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

There's a stick in his hands, he's all like a balance,
And the viewers below lifted up their noses.
They jostle each other and whisper, "Now he'll fall!"
And each of them anxiously awaits something.
On the right an old woman looks from a window,
On the left there's a reveler with a glass of wine.
But the sky is clear, and the rope is firm.
The acrobat walks lightly and calmly.
But what if, breaking loose, the acrobat should fall,
And gasping, the deceitful crowd crosses itself—
Poet, pass by with a neutral gaze:
Don't you too live by such a trade?
The first five stanzas of "Акробат" were originally written in 1914 to accompany
a silhouette for the "Летучая Мышь" theater of miniatures and were included in the
second edition of Счастливый домик (1921). In 1921 Khodasevich wrote the last two
stanzas and published the new version in both the third edition of Счастливый домик
(1922) and the final edition of Путем зерна. 90 Khodasevich's placement of the poem in
the third edition of Счастливый домик is logical. He did not complete the seven-stanza
version in time for the 1921 editions of either Счастливый домик or Путем зерна, but
it was ready for the third edition of Счастливый домик in 1922. 91
Why he chose to
include it again in the final edition of Путем зерна is a more interesting question. It
appears to act both as a substitute for his previously excised poem "Авиатору" and as an
ideal complement to the book's title poem.
In "Авиатору" and "Акробат" Khodasevich describes a person who hangs
precariously above the earth—in one case supported by the taught sail-like wings of an
90 Khodasevich, Sobranie sochinenii, vol. 1, 305.
91 The five stanza version neatly replaces the poem "Новый год" in the second edition of Счастливый
домик.
78