas páginas?
tropas em parada,
e passo em revista
o front das palavras.
Estrofes estacam
chumbo-severas,
prontas para o triunfo
ou para a morte.
Poemas-canhões, rígida coorte,
apontando
as maiúsculas
abertas.
Ei-la,
a cavalaria do sarcasmo,
minha arma favorita,
alerta para a luta.
Rimas em riste,
sofreando o entusiasmo,
eriça
suas lanças agudas.
E todo
este exército aguerrido,
vinte anos de combates,
não batido,
eu vos dôo,
proletários do planeta,
cada folha
até a última letra.
O inimigo
da colossal
classe obreira,
é também
meu inimigo
mortal.
e passo em revista
o front das palavras.
Estrofes estacam
chumbo-severas,
prontas para o triunfo
ou para a morte.
Poemas-canhões, rígida coorte,
apontando
as maiúsculas
abertas.
Ei-la,
a cavalaria do sarcasmo,
minha arma favorita,
alerta para a luta.
Rimas em riste,
sofreando o entusiasmo,
eriça
suas lanças agudas.
E todo
este exército aguerrido,
vinte anos de combates,
não batido,
eu vos dôo,
proletários do planeta,
cada folha
até a última letra.
O inimigo
da colossal
classe obreira,
é também
meu inimigo
mortal.
Anos de servidão e de miséria
comandavam
nossa bandeira vermelha.
Nós abríamos Marx
volume após volume,
janelas
de nossa casa
abertas amplamente,
mas ainda sem ler
saberíamos o rumo!
onde combater,
de que lado,
em que frente.
Dialética,
não aprendemos com Hegel.
Invadiu-nos os versos
ao fragor das batalhas,
quando,
sob o nosso projétil,
debandava o burguês
que antes nos debandara.
Que essa viúva desolada,
? glória ?
se arraste
após os gênios,
melancólica.
Morre,
meu verso,
como um soldado
anônimo
na lufada do assalto.
Cuspo
sobre o bronze pesadíssimo,
sobre o bronze pesadíssimo,
cuspo
sobre o mármore viscoso.
Partilhemos a glória, ?
entre nós todos, ?
o comum monumento:
o socialismo,
forjado
na refrega
e no fogo.
Vindouros,
varejai vossos léxicos:
do Letes
brotam letras como lixo ?
“tuberculose”,
“bloqueio”,
“meretrício”.
Por vós,
geração de saudáveis, ?
um poeta,
com a língua dos cartazes,
lambeu
os escarros da tísis.
A cauda dos anos
faz-me agora
um monstro,
antediluviano.
Camarada vida,
vamos,
para diante,
galopemos
pelo qüinqüênio afora(2).
sobre o mármore viscoso.
Partilhemos a glória, ?
entre nós todos, ?
o comum monumento:
o socialismo,
forjado
na refrega
e no fogo.
Vindouros,
varejai vossos léxicos:
do Letes
brotam letras como lixo ?
“tuberculose”,
“bloqueio”,
“meretrício”.
Por vós,
geração de saudáveis, ?
um poeta,
com a língua dos cartazes,
lambeu
os escarros da tísis.
A cauda dos anos
faz-me agora
um monstro,
antediluviano.
Camarada vida,
vamos,
para diante,
galopemos
pelo qüinqüênio afora(2).
Os versos
para mim
não deram rublos,
nem mobílias
de madeiras caras.
Uma camisa
lavada e clara,
e basta, ?
para mim é tudo.
Ao Comitê Central
do futuro
ofuscante,
sobre a malta
dos vates
velhacos e falsários,
apresento
em lugar
do registro partidário
todos
os cem tomos
dos meus livros militantes.
dezembro 1929/janeiro
1930
1. Maiakóvski escreveu versos de propaganda
sanitária.
2. Alusão aos Planos Qüinqüenais soviéticos.
(Tradução e notas de Haroldo
de Campos)
Do livro “Maiakovski – Poemas”/Editora Perspectiva,
1982.
Leia também:
Vladimir Mayakovsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Mayakovsky"
redirects here. For other uses, see Mayakovsky
(disambiguation).
Acesso RAS em 27jan2016
Vladimir Mayakovsky
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Mayakovsky in 1924
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Vladimir Vladimirovich
Mayakovsky (/ˌmɑːjəˈkɔːfski, -ˈkɒf-/;[1] Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский; July 19 [O.S. July
7] 1893 – 14 April 1930) was aRussian Soviet poet, playwright, artist and stage and film actor.
During his early, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky
became renowned as a prominent figure of the Russian Futurist movement; being among the signers of
the Futurist manifesto, A Slap
in the Face of Public Taste (1913),
and authoring poems such as A Cloud in Trousers (1915) and Backbone Flute (1916). Mayakovsky produced a large
and diverse body of work during the course of his career: he wrote poems, wrote
and directed plays, appeared in films, edited the art journal LEF, and created agitprop posters
in support of the Communist
Party during the Russian Civil War. Though Mayakovsky's work
regularly demonstrated ideological and patriotic support for the ideology of
the Communist
Party and a strong
admiration of Lenin,[2][3] Mayakovsky's
relationship with the Soviet state was always complex and often tumultuous.
Mayakovsky often found himself engaged in confrontation with the increasing
involvement of the Soviet State in cultural
censorship and the
development of the State doctrine of Socialist realism. Works that contained
criticism or satire of aspects of the Soviet system, such as the poem
"Talking With the Taxman About Poetry" (1926), and the plays The Bedbug (1929) and The Bathhouse (1929), were met with scorn by the
Soviet state and literary establishment.
In 1930 Mayakovsky committed suicide. Even after death
his relationship with the Soviet state remained unsteady. Though Mayakovsky had
previously been harshly criticized by Stalinist governmental bodies like RAPP, Joseph Stalin posthumously declared Mayakovsky "the
best and the most talented poet of our Soviet epoch."[4]
BIOGRAPHY
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was born the last of
three children in Baghdati, Kutaisi Governorate, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. His father Vladimir
Konstantinovich Mayakovsky, a local forester, belonged to a noble family and
was a distant relative of the writer Grigory Danilevsky.
Vladimir Vladimirovich's mother Alexandra Alexeyevna (née Pavlenko), was a
housewife, looking after the children – a son and two daughters, Olga and
Lyudmila (their brother Konstantin died at the age of three).[5]
The Mayakovskys in Kutaisi
The family had Russian and Zaporozhian Cossack
descent on their father's side and Ukrainian on their mother's.[6] At
home the family spoke Russian. With his friends and at school Mayakovky used Georgian. "I was born in the Caucasus, my
father is a Cossack, my mother is Ukrainian. My mother tongue is Georgian. Thus
three cultures are united in me", he told the Prague newspaper Prager Presse in a 1927 interview.[7] Georgia
for Mayakovsky remained the eternal symbol of beauty. "I know, it's
nonsense, Eden and Paradise, but since people sang about them // It must have
been Georgia, the joyful land, that those poets were having in mind", he
wrote later.[5][8]
In 1902 Mayakovsky joined the Kutais gymnasium where, as a 14-year-old he took part
in socialist demonstrations
at the town of Kutaisi.[5] His
mother, aware of his activities, apparently didn't mind. "People around
warned us we were giving a young boy too much freedom. But I saw him developing
according to the new trends, sympathized with him and pandered to his
aspirations", she later remembered.[6] After
the sudden and premature death of his father in 1906 (he pricked his finger
with a rusty pin while filing papers and died of blood poisoning) the family — Mayakovsky, his
mother, and his two sisters — moved to Moscow after
selling all their movable property.[5][9]
In July 1906 Mayakovsky joined the 4th form of the
Moscow's 5th Classic gymnasium and soon developed a passion for Marxist literature.
"Never cared for fiction. For me it was philosophy, Hegel,
natural sciences, but first and foremost, Marxism. There'd be no higher art for
me than "The Foreword" by Marx, he recalled in the 1920s in his
autobiographyI, Myself.[10] In
1907 Mayakovsky became a member of his gymnasium's underground Social
Democrats' circle, taking part in numerous activities of the Russian
Social Democratic Labour Party which
he, given the nickname "Comrade Konstantin",[11] joined
the same year.[12][13] In
1908, the boy was dismissed from the gymnasium because his mother was no longer
able to afford the tuition fees.[14] For
two years he studied at the Stroganov School of Industrial Arts, where his
sister Lyudmila had started her studies a few years earlier.[9]
Mayakovsky in 1910
As a young Bolshevik activist,
Mayakovsky distributed propaganda leaflets, possessed a pistol without a
license, and in 1909 got involved in smuggling female political prisoners out
of prison. This resulted in a series of arrests and finally an 11-month
imprisonment.[11] It
was in a solitary confinement of the Moscow Butyrka prison that Mayakovsky started writing verses
for the first time.[15] "Revolution
and poetry got entangled in my head and became one", he wrote in the I, Myself autobiography.[5] As
an underage person, Mayakovsky avoided a serious prison sentence (with
subsequent deportation) and in January 1910 was released.[14] A
warden confiscated the young man's notebook, and years later Mayakovsky
conceded that was all for the better, yet he always cited 1909 as the year his
literary career started.[5]
Upon his release from prison, Mayakovsky remained an
ardent Socialist, but realized his own inadequacy as a serious revolutionary.
Having left the Party (never to re-join it), he concentrated on education.
"I stopped my Party activities. Sat down and started to learn… Now my
intention was to make the Socialist art", he later remembered.[16]
In 1911 Mayakovsky enrolled in the Moscow Art School. In September 1911 a brief
encounter with fellow student David Burlyuk (which nearly ended with a fight) led
to lasting friendship and had historic consequences for the nascent Russian
Futurist movement.[12][15] Mayakovsky
became an active member (and soon a spokesman) for the group Gileas (Гилея), which sought to free the arts
from academic traditions: its members would read poetry on street corners,
throw tea at their audiences, and make their public appearances an annoyance
for the art establishment.[9]
Burlyuk, on having heard Mayakovsky's verses, declared
him "a genius poet".[14][17] Later
Soviet researchers tried to downplay the significance of the fact, but even
after their friendship ended and their ways parted, Mayakovsky continued to
give credit to his mentor, referring to him as "my wonderful friend".
"It was Burlyuk who turned me into a poet. He read the French and the
Germans to me. He pressed books on me. He would come and talk endlessly. He
didn't let me get away. He would subside me with 50 kopeks each day so as I’d
write and not be hungry", Mayakovsky wrote in "I, Myself".[11]
LITERARY CAREER
Mayakovsky (center) with the fellow Futurist group members
On 17 November 1912, Mayakovsky made his first public
performance on stage of the Stray Dog artistic basement in Saint Petersburg.[12] In
December of that year his first published poems, "Night" (Ночь) and
"Morning" (Утро) appeared in the Futurists' Manifesto A Slap in the Face of Public Taste,[18] signed
by Mayakovsky, as well as Velemir Khlebnikov,
David Burlyuk and Alexey Kruchenykh, calling among other things
for… "throwing Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, etc, etc, off the steamboat of the
modernity."[12][14]
In October 1913 Mayakovsky gave the performance at the
Pink Lantern café, reciting his new poem "Take That!" (Нате!) for the
first time. The concert at the Petersburg's Luna-Park saw the premiere of the
poetic monodrama Vladimir
Mayakovsky, with the author in a leading role, stage decorations
designed by Pavel Filonov and Iosif Shkolnik.[12][15] In
1913 Mayakovsky's first poetry collection called I (Я) came out, its original limited
edition 300 copies lithographically printed. This four-poem cycle,
handwritten and illustrated by Vasily Tchekrygin and Leo Shektel, later formed
Part One of the 1916 compilation Simple
as Mooing.[14]
In December 1913 year Mayakovsky along with his fellow
Futurist group members embarked on the Russian tour, which took them to 17
cities, including Simferopol, Sevastopol,Kerch, Odessa and Kishinev.[5] It
was a riotous affair. The audiences would go wild and often the police stopped
the readings. The poets dressed outlandishly, and Mayakovsky, "a regular
scandal-maker" in his own words, used to appear on stage in a self-made
yellow shirt which became the token of his early stage persona.[11] The
tour ended on 13 April 1914 in Kaluga[12] and
cost Mayakovsky and Burlyuk their education: both were expelled from the Art
school for their public appearances deemed incompatible with the school's
academic principles.[12][14] They
learned of it while in Poltava from
the local police chief, who chose the occasion as a pretext to ban the
Futurists from performing on stage.[6]
Having won 65 rubles in lottery, in May 1914 Mayakovsky
went to Kuokkala, near Petrograd. Here he put the
finishing touches to A Cloud in Trousers,
frequented Korney Chukovsky's dacha,
sat for Ilya Repin's painting sessions and met Maxim Gorky for
the first time.[19] As World War I began,
Mayakovsky volunteered but was rejected as "politically unreliable".
He worked for a time at the Lubok Today company which produced patriotic lubok pictures, and in the Nov (Virgin Land) newspaper, which
published several of his anti-war poems ("Mother and an Evening Killed by
the Germans", "The War is Declared", "Me and Napoleon"
among others).[6] In
summer 1915 Mayakovsky moved to Petrograd where he started contributing to the New Satyrikon magazine, writing mostly humorous verse
in the vein of Sasha Tchorny, one of the journal's former
stalwarts. Then Maxim Gorky invited the poet to work for his journal, Letopis[5][16] (Chronicle).
In June of that year Mayakovsky fell in love with a
married woman, Lilya Brik, who eagerly took upon herself the
role of a "muse". Her husband Osip Brik seemed
not to mind and became the poet's close friend; later he published several
books by Mayakovsky and used his entrepreneurial talents to support the
Futurist movement. This love affair, as well as his impressions of World War I
and Socialism, strongly influenced Mayakovsky's best known works: A Cloud in Trousers (1915),[20] his
first major poem of appreciable length, followed by Backbone Flute (1915), The War and the World (1916) and The Man (1918).[12]
When his mobilization form finally arrived in the autumn
of 1915, Mayakovsky found himself unwilling to go to the frontlines. Assisted
by Gorky, he joined the Petrograd Military Driving school as a draftsman and
was studying there until early 1917.[7][12] In
1916 Parus (The Sail) Publishers (again led by Gorky), published Mayakovsky's
poetry compilation called Simple
As Mooing.[5][12]
1917–1927
Photo c. 1914 (caption: "Futurist
Vladimir Mayakovsky")
Mayakovsky embraced the Bolshevik
Russian Revolution wholeheartedly
and for a while even worked in Smolny, Petrograd, where he saw Vladimir Lenin and was rubbing shoulders with the
revolutionary soldiers.[12] "To
accept or not to accept, there was no such question… [That was] my Revolution,"
he wrote in I, Myself autobiography.[7] In
November 1917 he took part in the Communist Party's Central
committee-sanctioned assembly of writers, painters and theater directors who
expressed their allegiance to the new political regime.[12] In
December that year "The Left March" (Левый мар,1918) was premiered at
the The Navy Theater, with sailors as an audience.[16]
In 1918 Mayakovsky started the short-lived Futurist Paper. He also starred
in three silent films made
at the Neptun Studios in Petrograd he had written scripts for. The only
surviving one, The Young Lady
and the Hooligan, was based on the La
maestrina degli operai (The
Workers' Young Schoolmistress) published in 1895 by Edmondo De Amicis, and directed by Evgeny
Slavinsky. The other two, Born
Not for the Money and Shackled by Film were directed by Nikandr Turkin and
are presumed lost.[12][21]
On 7 November 1918 Mayakovsky's play Mystery-Bouffe was premiered in the Petrograd Musical
Drama Theatre.[12] Representing
a universal flood and the subsequent joyful triumph of the "Unclean"
(the proletariat) over the "Clean" (the bourgeoisie), this satirical
drama was re-worked in 1921 to even greater popular acclaim.[15][16] However,
the author's attempt to make a film of the play failed, the Moscow Soviet
finding its language "incomprehensible for the masses."[9]
In March 1919 Mayakovsky moved back to Moscow where Vladimir Mayakovsky's Collected Works
1909–1919 was released. The
same month he started working for the Russian State Telegraph Agency (ROSTA)
creating — both graphic and text — satirical Agitprop posters,
aimed mostly at informing the country’s largely illiterate population of the
current events.[7][12] In
the cultural climate of the early Soviet Union, his popularity grew rapidly,
even if among the members of the first Bolshevik government, only Anatoly Lunacharsky supported him; others treated the
Futurist art more skeptically. Mayakovsky's 1921 poem, 150 000 000 failed to impress Lenin, who
apparently saw in it little more than a formal futuristic experiment. More
favourably received by the Soviet leader was his next one, "Re
Conferences" which came out in April.[12]
A vigorous spokesman for the Communist Party, Mayakovsky
expressed himself in many ways. Contributing simultaneously to numerous Soviet
newspapers, he poured out topical propagandistic verses and wrote didactic booklets
for children while lecturing and reciting all over Russia.[15]
In May 1922, after a performance at the House of
Publishing at the charity auction collecting money for the victims of Povolzhye famine,
he went abroad for the first time, visiting Riga, Berlin and Paris where he visited the studios of Léger and Picasso.[9] Several
books, including The West and Paris cycles (1922–1925) came out as a
result.[12]
Mayakovsky (third from right) with friends
including Lilya Brik, Eisenstein (third
from left) and Boris Pasternak (second from left).
From 1922 to 1928, Mayakovsky was a prominent member of
the Left Art Front (LEF) he helped to found (and coin its "literature of
fact, not fiction" credo) and for a while defined his work as Communist
Futurism (комфут).[14] He
edited, along with Sergei Tretyakov and Osip Brik, the journal LEF, its stated objective being
"re-examining the ideology and practices of the so-called leftist art,
rejecting individualism and increasing Art's value for the developing
Communism."[13] The
journal's first, March 1923, issue featured Mayakovsky's poem About That (Про это).[12] Regarded
as a LEF manifesto, it soon came out as a book
illustrated by Alexander Rodchenko who also used some photographs made by
Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik.[22]
In May 1923 Mayakovsky spoke at a massive protest rally
in Moscow, in the wake of Vatslav Vorovsky's assassination. In October
1924 he gave numerous public readings of the 3,000-line epic Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin written
on the death of the Soviet Communist leader. Next February it came out as a
book, published by Gosizdat. Five years later Mayakovsky's rendition of the
third part of the poem, at the Lenin Memorial evening in the Bolshoi Theatre ended with 20-minutes ovation.[15][23] In
May 1925 Mayakovsky's second trip took him to several European cities, then to
the United States, Mexico and Cuba.
The book of essays My Discovery
of America came out later
that year.[12][14]
In January 1927 the first issue of the New LEF magazine came out, again under
Mayakovsky's supervision, now focusing on the documentary art. In all, 24
issues of it came out.[17] In
October 1927 Mayakovsky recited his new poem All
Right! (Хорошо!) for the
audience of the Moscow Party conference activists in the Moscow's Red Hall.[12] In
November 1927 a theatre puction called The
25th (and based upon the All Right! poem) was premiered in the Leningrad
Maly Opera Theatre. In summer 1928, disillusioned with LEF, he left both the
organization and its magazine.[12]
1929–1930
Mayakovsky
at his 20 Years of Work exhibition, 1930
In 1929 the publishing house Goslitizdat released The Works by V.V. Mayakovsky in 4 volumes. In September 1929 the
first assembly of the newly formed REF group gathered with Mayakovsky in the
chair.[12] But
behind this façade the poet's relationship with the Soviet literary
establishment was quickly deteriorating. Both the REF-organized exhibition of
Mayakovsky's work, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his literary career and
the parallel event in the Writers' Club, "20 Years of Work" in
February 1930, were ignored by the RAPP members and, more importantly, the
Party leadership, particularly Stalin whose
attendance he was greatly anticipating. It was becoming evident that the
experimental art was no longer welcomed by the regime, and the country's most
famous poet irritated a lot of people.[6]
Two of Mayakovsky's satirical plays, written specifically
for Meyerkhold Theatre, The Bedbug (1929) and (in particular) The Bathhouse (1930) evoked stormy criticism from
the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers.[13] In
February 1930 Mayakovsky joined RAPP, only to find himself labeled poputchik which
from the days of Lenin amounted to a potentially deadly political accusation.[12] The
smear campaign was started in the Soviet press, sporting slogans like
"Down with Mayakovshchina!" On 9 April 1930 Mayakovsky, reading his
new poem "At the Top of My Voice", was shouted down by the student
audience, for being "too obscure."[5][24]
DEATH
On 12 April 1930, Mayakovsky was for the last time seen
in public: he took part in the discussion at the Sovnarkom meeting concerning the proposed
copyright law.[12]. On
14 April 1930, his current partner, actress Veronika Polonskaya, upon leaving
his flat, heard a shot behind the closed door. She rushed in and found the poet
lying on the floor; he apparently shot himself through the heart.[12][25] The
handwritten death note read: "To all of you. I die, but don't blame anyone
for it, and please do not gossip. The deceased terribly disliked this sort of
thing. Mother, sisters, comrades, forgive me—this is not a good method (I do
not recommend it to others), but there is no other way out for me. Lily – love
me. Comrade Government, my family consists of Lily Brik, mama, my sisters, and
Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya. If you can provide a decent life for them,
thank you. Give the poem I started to the Briks. They’ll understand."[7] The
"unfinished poem" in his suicide note read, in part: "And so
they say – "the incident dissolved" / the love boat smashed up / on
the dreary routine. / I'm through with life / and [we] should absolve /from
mutual hurts, afflictions and spleen."[26] Mayakovsky's
funeral on 17 April 1930, was attended by around 150,000, the third largest
event of public mourning in Soviet history, surpassed only by those of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.[4][27] He
was interred at the Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery.[13]
CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING DEATH
Mayakovsky's farewell letter
On the day of Mayakovsky's death, 14 April, ROSTA published a news bulletin, reprinted
in Pravda the
following day, that read in part: "the suicide was caused by reasons of a
purely personal order, having nothing in general to do with the public and
literary activity of the poet, the suicide was preceded by an illness from
which the poet still had not completely recovered."[citation needed] Mayakovsky's suicide occurred after a
dispute with Polonskaya, with whom he had a brief but unstable romance.
Polonskaya, who was in love with the poet, but unwilling to leave her husband,
was the last one to see Mayakovsky alive.[7] But,
as Lilya Brik stated in her memoirs, "the idea of suicide was like a
chronic disease inside him, and like any chronic disease it worsened under
circumstances that, for him, were undesirable ... "[11] According
to Polonskaya, Mayakovsky mentioned suicide on 13 April, when the two were at Valentin Katayev's place, but she thought he
was trying to emotionally blackmail her and "refused to believe for a
second [he] could do such a thing."[25]
Yet speculation has occurred regarding the circumstances
of Mayakovsky's death. It appeared that the suicide note was written two days
before his death. Soon after the poet's death, Lilya and Osip Briks were
hastily sent abroad. The bullet removed from his body didn't match the model of
his pistol, and his neighbors were later reported to say they'd heard two
shots.[11] Ten
days later, the officer investigating the poet's suicide was himself killed,
fueling speculation about the nature of Mayakovsky's death.[13]Such speculation, often alluding to
suspicion of murder by State services, especially intensified during the
periods of Krushchevian de-Stalinisation, Glasnost, and Perestroika,[dubious ] as Soviet politicians sought to weaken
Stalin's reputation (or Brik's, and by association, Stalin's) and the positions
of contemporary opponents. According to Chantal Sundaram:
The extent to which rumours of Mayakovsky's murder
remained widespread is indicated by the fact that even as late as the end of
1991 they prompted the State Mayakovsky Museum to commission an expert medical
and criminological inquiry into the material evidence of his death kept in the
museum: photographs, the shirt with traces from the gunshot, the carpet on
which Mayakovsky fell, and the authenticity of the suicide note. The
possibility of a forgery, suggested by [Andrei] Koloskov, had survived as a
theory with different variants. But the results of a detailed hand-writing
analysis found that the suicide note was undoubtedly written by Mayakovsky, and
also included the conclusion that its irregularities "depict a diagnostic
complex, testifying to the influence ... at the moment of execution ... of
'disconcerting' factors, among which the most probable is a
psycho-physiological state linked with agitation." Although the findings
are hardly surprising, the event is indicative of a fascination with
Mayakovsky's contradictory relationship with the Soviet authorities which
survived into the era of perestroika, despite the fact that he was being
attacked and rejected for his political conformism at this time.[4]
PRIVATE LIFE
Mayakovsky met husband and wife Osip and Lilya Briks in
July 1915 at their dacha in Malakhovka nearby
Moscow. Soon after that Lilya's sister Elsa, who'd had a brief affair with the poet
before, invited him to the Briks' Petrograd flat. The couple at the time showed
no interest in literature and were successful corals traders.[28] That
evening Mayakovsky recited the yet unpublished poem A Cloud in Trousers and announced it as dedicated to the
hostess ("For you, Lilya"). "That was the happiest day in my
life," was how he referred to the episode in his autobiography years
later.[5] According
to Lilya Brik's memoirs, her husband too fell in love with the poet ("How
could I have possibly failed to fell for him, if Osya loved him so?" – she
once argued),[29] whereas
"Volodya did not merely fall in love with me; he attacked me, it was an
assault. For two and a half years I didn't have a moment's peace. I understood
right away that Volodya was a genius, but I didn't like him. I didn't like
clamorous people ... I didn't like the fact that he was so tall and people in
the street would stare at him; I was annoyed that he enjoyed listening to his
own voice, I couldn't even stand the name Mayakovsky... sounding so much like a
cheap pen name."[11] Both
Mayakovsky's persistent adoration and rough appearance irritated her. It was,
allegedly, to please her, that Mayakovsky attended a dentist, started to wear a
bow tie and use a walking stick.[9]
Soon after Osip Brik published A Cloud in Trousers in September 1915, Mayakovsky settled
in the Palace Royal hotel at the Pushkinskaya Street, Petrograd, not far from
where they lived. He introduced the couple to his Futurist friends and the
Briks' flat quickly evolved into a modern literary salon. From then on
Mayakovsky was dedicating every one of his large poems (with the obvious
exception of Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin) to Lilya; such dedications later started to appear even in the texts
he'd written before they met, much to her displeasure.[11] In
summer 1918, soon after Lilya and Vladimir starred in the film Encased in a Film (only fragments of which survived),
Mayakovsky and the Briks moved in together. In March 1919 all three came to
Moscow and in 1920 settled in a flat at the Gondrikov Lane,Taganka.[30]
In 1920 Mayakovsky had a brief romance with Lilya
Lavinskaya, an artist who also contributed to ROSTA. She gave birth to a son, Gleb-Nikita
Lavinsky (1921—1986),
later a Soviet sculptor.[31] In
1922 Lilya Brik fell in love with Alexander
Krasnoshchyokov, the head of the Soviet Prombank. This affair
resulted in the three months rift, which was to some extent reflected in the
poem About That (1923). Brik and Mayakovsky's
relationships ended in 1923, but they never parted. "Now I am free from
placards and love," he confessed in the poem called "For the
Jubilee" (1924). Still, when in 1926 Mayakovsky was granted a state-owned
flat at the Gendrikov Lane in Moscow, all three of them moved in and lived
there until 1930, having turned the place into the LEF headquarters.[24]
Mayakovsky continued to profess his devotion to Lilya
whom he considered a family member. It was Brik who in the mid-1930s famously
addressed Stalin with a personal letter which made all the difference in the
way poet's legacy hase been treated since in the USSR. Still, she had many
detractors (among them Lyudmila Mayakovskaya, the poet's sister) who regarded
her insensitive femme-fatale and cynical manipulator, who'd never been really
interested in either Mayakovsky or his poetry.[7] "To
me, she was a kind of monster. But Mayakovsky apparently loved her that way, armed
with a whip," remembered poet Andrey Voznesensky who knew Lilya Brik personally.[30] Literary
critic and historian Viktor Shklovsky who resented what he saw as the Briks'
exploitation of Mayakovsky both when he lived and after his death, once called
them "a family of corpse-mongers."[29]
In summer 1925 Mayakovsky traveled to New York, where he
met Russian émigré Elli Jones, born Yelizaveta Petrovna Zibert, an interpreter
who spoke Russian, French, German and English fluently. They fell in love, for
three months were inseparable, but decided to keep their affair secret. Soon
after the poet's return to the Soviet Union, Elli gave birth to daughter Patricia.
Mayakovsky saw the girl just once, in Nice,
France, in 1928, when she was three.[11]
Tatyana Yakovleva
Patricia Thompson, a professor of philosophy and women's
studies at Lehman College in New York City, is the author of the book Mayakovsky in Manhattan, in
which she told the story of her parents' love affair, relying on her mother's
unpublished memoirs and their private conversations prior to her death in 1985.
Thompson traveled to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, looking for
her roots, was welcomed there with respect and since then started to use her
Russian name, Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya.[11]
In 1928 in Paris Mayakovsky met Russian émigré Tatyana
Yakovleva,[12] a
22-year-old model working for the Chanel fashion house. He fell in love madly
and wrote two poems dedicated to her, "Letter to Comrade Kostrov on the
Essence of Love" and "Letter to Tatiana Yakovleva." Some argued
that, since it was Elsa Triolet (Lilya's sister) who acquainted them, the
liaison might have been the result of Brik's intrigue, aimed at stopping the
poet from getting closer to Elli Jones and especially daughter Patricia, but
the power of this passion apparently caught her by surprise.[30]
Mayakovsky tried to persuade Tatyana to return to Russia
but she refused. In the late 1929 he made an attempt to travel to Paris in
order to marry her lover but was refused a visa for the first time, again, as
many believed, due to Lilya's making full use of her numerous
"connections". It became known that she "accidentally" read
Mayakovsky out a letter from Paris alleging that Tatiana was getting married,
while, as it turned out soon, the latter's wedding wasn't on the agenda at that
very moment.[7] Lydia Chukovskaya insisted it was the
"ever-powerful Yakov Agranov, another one of Lilya's
lovers" who prevented Mayakovsky's getting a visa, upon her request.[32]
In the late 1920s Mayakovsky had two more affairs, with
student (later Goslitizdat editor) Natalya Bryukhanenko (1905–1984) and with
Veronika Polonskaya (1908—1994), a youngMAT actress, then the wife of actor Mikhail Yanshin.[33] It
was Veronika's unwillingness to divorce the latter that resulted in her rows
with Mayakovsky, the last of which preceded the poet's suicide.[34] Yet,
according to Natalya Bryukhanenko, it was not Polonskaya but Yakovleva whom he
was pining for. "In January 1929 Mayakovsky [told me] he… would put a
bullet to his brain if he didn't see that woman any time soon", she later
remembered. Which, on 14 April 1930, he did.[7]
WORKS
Image from Mayakovsky's Как делать стихи ("How to Make Poems").
Though immature, Mayakovsky's early poems established him
as one of the more original poets to come out of the Russian Futurism, a
movement rejecting the traditional poetry in favour of formal experimentation,
and welcoming the social change promised by modern technology. His 1913 verses,
surreal, seemingly disjointed and nonsensical, relying on forceful rhythms and
exaggerated imagery with the words split into pieces and staggered across the
page, were peppered with street language, considered unpoetic in literary
circles at the time.[13] While
the confrontational aesthetics of his fellow Futurist group members' poetry
were mostly confined to formal experiments, Mayakovsky's idea was creating the
new, "democratic language of the streets".[16]
In 1914 his first large work, an avant-garde tragedy Vladimir
Mayakovsky came
out. The fierce critique of the city life and capitalism in general was, at the
same time, a paean to the modern industrial power, featuring the protagonist
sacrificing himself for the sake of the people's happiness in the future.[5][14]
In September 1915 A
Cloud in Trousers came out,[20] Mayakovsky's
first major poem of appreciable length; it depicted the heated subjects of
love, revolution, religion and art, written from the vantage point of a spurned
lover. The language of the work was the language of the streets, and Mayakovsky
went to considerable lengths to debunk idealistic and romanticized notions of
poetry and poets.
Your thoughts,
dreaming on a softened brain, like an over-fed lackey on a greasy settee, with my heart's bloody tatters I'll mock again; impudent and caustic, I'll jeer to superfluity. Of Grandfatherly gentleness I'm devoid, there's not a single grey hair in my soul! Thundering the world with the might of my voice, I go by – handsome, twenty-two-year-old. |
Вашу мысль
мечтающую на размягченном мозгу, как выжиревший лакей на засаленной кушетке, буду дразнить об окровавленный сердца лоскут: досыта изъиздеваюсь, нахальный и едкий. У меня в душе ни одного седого волоса, и старческой нежности нет в ней! Мир огромив мощью голоса, иду – красивый, двадцатидвухлетний. |
|
(From
the prologue of A Cloud in
Trousers.)
|
||
It was followed by the Backbone Flute (1916) which again outraged
contemporary critics who described the author as talentless charlatan, spurning
"empty words of a malaria sufferer"; some even recommended that he'd
"be hospitalized immediately."[11] In
retrospect it is seen as a groundbreaking piece, introducing the new forms of
expressing social anger and personal frustrations.[16]
1917–1921 was a fruitful period for the poet, who greeted
the Bolshevik Revolution with a number of poetic and dramatic works, starting
with "Ode to the Revolution" (1918) and "Left March"
(1918), a hymn to the proletarian might, calling for the fight against the
"enemies of the revolution."[16] Mystery-Bouffe (1918, second version – 1921), the
first Soviet play, told the story of a new Noah's Ark, built by the "unclean"
(workers and peasants) sporting "moral cleanness" and "united by
the class solidarity."[13][16]
Agitprop poster by Mayakovsky
In 1919–1921 Mayakovsky worked for the Russian Telegraph
Agency (ROSTA). Painting posters and cartoons, he provided them with apt rhymes
and slogans (mixing rhythm patterns, different typesetting styles, and using
neologisms) which were describing the currents events in dynamics.[9][15] In
three years he produced some 1100 pieces he called "ROSTA Windows".[16]
In 1921 Mayakovsky's poem 150 000 000 arrived, hailing the Russian people's
mission in igniting the world revolution, but failed to impress Lenin. The
latter praised the 1922 poem "Re Conferences" (Прозаседавшиеся), a
scathing satire on the nascent Soviet bureaucracy starting
to eat up the apparently flawed state system.[6]
Mayakovsky's poetry was saturated with politics, but no
amount of social propaganda could stifle his personal need for love. It came
out most strongly in two poems, I
Love (1922) and About That (1923), both dedicated to Lilya Brik.
Even after Mayakovsky's relationship with this woman ended (circa 1923), he
considered her one of the people closest to him and a member of his family.[15] In
October 1924 appeared Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin written
on the death of the Soviet Communist leader.[12][15] While
the newspapers reported of highly successful public performances, the Soviet
literary critics had their reservations, G. Lelevich calling it "cerebral
and rhetorical," Viktor Pertsov mentioning "wordiness, cringeworthy
naivety and clumsiness."[35]
Mayakovsky's extensive foreign trips resulted in the
books of poetry (The West,
1922-1924; Paris,
1924–1925: Poems About America,
1925–1926), as well as a set of analytical satirical essays.[6]
In 1926 Mayakovsky wrote and published "Talking with
the Taxman about Poetry", the first in a series of works criticizing the
new Soviet philistinism, the result of the New Economic Policy.[17] His
1927 epic, All Right! (1927) sought to unite heroic pathos
with lyricism and irony. Extoling the new Bolshevik Russia as "the
springtime of the human kind" it was praised by Lunacharsky as "the
October Revolution set in bronze."[15][16]
In his last three years Mayakovsky completed two
satirical plays: The Bedbug (1929), and The Bathhouse, both lampooning
bureaucratic stupidity and opportunism.[15] The
latter was extolled by Vsevolod Meyerholdwho
rated it as high as the best work of Moliere, Pushkin and Gogol and called it "the greatest
phenomenon of the history of the Russian theatre".[23] The
fierce criticism both plays were met with in the Soviet press was overstated
and politically charged, but still, in retrospect Mayakovsky's work in the
1920s is regarded as patched, even his most famous poems, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and All
Right! looking inferior to
his passionate and innovative 1910s work. Several authors, among them Valentin
Katayev and close friend Boris Pasternak, reproached him for squandering
enormous potential on petty propaganda. The harsh assessment of the poet's
later efforts came from Marina Tsvetayeva, who in her 1932 essay
"The Art in the Light of Conscience" commented this way on his death:
"For twelve years Mayakovsky the man was destroying Mayakovsky the poet.
On the thirteenth year the Poet rose up and killed the man… His suicide lasted
twelve years, not for a moment he pulled the trigger."[36]
LEGACY
Mayakovsky's grave at Novodevichy
After Mayakovsky's death the Association of the
Proletarian Writers' leadership made sure the publications of the poet's work
were cancelled and his very name stopped being mentioned in the Soviet press.
In her 1935 letter to Yosif Stalin, Lilya Brik challenged her opponents, asking
personally the Soviet leader for help. Stalin's resolution inscribed upon this
message, read:
"Comrade Yezhov, please take charge of Brik's letter.
Mayakovsky is the best and the most talented poet of our Soviet epoch.
Indifference to his cultural heritage amounts to a crime. Brik's complaints
are, in my opinion, justified..."[37]
The effect of this letter was startling. Mayakovsky was
instantly hailed a Soviet classic, proving to be the only member of the
artistic avant-garde of the early 20th century to enter the Soviet mainstream.
His birthplace of Baghdati in Georgia was renamed Mayakovsky in his honour. In
1937 the Mayakovsky Museum (and library) were opened in Moscow.[16]Triumphal Square in Moscow became
Mayakovsky Square.[17] In
1938 the Mayakovskaya
Metro Station was
opened to the public. Nikolay Aseyev received a Stalin prize in
1941 for his poem "Mayakovsky Starts Here", which celebrated him as a
poet of the revolution.[9] In
1974 the Russian State Museum of Mayakovsky opened in the center of Moscow in
the building where Mayakovsky resided from 1919 to 1930.[38]
But the flip side of this achievement was catastrophic.
For the Soviet readership Mayakovsky ceased being anything other than "the
poet of the Revolution," his legacy censored, more intimate or
controversial pieces ignored, lines taken out of contexts and turned into
slogans (like the omnipresent "Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin shall live
forever"). The major rebel of his generation was turned into a symbol of
the repressive state. The Stalin-sanctioned canonization has
dealt Mayakovsky, according to Boris Pasternak, the second death, as the
communist authorities "started to impose him forcibly, like Catherine the Great did the potatoes."[39] In
the late 1950s and early 1960s Mayakovsky's popularity in the soviet Union
started to rise again, with the new generation of writers recognizing him as a
purveyor of artistic freedom and daring experimentation. "Mayakovsky's
face is etched on the altar of the century," Boris Pasternak wrote at that time.[11] Young
poets, drawn to avant-garde art and activism that often clashed with communist
dogma, chose Mayakovsky's statue in Moscow for their organized poetry readings.[15]
Among the Soviet authors he influenced were Valentin Kataev, Andrey Voznesensky (who called Mayakovsky a teacher and
favorite poet and dedicated a poem to him entitled Mayakovsky in Paris)[40][41] andYevgeny Yevtushenko.[42] In
1967 the Taganka Theater staged the poetical performance Listen Here! (Послушайте!), based on Mayakovsky's
works with the leading role given to Vladimir Vysotsky, who was also much inspired
by Mayakovsky's poetry.[43]
Mayakovsky became well-known and studied outside of the USSR.
Poets such as Nâzım Hikmet, Louis Aragon and Pablo Neruda acknowledged
having been influenced by his work.[16] He
was the most influential futurist in Lithuania and
his poetry helped to form the Four Winds movement there.[44] Mayakovsky
was a significant influence on American poet Frank O'Hara. O'Hara's 1957 poem
"Mayakovsky"(1957) contains many references to Mayakovsky's life and
works,[45][46] in
addition to "A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island"
(1958), a variation on Mayakovsky's "An Extraordinary Adventure that
Happened to Vladimir Mayakovsky One Summer at a Dacha" (1920).[47] 1986
English singer and songwriter Billy Bragg recorded
the album Talking
with the Taxman about Poetry, named after Mayakovsky's poem of
the same name. In 2007 Craig Volk's stage bio-drama Mayakovsky Takes the Stage (based on his screenplay At the Top of My Voice) won the PEN-USA Literary Award for Best Stage Drama.[48]
In the Soviet Union's final years there was a strong
tendency to view Mayakovsky's work as dated and insignificant; there were even
calls for banishing his poems from school textbooks. Yet on the basis of his
best works, Mayakovsky’s reputation was revived[15] and
(by authors like Yuri Karabchiyevsky) attempts have been made to recreate an
objective picture of his life and legacy. Mayakovsky was credited as a radical
reformer of the Russian poetic language who created his own linguistic system
charged with the new kind of expressionism, which in many ways influence the
development of the Soviet and world poetry.[16] The
"raging bull of Russian poetry," "the wizard of rhyming,"
"an individualist and a rebel against established taste and
standards," Mayakovsky is seen by many in Russia as a truly revolutionary
force and the greatest rebel in the 20th century Russian literature.[7]
WORKS[
Poems[edit]
·
A
Flying Proletarian (Летающий пролетарий, 1925)
Poem cycles and collections[edit]
·
The
Early Ones (Первое, 1912–1924, 22 poems)
·
I (Я, 1914, 4 poems)
·
Satires.
1913–1927 (23 poems, including "Take
That!", 1914)
·
The
War (Война,
1914–1916, 8 poems)
·
Lyrics (Лирика, 1916, Лирика, 1916, 3 poems)
·
Revolution (Революция, 1917–1928, 22 poems, including
"Ode to Revolution", 1918; "The Left March", 1919)
·
Everyday
Life (Быт, 1921–1924, 11 poems, including
"On Rubbish", 1921, "Re Conferences", 1922)
·
The
Art of the Commune (Искусство коммуны, 1918–1923, 11 poems,
including "An Order to the Army of Arts", 1918)
·
Agitpoems (Агитпоэмы, 1923, 6 poems, including
"The Mayakovsky Gallery")
·
The West (Запад, 1922–1925, 10 poems, including
"How Does the Democratic Republic Work?", and the 8-poem Paris cycle)
·
The
American Poems (Стихи об Америке, 1925–1926, 21 poems,
including "The Brooklyn Bridge")
·
On
Poetry (О поэзии, 1926, 7 poems, including
"Talking with the Taxman About Poetry", "For Sergey
Yesenin")
·
The
Satires. 1926 (Сатира, 1926. 14 poems)
·
Lyrics.
1918–1924 (Лирика. 12 poems, including "I
Love", 1922)
·
Publicism (Публицистика, 1926, 12 poems, including
"To Comrade Nette, a Steamboat and a Man", 1926)
·
The
Children's Room (Детская, 1925–1929. 9 poems for children,
including "What Is Good and What Is Bad")
·
Poems.
1927–1928 (56 poems, including "Lenin With
Us!")
·
Satires.
1928 (Сатира. 1928, 9 poems)
·
Cultural
Revolution (Культурная революция, 1927–1928, 20 poems,
including "Beer and Socialism")
·
Agit…(Агит…, 1928, 44 poems, including
"'Yid'")
·
Roads (Дороги, 1928, 11 poems)
·
The
First of Five (Первый из пяти, 1925, 26 poems)
·
Back
and Forth (Туда и обратно, 1928–1930, 19 poems,
including "The Poem of the Soviet Passport")
·
Formidable
Laughter (Грозный смех, 1922–1930; more than 100
poems, published posthumously, 1932–1936)
·
Poems,
1924–1930 (Стихотворения. 1924–1930, including
"A Letter to Comrade Kostrov on the Essence of Love", 1929)
·
Whom
Shall I Become? (Кем Быть, Kem byt'?, published
posthumously 1931, poem for children, illustrated by N. A. Shifrin)
Plays[edit]
·
Moscow
Burns. 1905 (Москва горит. 1905, 1930)
Essays and sketches[edit]
·
My
Discovery of America (Мое открытие Америки, 1926), in four parts
·
How
to Make Verses (Как делать стихи, 1926)
LITERATURE
·
Aizlewood,
Robin. Verse form and meaning
in the poetry of Vladimir Maiakovsky: Tragediia, Oblako v shtanakh,
Fleita-pozvonochnik, Chelovek, Liubliu, Pro eto (Modern Humanities Research
Association, London, 1989).
·
Brown,
E. J. Mayakovsky: a poet in
the revolution (Princeton
Univ. Press, 1973).
·
Charters,
Ann & Samuel. I
love : the story of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lili Brik (Farrar Straus Giroux, NY, 1979).
·
Humesky,
Assya. Majakovskiy and his
neologisms (Rausen
Publishers, NY, 1964).
·
Jangfeldt,
Bengt. Majakovsky and futurism
1917–1921 (Almqvist &
Wiksell International, Stockholm, 1976).
·
Lavrin, Janko. From Pushkin to Mayakovsky, a study
in the evolution of a literature. (Sylvan
Press, London, 1948).
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir (Patricia Blake ed., trans. Max Hayward and George Reavey). The bedbug and selected poetry. (Meridian Books, Cleveland, 1960).
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir. Mayakovsky: Plays.
Trans. Guy Daniels. (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Il, 1995). ISBN 0-8101-1339-2.
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir. For the voice (The British Library, London, 2000).
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir (ed. Bengt Jangfeldt, trans. Julian Graffy). Love is the heart of
everything : correspondence between Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lili Brik
1915–1930 (Polygon Books,
Edinburgh, 1986).
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir (comp. and trans. Herbert Marshall). Mayakovsky
and his poetry (Current Book
House, Bombay, 1955).
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir. Selected works in
three volumes (Raduga,
Moscow, 1985).
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir. Selected poetry. (Foreign Languages, Moscow, 1975).
·
Mayakovsky,
Vladimir (ed. Bengt Jangfeldt and Nils Ake Nilsson). Vladimir Majakovsky: Memoirs and
essays (Almqvist &
Wiksell Int., Stockholm 1975).
·
Novatorskoe iskusstvo Vladimira Maiakovskogo (trans. Alex Miller). Vladimir Mayakovsky: Innovator (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976).
·
Noyes,
George R. Masterpieces of the
Russian drama (Dover Pub.,
NY, 1960).
·
Nyka-Niliūnas,
Alfonsas. Keturi vėjai ir
keturvėjinikai (The Four
Winds literary movement and its members), Aidai,
1949, No. 24. (Lithuanian)
·
Rougle,
Charles. Three Russians
consider America : America in the works of Maksim Gorkij, Aleksandr Blok,
and Vladimir Majakovsky (Almqvist
& Wiksell International, Stockholm, 1976).
·
Shklovskii,
Viktor Borisovich. (ed. and trans. Lily Feiler). Mayakovsky and his circle (Dodd, Mead, NY, 1972).
·
Stapanian,
Juliette. Mayakovsky's
cubo-futurist vision (Rice
University Press, 1986).
·
Terras,
Victor. Vladimir Mayakovsky (Twayne, Boston, 1983).
·
Vallejo,
César (trans. Richard Schaaf) The
Mayakovsky case (Curbstone
Press, Willimantic, CT, 1982).
·
Volk,
Craig, "Mayakovsky Takes The Stage" (full-length stage drama), 2006
and "At The Top Of My Voice" (feature-length screenplay), 2002.
·
Wachtel,
Michael. The development of
Russian verse : meter and its meanings (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
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Publishers. p. 238. ISBN 5-05-00001 7-3. On snow-covered lands / and
stubbly fields, / in smoky plants / and on factory sites, / with you in our
hearts, / Comrade Lenin, / we think, / we breathe, / we live , / we build, /
and we fight!
3.
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39. Jump up^ Zaytsev, S. (2012). "Mayakovsky’s
Second Death". Tatyanin Den. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
40. Jump up^ Андрей Вознесенский. Маяковский в Париже [Andrei Voznesensky. Mayakovsky in Paris] (in Russian). Ruthenia.ru. Retrieved 13 July2012.
41. Jump up^ Огонек: Как Нам Было Страшно! [Spark: How It was
terrible!] (in Russian). Ogoniok.com.
Retrieved 13 July 2012.
42. Jump up^ Евгений Евтушенко: "Как поэт я хотел соединить Маяковского и Есенина" | Культура – Аргументы и Факты [Yevgeny Yevtushenko: "As a poet, I would like to connect
Mayakovsky and Esenin»] (in Russian). Aif.ru. 23 April 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
43. Jump up^ Театр на Таганке: Высоцкий и другие [Taganka Theater: Vysotsky and other] (in Russian). Taganka.theatre.ru. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
45. Jump up^ "Mayakovsky by
Frank O'Hara : The Poetry Foundation".www.poetryfoundation.org.
Retrieved 8 May 2015. I am standing in the bath tub/
crying. Mother, mother" "That’s funny! there’s blood on my chest / oh
yes, I’ve been carrying bricks /what a funny place to rupture! "with
bloody blows on its head. / I embrace a cloud, / but when I soared / it rained. line feed character in
|quote= at position 56 (help)
46. Jump up^ Mayakovsky, Vladimir (2008).
"A Cloud in Trousers, I Call". Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry of
Vladimir Mayakovsky. trans. Andrey Kneller. Boston: CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1438211640. Mother? / Mother! / Your son has a
wonderful sickness! / Mother!" " I walked on, enduring the pain in my
chest. / My ribcage was trembling under the stress." "Not a man – but
a cloud in trousers. line feed character in
|quote= at position 67 (help)
47. Jump up^ "Brad Gooch: On
"A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island" | Modern
American Poetry". www.modernamericanpoetry.org.
Retrieved 8 May 2015.
EXTERNAL LINKS
·
The 'raging bull' of
Russian poetry article by Dalia Karpel at
Haaretz.com, published on-line 5 July 2007
WORKS BY VLADIMIR
MAYAKOVSKY
Plays
Poetry
On the 110th Birth Anniversary of Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
Vladimir Mayakovsky and
the Poetry of Socialist Realism
Jakub Mato,
Rinush Idrizi,
Anastas Kapurani
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv9n2/mayakovsky.htmRinush Idrizi,
Anastas Kapurani
Acessess RAS in 28jan2016.
Life And Creativity
Years of Childhood
With the name and work of Vladimir Mayakovsky, the new stage of
socialist realism opened in Russian and world poetry.He was born on 19 July 1893 in the village of Baghdadi (today Mayakovsky) near Kutais in Georgia. His father was a simple forester, and the family was nourished on progressive ideas. The poet was twelve years of age when the first Russian Revolution broke out in 1905. its echo was felt even in the mountains of the Caucasus. The wave of the popular movement against Tsarism and the reactionary bourgeoisie, led by the Georgian Bolsheviks, lapped the whole of Georgia, and especially the city of Kutais, where he was attending high school. Vladimir was educated by his father with democratic feelings of respect and affection for working people. The year 1905 became for him not only a great source of impressions, but also a true school, where he formed his first political ideas, where he received his first baptism as a revolutionary. He entered the Marxist circles at the high school, read revolutionary literature which his elder sister brought from Moscow, learned new rebel songs which left a great impression on him. ‘It seemed as if verses and revolution were intertwined in my mind,’ wrote the poet in his ‘Autobiography’.
The year 1906 found Mayakovsky in the city of revolution; his father died and he, with his mother and his two sisters, settled in Moscow. Here the smoke of gunpowder had not yet dispersed, and the workers’ blood had not yet dried in the working class quarter on the main barricade of the revolution, which resisted heroically. The older students who shared a house with him persuaded him to read the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin. They talked about the Bolshevik Party and about the role of Lenin as leader of the Russian proletariat. In his desk, along with his school books, he kept ‘Anti-Duhring’. The revolutionary inspiration of the future was being sown in the consciousness of the poet.
Years of Youth
1908, the year of the most rabid reaction after the crushing of the 1905
Revolution, became the happiest year for the fifteen-year-old Mayakovsky: he
joined the Russian Social-Democratic Party led by Lenin. He had the pseudonym
‘Comrade Constantine’. He worked as a propagandist, distributed illegal
publications, helped a group of revolutionaries to escape from prison. He came
to know at first hand the workers, their thoughts and feelings. The passion of
revolutionary activity, with its daily joys and dangers, took hold of him.
During the years 1908-1910 Mayakovsky was imprisoned three times. But prison
could not break his belief in the victory of the revolution. He came out of
prison with a new wish: "I want to create socialist art"
(‘Autobiography’). Mayakovsky wavered between poetry and painting. From
childhood he had been attracted by verses, which he learnt by heart and recited
beautifully. In prison, in 1909, he tested his pen for the first time, but the
prison governor confiscated the notebook of verses. Similarly, in his high
school in the Caucasus, he had greatly amused the Georgian comrades with his
caricatures of the reactionary professor. He had also drawn portraits of some
of his revolutionary comrades.Mayakovsky entered art school in Moscow, and was a successful student.
In 1912 he published the first verses. Poetry had finally conquered Mayakovsky.
Beginnings of
Literary Creativity
The young poet was at that time under the influence of futurism. This
literary current, despite its sensational slogans of ‘a new art of the future’
and ‘the struggle against decadent bourgeois art’, was in fact a manifestation
of petty-bourgeois, anarchist literature. Futurism, with its anti-bourgeois
slogans, at first attracted Mayakovsky but, despite some traces which this
current left in his early creative work, at heart Mayakovsky was far from
futurism, and he fought with all his strength against the very bases of
bourgeois society. ‘Let us speak the truth’, Gorky has said about Mayakovsky’s
poetry of those years, ‘there has never been futurism here, there is only
Mayakovsky. A poet. A great poet’. In this first creation he portrayed the
tragic fate of man under capitalism and the feelings of protest of the masses,
which were known to ‘Comrade Constantine’. Principal among these were the
humanitarian ideas of the liberation and elevation of the working man, which
find most complete embodiment in the programmatic poem of this period ‘A Cloud
in Trousers’, published in 1915. Later, the poet, explaining the ideas of the
four parts of the poem, said that they may be entitled: ‘Down with your Love’,
‘Down with your Art’, ‘Down with your System’, and ‘Down with your Religion’.
In this poem, the poet, describing the tragedy of the life of the simple man of
the people, calls for revolutionary struggle against the rotten bourgeois
morality, religion and social system:
‘Passers-by, take your hands from your pockets!
Pick up a stone, a knife, a bomb!’
The principal aim of his activity became preparation for the approaching revolution.
Mayakovsky greeted the First World War with struggle. He unmasked its imperialist, anti-popular character in the poem ‘War and the World’ of 1916. In the poem ‘Answer!’ he says angrily that the bourgeoisie, driven by thirst for profits and conquest, sends millions of people to the slaughter-house. Here he rises also in defence of the rights of small countries, such as Albania, etc., which the imperialists wish to dismember. Nevertheless, in his whole pre-revolutionary political activity one must note that the poet is more a stormy rebel than a conscious fighter.
In these years Mayakovsky became familiar and friendly with the great revolutionary writer Maxim Gorky, who was pleased to publish his works in the review he directed, ‘Chronicle’. Gorky, who was now a developed proletarian writer, supported and assisted the poet at a time when the bourgeois press was attacking him fiercely. They were united by a common anger against all the oppressors, by affection and praise for free man, for the revolution – against which the whole Tsarist state and the bourgeois press and art had undertaken a foul attack to try and stem the new tide of revolution which was rising in Russia. Precisely in these years there rang out the poetical voice of Mayakovsky who, alongside Gorky, entered the October Revolution, singing to it and greeting it as his own. ‘October. To accept it or not? For me this question never arose. It is my revolution. I went to Smolny. I worked’.
Literary Creativity
during the Civil War
Mayakovsky undertook a wide activity in the service of the Soviet state.
He wrote verses and film scenarios, appeared himself in films and, on the first
anniversary of the Revolution in 1918, presented at the festival the theatrical
piece ‘Mystery-Bouffe’, dedicated to the triumph of the socialist revolution.He shared the joys and anxieties of Soviet power. In the heroic years of hunger and cold of the Civil War, Mayakovsky acted as a revolutionary poet; he went to the people, to the soldiers and marines, reading his verse and giving heart to them. Such is his poem of these years ‘Left March’ (1918), about the proletarian courage, discipline and optimism of those engaged in the struggle with counter-revolution. This poem reveals a new face in Mayakovsky’s lyrical poetry, the face of a clearer and simple poetry, fully intelligible to the masses. As a newspaper wrote at the time: ‘with his strong, powerful voice, which resounded through the whole square, he read the poem ‘Left March’. The whole square repeated his verse:
‘The Commune will never go down.
Left!
Left!
Left!’
During the years 1919-1922 Mayakovsky worked night and day, up to sixteen hours a day, in the Russian telegraphic agency (Rosta). He drafted hundreds of posters and wrote for them thousands of captions in topical verse. These posters were called ‘Rosta’s windows’. They were pasted up each day in the streets of Moscow.
This intensive work, very useful also for the poet himself, helped him to get to know the new reality more profoundly and comprehensively, and to link himself more closely with the interest of the people and the socialist state. Directing himself to the man of the masses through posters, Mayakovsky learned to speak in poetry too with a simpler language, closer to the living speech of the people, and to use a clearer, but still original, figurative style. He studied passionately the speeches and reports of Lenin and drew from them themes for his poetry. A new step towards socialist realism in the poet’s creativity was taken in the poem of these years ‘150,000,000’, which, through an imaginary duel between two legendary giants – Ivan (representing revolutionary Russia) and Wilson (representing Capitalism) – portrays the struggle of the revolution against, and its victory over, the interventionists.
Literary Creativity
after the Civil War
When the land of the Soviets began work on the reconstruction of the
ruined economy and the building of the new life, Mayakovsky’s poetry was
enriched with new themes and ideas.His important theme in these years was that of labour and socialist patriotism; he extols the construction of the industrial base of socialism (‘Khrenov’s Story of Kuznetsktroy and the People of Kuznetsk’), celebrates the workers’ vanguard movement (‘March of the Shock Brigades’), builds in verse a ‘Temporary Monument to the Workers of Kursk, who extracted the First Minerals’, sings of the social changes in the countryside (‘Harvest March’), weaves optimistic elegies to communists who fell in the course of the duty (‘To Comrade Nette, Man and Ship’), expresses his optimism and pride in being a citizen of the first socialist country in the world, a country which strikes fear and hatred into the imperialists and everywhere enjoys the sympathy of workers (‘Verse on my Soviet Passport’), etc.
Another theme to which the poet devoted great attention, creating outstanding poems, was that of the struggle against bourgeois and petty-bourgeois survivals in life and in the consciousness of people. With his inspired pen, he promptly echoed the decisions of the party in this field. He wrote verses against religion, religious beliefs and backward customs; he lashed bureaucracy and servility unmercifully, struck out at the ‘dregs’, and gave warnings of the danger of bureaucracy and other blemishes from the past:
‘The storms of the revolutionary gales quietened,
the tangle of Soviet strata came together,
and behind the back of the RSFSR
the petty-bourgeois thrust their snouts’.
With his proletarian spirit the poet could not reconcile himself with anything bourgeois or petty-bourgeois; he declared war throughout his life on the standards of their morality.
"Petty-bourgeois habits are more terrible than Wrangel’, wrote the poet in the poem ‘Gregs’.
He lashed harshly the bureaucrats who replaced creative work with interminable, useless meetings (‘Meeting Addicts’), mocked the servile official (‘Rudimentary Methods for Rudimentary Toadies’), castigated harshly the administrators who wished to suppress the criticism of the masses under the pretext that this criticism harmed the authority of cadres (‘The Pillar’).
One of his favourite themes was that of the life of the new generation. In the poems ‘The Secret of Youth’, ‘Our Sunday’, etc., he delivers a fervent appeal to youth to rise up with a revolutionary leap against religion and outworn customs:
‘Forward, forward,
O Communist youth!
Forward, towards the sun.
At the sound
Of your march,
Let the heaven tremble with fear’.
In the ‘Komsomol Song’ he presents to youth the shining model of Lenin. Particularly attractive are his works for children (‘What is Good and What is Bad’ and for pioneers (‘What I shall be when I grow up’).
Some of Mayakovsky’s best poems are dedicated to the problems of literature and art, such as: ‘The Extraordinary Adventure which happened to Vladimir Mayakovsky in the Country, during Summer’, ‘Order No. 2 to the Army of Arts’, ‘Jubilee’, ‘Conversations with an Inspector of Taxes about Poetry’, ‘The Bird of God’, etc.
The poet regarded poetical work as something of great importance, as a powerful weapon in the struggle for the new society; he sometimes compares poetry with a bomb and a flag, sometimes with a cart filled with grain:
‘The Song and the Verse
Are a bomb and a flag;
And the voice of the poet
Raises the class to arms.
Whoever sings today apart,
He is against us’.
The poet had a very advanced outlook on love and physical feeling, which elevate and beautify man, give him strength and impel him to lofty social aims (‘I Love’, ‘About This’, ‘Letter to Comrade Kostrov from Paris about the Nature of Love’, etc).
In these years he wrote also the great poems ‘Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’ (1924) and ‘All Right!’ (1928), in which he ridiculed people plunged in the morass of petty-bourgeois individualism, and ‘The Bath-House’ (1929), in which the vital revolutionary spirit of the working class is counter-posed to the seedy bureaucratic style.
Mayakovsky was also widely involved in the activity of social organizations; he managed literary reviews, travelled throughout the Soviet Union, met with workers, soldiers, and students. In halls packed with people he read his poems, explained them and the problems of Soviet literature, answered questions and comments, organized lectures and literary discussions, spoke on the radio, wrote slogans for festivals and advertisements for new Soviet products, travelled frequently throughout the country and beyond. ‘I feel it necessary to travel; direct meetings with people have almost replaced for me the reading of books’. In the last three years of his life, for example, the poet visited more than fifty towns in the country and appeared more than 200 times before the public to read his verses. His popularity throughout the Soviet Union was extraordinary.
He became poet-agitator, poet-propagandist, who did not confine himself to work on his books; he was active in every sector of the living world, thus rising to the highest level of the writer of the new type, of the active participant in socialist reconstruction; he linked himself closely with social life, with the masses, with the party. The assessment which the people and the Party made of his creativity, the critical comments of Lenin himself, and especially the high evaluation which Lenin made of his poem ‘Meeting Addicts’, became a real inspiration to Mayakovsky, a true compass for his creativity.
The poet’s voice also rang out outside the boundaries of his homeland. He journeyed several times to capitalist countries (to Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, France, Mexico, Cuba, the United States) and, surmounting the obstacles of the police organs, met with ordinary people and progressive intellectuals, who received him with enthusiasm as a man who came from ‘the spring of socialism’, as the ‘hero of Soviet poetry’.
The result of these travels were many lyrical verse about Western life, such as ‘Spain’, ‘Black and White’, Broadway’, ‘Mexico’, ‘Havana’, ‘Paris’, etc.; the notebook ‘My Discovery of America’; the cycle of verses ‘Mayakovsky’s Gallery’, where in a satirical manner he painted the political portraits of bourgeois reactionaries of the time, such as Poincare and Mussolini.
It was not accidental that the fascists burned, along with the books of Lenin, Stalin and Gorky, also the volumes of Mayakovsky. Enemies, everywhere and always, feared the poet of the proletarian revolution.
At the beginning of the year 1930, Mayakovsky, making a balance sheet of his activity, opened the exhibition of books, photographs and posters entitled ‘Twenty Years of Mayakovsky’s Work’.
The poem ‘Vladimir
Ilych Lenin’
The greatest work of Mayakovsky – dedicated to the
giant figure of Lenin, to the role and importance of Lenin’s activity in the
world revolution, to the role of the Party he created, tempered and led in
battles and victories – is the poem ‘V.I. Lenin’. It fully and finally affirmed
the method of socialist realism in poetry. With this poem began the period of
maturation and full flowering of Mayakovsky’s revolutionary talent. The poem
includes rich material from centuries-old history of the struggle of the
proletariat, from its birth to its triumph in one-sixth of the world. It
reflects in a symbolic manner the life and work of Lenin, extols the feelings
and thoughts of the ordinary working man, born and reared in revolution. The
poem has been called, correctly, the ‘epic of the proletariat.’Mayakovsky had intended to write this work when Lenin was alive.
The deep pain caused by the death of the beloved leader became a powerful stimulus for his inspiration. A spontaneous and meaningful question arose in the poet’s mind: ‘Who is this man, from where does he come and what has he done to cause this profound pain among people throughout the world?’ Mayakovsky, replying poetically to these questions, recreated in the three cantos of the poem the figure of Lenin, linked organically with the Russian and World proletariat, with the Bolshevik Party, with the masses of the people, with history.
For the poet of socialist realism the dialectic of historical development, of the change of social system, is clear. Capitalism once played a progressive role: it ripped open ‘the feudal rights’, sang the ‘Marseillaise’, putrefied; it ‘lay down on the road of history’. And so there is ‘only one way out – blasting!’
And this historic mission will be carried out by the ‘children of work’, the proletarians, to which capitalism gave birth. The poet creates for us with realism the collective figure of the working class, which gradually straightens its back, is tempered in strikes and clashes. Its ideological genius, Marx, reveals the laws of social development and arms his class with an invincible theoretical weapon. From the very bosom of the working class emerges the revolutionary vanguard, ‘the twin of Mother History’: the Bolshevik Party and its leader of genius, Lenin.
Mayakovsky, as no one else in poetry, creates the figure of the Party as a majestic symbol of the collective strength and wisdom of the working class, in strong antithesis to the figure of bourgeois individualism. It is the highest level of proletarian organization, the ‘spinal column of the working class’. The ‘immortality of our cause’. The party educates, mobilizes, raises up the masses in revolution and ‘ makes something out of nothing’, and in all these, says the poet,
‘appears
the compass of Leninist thought,
appears
the guiding hand of Lenin’.
The figure of Lenin in the poem is thus raised to the symbol of the ‘helmsman’, the genius of human history, ‘the father and son’ of the proletarian revolution.
Lenin is for the poet a man like other men. His life is distinguished but short. However, in fact this life, in its symbolic meaning, is long; its roots stretch into the past and into the future, into Russia and all the continents. His life is the embodiment of proletarian thought, desire, will, strength. Lenin is presented in the poem with profound realism as thinker of genius and practical man, as educator and leader of millions of proletarians and working people. He is characterized by simplicity and proletarian love for people. He ‘is the most human of all humans who have lived on earth’. For Mayakovsky Lenin is above all, ‘the most human’, but also ‘just like you and me’. Leninist humanism is active proletarian humanism, inspired by love for all the oppressed and by pitiless hatred for every oppressor:
‘He gave ardent love to comrade,
became with the enemy steel,
relentless’.
The highest level of Leninist humanism is the boundless belief in the inexhaustible creative capacity of the masses. Lenin is characterized by extraordinary acuity and strength of mind, which rises above bourgeois petty-mindedness, revealing new horizons of human society:
‘Gazing into space;
he saw what time has covered’.
He is distinguished by iron will and Bolshevik principle. He tempers the Party of the working class, leads the revolution through the blockades and bullets of the imperialists, draws the first workers’ state along the road of socialism.
This, for Mayakovsky, is Lenin: the new man, the man of the socialist epoch, the active, the conscious creator of history, the leader of the new type. His life does not end with death. Lenin died, but the people lives on, communism lives on, the Bolsheviks armed with his idea lives on:
‘And even the death of Ilyich
became a great communist organizer’.
Pain and sorrow change into revolutionary optimism. Lenin lives on in the hearts of the proletarians of the whole world and calls for world revolution:
‘Proletarians, form ranks for the last battle!
Straighten your backs,
unbend your knees!
Proletarian army, close ranks!
Long live the joyous revolution, soon to come!
This is the greatest
of all great fights
that history has known’.
The value of the poem does not centre only on the high artistic reflection of the life of Lenin and of the history of the proletariat. It is expressed with great force in the profound feelings of love and respect for the leader, of pain and optimism, of proletarian pride and hatred of bourgeois oppression and exploitation, of unshakable belief in the historic victory of the proletariat, which the poet has embodied in the hero of the work. This hero is the participant in and soldier of, the revolution. The entire content of the poem is presented through his eye and heart. This fills the poem with life and concretizes its inner content, blending in an organic way epic and lyrical qualities, defining its form and style. The poem, by its language, rhythm and other means, remains an innovative work of socialist realism, a worthy monument for the great Lenin, for the Bolshevik Party, for the working class and for the proletarian revolution.
The Poem ‘All
Right!’
The poem, which is dedicated to the 10th
anniversary of the October Revolution, is one of Mayakovsky’s most powerful
works. It describes in vivid, realistic colours the road followed by the Soviet
people and power during ten years under the leadership of the Party. In
nineteen short sections, with great artistic power, it presents many pictures
of the most important politico-social events, shows how the old
feudal-bourgeois power was overthrown in the fiery days of November 1917,
depicts the heroism of the people during the Civil War, the latest construction
work, the struggle with many difficulties and with class enemies, the brilliant
successes. Alongside great difficulties and with class enemies, the brilliant
successes. Alongside great events, the work also depicts scenes from intimate
life and personal reminiscences of the poet himself, always closely linked with
the central theme. So, in the poem epic elements are intertwined with lyrical
elements.In the poem there are also drawn in a few lines satirical portraits of some of the old bourgeois world leaders, counterposed to portraits of the new people of the revolution. An important place in the poem is occupied by the elevation of the feeling of the new socialist patriotism. Singing joyfully to the heroic struggle and work of the people and the party for the construction of the new society, the poet feels happy when he sees that his life and work are fused with those of the people and the Party.
The poem is permeated throughout by optimism and by pride in the victories achieved by the revolution. In it there is found a profound, realistic reflection of the heroism of the working class and the whole Soviet working people in the first years of socialist construction. The well-known Soviet critic Lunacharsky has called this poem ‘The October Revolution cast in bronze’.
Art and importance
The road of Mayakovsky towards the art of
socialist realism was not smooth and easy. The difficulties and obstacles which
he surmounted on that road testify to his great talent and to the decisive role
of Marxist-Leninist ideology in his education.At the beginning of his road the young poet had to struggle against and overcome some formalist, futurist influences. He proceeded with ever more decisiveness from isolated tragic protest, from spontaneous rebelliousness, towards the concrete and conscious call to overthrow the bourgeois world by means of proletarian revolution and to build the new socialist world. This process of the fusion of the poet with the proletarian revolution, his profound assimilation of Marxist-Leninist ideology, his evaluation of and stand on the best traditions of Russian national literature – all these gave birth to the innovational poetry of Mayakovsky.
Mayakovsky is the first and greatest representative of socialist poetry. The principal thing in his innovationalism is the creation of the new lyrical hero. This hero is not simply the poet. He is the new citizen of the first proletarian state; conscious revolutionary; the destroyer of the old world and the builder of the new; the creator of the new economy, culture and art, tempered in class struggle, moulded with communist ideas; the living embodiment of the class to which he belongs, of the proletarian epoch. The inner content of Mayakovsky’s poetry comprises the feelings, thoughts and aims of his hero, his past, present and future. Before his acute class observation there are opened up the fundamental contradictions of the epoch: the struggle of the majestic and wonderful new with the ugly bourgeois, feudal and petty-bourgeois old, which resists to the death. This struggle is carried out with a feeling of proletarian enthusiasm and optimism, of patriotism and socialist internationalism, of love for creative work and the working man. The poet issues a call to battle, a call for sacrifices and victories in the name of communism. This new inner content, never before elaborated in poetry, makes the works of Mayakovsky not only a true reflection of life, but also a weapon to change it. It breaks the old poetical framework and opens up new thematic horizons for poetry and its laws.
Mayakovsky greatly broadened and enriched the subject matter of poetry. For Mayakovsky everything which has to do with revolution and serves it is beautiful and worthy to be sung in verse. He calls poetry ‘the road to communism’. This new revolutionary poetical concept impels Mayakovsky, while preserving the healthiest aspects of the democratic literary tradition, to reject the old poetry with its musty, obsolete rules. He rejects the ‘theory of distance’, which postulates that one should wait for events to pass, for ‘conditions to ripen’, before writing about it. Mayakovsky creates work of a high artistic level which respond to reality on the spot. The brilliant example of this is the poem ‘V.I. Lenin’, which was written immediately after the leader’s death. Writing about the present, about the problems of the day, he generalizes them and opens up representatives for the future.
This revolution in inner content and in the creative process brought about also a revolutionization of form in the poet’s work. And this was not an easy, smooth road to take without mistakes and without defects. At the beginning of his creativity, Mayakovsky was attracted to a certain extent to futuristic expressions, attaching great importance to the external figurative resonance of the verse. But later, alongside his profound assimilation of new content, the poet moved towards clarity, simplicity and the artistic elevation of his works. And this was natural, since Mayakovsky, from the beginning of his creativity, directed himself to ordinary people. He wished them to understand and be inspired by his verses to revolutionary actions, to be served by them as ‘bomb and flag’. For this, he created new literary kinds of agitational poetry, of ‘marching order’ poetry. Mayakovsky changed and enriched other kinds of poetry with new elements, corresponding to the ideas he wished to express. Thus, into the genres of poetry and comedy, he inserted, among other things, political satire and the political grotesque.
Mayakovsky performed a great work for the enrichment of poetical language. He broke the framework of the old poetical language and inserted into verse the vivid vocabulary, the beautiful expressions and proverbs, of the people. He created new words to express profound economic and social change. Through short phrases and concise thoughts, he presented the dynamism of the revolution.
Mayakovsky brought radical changes too into figuration and other means of artistic expression. His comparisons are as daring as they are vivid. His hyperboles are suited to the gigantic destructive and restorative action of revolution. His epithets and metaphors are clear, beautiful and profound in content. Mayakovsky’s innovations take a concise and original form, materialize in the free verse he preferred, with a powerful rhythm and meaningful resonant metre, which corresponds to the wishes of the poet that his work should be recited and communicated directly to the masses of listeners.
Mayakovsky’s creativity became in every direction the living embodiment of the socialist revolution. ‘Mayakovsky’, Stalin has said, ‘was and remains the best and most talented poet of the Soviet epoch’. His work represents the first traditions of the poetry of socialist realism in the world, which every literature develops according to the time and national conditions. The poetry of Mayakovsky remains the symbol of innovation, of boundless broadening of the tasks and possibilities of the poetry of socialist realism, of the potentialities of the free personality who, armed with Marxist-Leninist ideology, creates the life and economy, the culture and history, of society.
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