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

символизм, ставший для нас не только методом, но и просто (хоть это вовсе не
просто!) образом жизни,—играл с нами неприятные шутки. 42
The worst of these “jokes” was Muni’s suicide in 1916. Khodasevich remembers
Muni as unable to appreciate anything outside of their created symbolist world: Все, что
лежало за пределами этой нашей жизни, с ее символическим обиходом,
воспринималось Муни как докучная смена однообразных и грубых снов. 43
When
sent to serve in World War I accompanying hospital trains, Muni was separated from the
cultural, intellectual, and spiritual world of his Moscow circle. Unable to bear the
“пошлость” that surrounded him, he shot himself on March 22, 1916. 44
Khodasevich took Muni’s death very badly. Already suffering from tuberculosis
of the spine, he experienced insomnia and hallucinations, at one point imagining, along
with his wife Anna Ivanovna Chulkova, that Muni was with them in their apartment. 45
Khodasevich spent the summer following Muni’s death in Koktebel, recovering from his
illness and beginning work on a collection of Muni’s poetry, including an introductory
article.
While Khodasevich succeeded in publishing a selection of Muni’s poems in
“Понедельник” in 1918 46 and a cycle entitled “Крапива” in “Беседа” in 1923, 47 both of
his attempts to publish a complete volume failed. It is important to note, however, when
and how he hoped to release the book. First, in 1918, he arranged with the Moscow
publisher “Альцион” to issue Легкое бремя, the title Muni had apparently chosen
42 Ibid., 70. Emphasis, mine.
43 Ibid., 74.
44 For more information on the end of Muni's life, see Kissin, Legkoe bremia, 345-61.
45 Ibid., 362.
46 Ibid., 271. It is not entirely clear to what extent Khodasevich was involved in this publication.
47 Ibid., 167.
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