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

asking when she will finally be released through her desired death. This sense of urgency
is also evident in a change in the first line of the final quatrain. The initial 1924
publication reads, "Господи! Я пойду в неизвестное." In the Сияния version, Gippius
changed the tense to the present, emphasizing her current journey towards death:
"Господи! Иду в неизвестное."
This unexpected combination of death and spring, typically a time of new life, is
paralleled by the surprising mixture of spiritual, natural, and urban imagery in "Когда?"
As the city finds faith in the spring, swarms of cars laugh and church-goers sing. Both
chestnuts and streets, stone walls and branches are called upon to greet the spring.
Ultimately, the poet hears the call of death, perhaps of God, through the song of traffic.
Once again, the poet attempts to unite seemingly opposed worlds. As in "Eternité
Frémissante," she hopes to find the multiplicity of the earthly world in the unity of
heaven.
The poet continues to anticipate death in the next poem, "Игра." Here, again, the
poet is not afraid of death, but looks forward to the wisdom which will result from it:
Совсем не плох и спуск с горы:
Кто бури знал, тот мудрость ценит. 169
Even the descent from the mountain isn't bad at all:
One who has known storms values wisdom.
The poet's only fear is that heaven will not be playful:
Пускай! Когда придет пора
И все окончатся дороги,
Я об игре спрошу Петра,
Остановившись на пороге.
И если нет игры в раю,
169 Zlobin cites these lines to describe Gippius's illness and descent into death. Zlobin, A Difficult Soul,
188.
131