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

Over human habitation.
He stands and listens for a while—
And he goes back:
Up the creaky staircase,
To take a look at the idle
Millstones lying about.
The dear stones labored
for loaves and kasha.
However much was poured out,
That much was ground
And now the work is over!
And now the miller has
The forest and silence,
And toward evening a little pipe,
And a little cup of spirits,
And the moon in the window.
Khodasevich completed this poem on March 13, 1923. The following day he sent the
"little verses" (стишки) to Nina Berberova for her parodic ladies' journal Ненюфары.
Berberova recalls: "Ходасевич считал «Мельницу» стихотворением «несерьезным»
и думал, что самое лучшее место для него—дамский журнал. Когда он предложил
«Мельницу» «Ненюфарам», редакция вернула их ему, как слишком «трудные» для
читательниц журнала." 85
While too "difficult" for Ненюфары, the verses were clearly
light to Khodasevich. The meter (trochaic trimeter with dactylic and masculine endings),
colloquialisms (шабаш, да), tremendous number of diminutives (рыбица, лесенка, etc.),
repetitions (постоит, послушает), and parallel constructions (Сколько было ссыпано—
/ Столько было смолото) all contribute to the folk-song quality of the poem. There is
no lyric я—the stylized narrative of the poem is related from a distant perspective. No
emotion is expressed, no clear judgment is passed.
85 Khodasevich, Sobranie sochinenii, vol. 1, 305. Khodasevich included the following note with the poem:
Милые Ненюфары, посылаю вам эти стишки, хоть я не девочка. Я их сам сочинил, и пожалуйста
напечатайте их в себе. Целую добрую редакцию. Ibid., 304.
71