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

description of Moscow on the eighth day after the October revolution—the first day of
relative peace in the city. The city residents emerge from their solitary basements onto
the streets gathering in small groups, waiting together in long lines, crowding together on
the sidewalks on their way to visit relatives and friends ("брели,/Теснясь на тротуарах,
люди. Шли проведать/Родных, знакомых, близких: живы ль, нет ли?") On his way
home after seeking out his own friends, the poet encounters two people, a carpenter he
knows and an unknown child. Both encounters cause the poet to step outside of the
historical tragedy which surrounds him and to recognize the more universal truth of the
"way of the grain." Through a window the poet sees a carpenter finishing a coffin:
Я постучал в окно. Он обернулся.
И, шляпу сняв, я поклонился низко
Петру Иванычу, его работе, гробу,
И всей земле, и небу, что в стекле
Лазурью отражалось. И столяр
Мне тоже покивал, пожал плечами
И указал на гроб. И я ушел.
I knocked on the window. He turned around.
And, having taken off my hat, I bowed low
To Petr Ivanich, to his work, to the coffin,
And to all the earth and to the azure sky
That was reflected in the glass. And the carpenter
Also nodded to me, shrugged his shoulders
And pointed at the coffin. And I left.
With simple gestures and no words the poet and the carpenter acknowledge their
common plight. This acknowledgement starts at a local level—the poet bows to Petr
Ivanich—but gradually grows to encompass the death which surrounds them (symbolized
by the coffin) and its place in the natural order of the world. The poet bows to all the
earth and to the sky, seen here simultaneously. It is by appreciating the constant elements
of a balanced natural world that he and his people will make their way through their
personal and national tragedy.
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