THE BOOK OF POEMS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ... - TopReferat

He takes on a slave-like look.
The devil indeed comes in a different way in "Равнодушие." He is accompanied by a
dol'nik meter instead of the trochees of the epigraphs; he arrives in the present tense as
opposed to the past. The devil's slave-like look, which replaces his previously
condescending gaze, suggests a shift in power—it is now the poet who is command. This
reversal of roles is evident throughout the poem. In the third line, the devil bends
submissively (Изгибается весь покорно), recalling the ring which once entrapped the
poet. Now that the ring has been straightened out into a line, it is the devil who curves
and bends. In the fifth stanza, Gippius describes the devil as "жалкий," an adjective used
by the devil in "В черту" to describe the poet. Having achieved victory, the poet is
dealing with an entirely different, "grotesque and petty" 163 devil—one who sits quietly on
the floor in the corner, snickering affectedly (похихикивая притворно) instead of
mockingly laughing at the poet. His speech, full of colloquialisms and diminutives, is
distinct from the powerful, challenging language of the earlier poems.
Nonetheless, the devil tries once more to tempt the poet, offering her the chance
to step inside the skin of another human being:
Хочешь в ближнего поглядеть?
Это со смеху умереть!
Назови мне только любого.
Укажи скорей, хоть кого,
И сейчас же тебя в него
Превращу я, честное слово!
На миг, не навек!—Чтоб узнать,
Чтобы в шкуре его побывать...
Как минуточку в ней побудешь—
Узнаешь, где правда, где ложь,
Всё до донышка там поймешь,
А поймешь—не скоро забудешь.
163 Matich, Paradox, 96.
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