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

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more"
(Jeremiah 31:15). A lament, the poem describes the tremendous burden of grief carried
by the whole nation in the face of war. The collective, national voice of "Слезы Рахили"
and its biblical reference complement the tone and biblical subtext of "Путем зерна."
The poem seems to describe one point along the "way of the grain"—the period of
absolute despair when the seed lies dead in the black earth. It will take a generation for
the country to emerge from its sorrow and provide proud, glorious accounts of its brave
forefathers. For now, only the inconsolable tears of Rachel are an adequate expression of
the nation's plight. (Пусть потомки с гордой любовью/Про дедов легенды
сложат/...Ах, под нашей тяжелой ношей/Сколько б песен мы ни сложили—/Лишь
один есть припев хороший:/Неутешные слезы Рахили!) Notably, the poem, dated 5-
30 October, 1916, addresses the grief suffered during the first world war, not during the
revolution. "Путем зерна" and "Слезы Рахили" are linked not by a specific historical
moment, but by a universal cycle of death and rebirth, despair and hope, grief and joy.
This increased emphasis on the universal over the personal or biographical in the
final edition of Путем зерна is played out in the final version of "Ручей" as well.
Khodasevich changes the last line of the poem to read "Своей судьбы не узнавая"
instead of "Ничьей судьбы не прозревая." He excises the verb прозреть along with all
of its mystical, Symbolist connections, and he changes the focus from another's fate to
the traveler's own fate. Thus the potential of an allegorical reading (with Muni as the
stream) is greatly lessened; instead, a global reading is encouraged. In failing to
recognize the stream as a symbol of the natural cycle of life and death, the traveler is
failing to understand his own place within this cycle. While young and vibrant now, he
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