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

В метро, в постели или в бане—
Где это Господу угодно.
My tent for prayer
I pitch anywhere—
In the metro, in bed or in the banya—
Wherever God pleases.
Later in the poem, Lavinia creates a tiny altar out of her palms into which flies her
double, no bigger than a cicada; 220 Lavinia is both worshiper and place of worship.
Lavinia again describes herself as a place of peace in the thirty-seventh poem, "Чудище":
Я—город, и площадь, и рынок,
И место для тихих прогулок
Для перипатетиков-духов
И ангельский театр, и сад.
Я—город, я—крошечный город
Великой Империи. Остров
В зеленых морях винограда.
I am a city, and a town square, and a market,
And a place for quiet strolls
Of itinerant spirits,
And an angelic theater, and a garden.
I am a city, I am a tiny city
Of a Great Empire. An Island
In green seas of grapes.
These lines recall Lavinia's earlier descriptions of churches and temples. Wanderers
continue to enter her body and stroll within her. A microcosm of God's "Great Empire,"
she again seems to represent or imitate Christ's body, the Church. Lavinia's use of the
word "island" evokes the description of the convent in the sister's letter as "God's island"
(остров Божий); later on in the poem, Lavinia describes herself as round (круглый),
again recalling the sister's depiction of the convent as a circle (круг) or ring (кольцо),
and Lavinia as a sphere (шар).
220 While not explicitly stated in the poem, the double imagery was confirmed by Shvarts: Лавиния
создает маленького двойника (не больше цикады) и прячет в ладонях, в домике из ладоней (personal
email communication of August 16, 2002).
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