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

пустоглазый, ну и добро!). Peter, like the land, has rotted. Blind and mute, he is in the
grave alongside his creation.
By invoking the story of Lazarus and "Медный всадник," Gippius
simultaneously substitutes herself for those narratives' heroes, Martha and Evgenii. Like
Martha, she depends fully on Christ for salvation while, like Evgenii, she rejects the false
god, Peter. No one but Christ, not even the legendary Peter, and no earthly force, neither
water nor flame, can revive the decaying land.
This rejection of the earthly world, previously viewed as a bridge to heaven, 171
culminates in the final poem of Сияния, "Домой" ("Homeward):
Мне—
о земле—
болтали сказки:
«Есть человек. Есть любовь».
А есть—
лишь злость.
Личины. Маски.
Ложь и грязь. Ложь и кровь.
Когда предлагали
мне родиться—
не говорили, что мир такой.
Как же
я мог
не согласиться?
Ну, а теперь—домой! домой!
I was told
fairy tales
about the earth:
"There is humankind. There is love."
171 "И я люблю мою родную Землю,/Как мост, как путь в зазвездную страну" ("Прорезы"). In its
initial 1923 publication in "Окно," "Лазарь" preceded the poem "Прорезы," perhaps suggesting the
continuing strength of Russia, despite its decay. Now placed amidst the closing poems of Сияния,
"Лазарь" is followed by no such hope.
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