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

idylls (Слава Богу, здесь—никаких страстей и никаких идиллий 59 ). It soon becomes
clear, however, that he is not entirely stable. He includes a strange “pharisaical” prayer
in which he thanks God that he is not a sighing, tearful girl visiting the country
(слезливая дачница), not a little stream, a little storm cloud or a little star, but he himself
(я не струйка, не тучка, не звездочка, а я сам) (120). He writes fairy-tales for his niece
in his spare time and quotes one, “Рыбак” (the basis for Khodasevich’s poem), which he
will never send to her—it is too disturbing and confused. By the end of the first section,
the hero acknowledges that he has taken on a new name, a name of a calm, rational
person: Aleksei Vasil’evich Pereyaslavtsev:
Жизнь мою—жизнь Алексея Васильевича—я знаю очень подробно, твердо
знаю мои планы, ценю свой ровный характер, неприхотливость, и уважаю
всех моих знакомых, за исключением покойного Александра Никитича
Большакова, умершего, к величайшему его счастью, в апреле месяце 190*
года, в Москве. (123)
My life—the life of Aleksei Vasilievich—I know very well. I know my plans
thoroughly, I value my even character, my unpretentiousness, and I respect all my
acquaintances with the exception of Aleksandr Nikitich Bol'shakov who died, to
his great fortune, in Moscow in April of 190*.
In the second section Pereyaslavtsev explicitly acknowledges that this Bol'shakov
is his previous self. Disgusted with his tender, ecstatic (восторженный (125)) past, he
has created a double for himself, discarding Bol’shakov for the lucid, even-tempered
Pereyaslavtsev. His tone is anything but clear and composed, however. He is afraid of
Bol’shakov—afraid that he will return, especially after he receives a note addressed to
Aleksandr Nikitich from Grace, a woman from his past who is planning to visit him. In
an act of desperation, Pereyaslavtsev “wakes up” Bol'shakov in the middle of the night to
talk to him.
59 Kissin, Legkoe bremia, 119. All subsequent quotations from the story are taken from Legkoe bremia.
Page numbers will be noted in parentheses in the text.
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