Marina Tsvetaeva, Her Life in Poems - Rolf Gross

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full of indignation....” However, Marina had earned enough money to take her children to the seaside. [VS p.263] In April 1926 they moved to the small fishing village of St. Gilles-sur-Vie in the Vendée between Nantes and La Rochelle. After the cramped apartment in the industrial 19th arrondissiment of Paris she was longing for nature and quietude. Sergey, involved in various publishing ventures and political work, remained in Paris. Her six months in St. Gilles will forever be connected with the unrequieted meeting of Tsvetaeva and Rilke. Their letters are an extraordinary document of European literature. Two poets explore the paths of poetry to the Empyrean. A sacred delirium between two people in rare resonance with each other. Pasternak made the connection between Rilke and Marina, but because of the vagaries of the mail system and Marina's possessiveness was largely excluded from the exchange. Rilke infinitely kind-hearted, not telling that he is very ill, feels himself being transported back to his “Russian Soul” and the memory of the Russia of Lou Andreas-Salomé. And an exalted Marina drives their fiery chariot beyond all limits to its final apotheosis: Rilke's death in December 1926, - unforseen by either Pasternak or Marina. While Rilke's kindness approaches on being charitable with his impestuous correspondent, Marina's letters are not flattering to her. She exposes many of her less pleasant personae which are otherwise hidden in her poetry. While her inability to sense the extent of Rilke's terminal illness can be explained by circumstances, her egocentricity is difficult to excuse. This correspondence has only recently surfaced. I shall quote only the letters exchanged between Rilke and Marina, my space is limited. In attempting this, I see myself faced with the anguishing task of having to excise portions from their letters for space reasons. I have not removed Marina's self-centered passages! I can only hope that I will be forgiven for both my indulgences and my omissions. All texts have been copied from [PTR], the below referenced book, where the unabridged versions can be found in reasonable English translations. This correspondence was published in German in 1983. Viktoria Schweitzer refers to it only in her bibliography. An English translation, Letters, Summer 1926, Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva, Rainer Maria Rilke” (2002), referred by me as [PTR] is easily obtainable as a paperback. (I bought an unread (sic!) second-hand copy for $6.75 through Amazon). A limited preview of the book can be examined at Amazon - less their letters!. The letters between Tsvetaeva and Rilke were written in German. As was her custom with most of what she wrote, some of her letters to Rilke she first jotted down in her notebooks. A number of these are now available in Russian at Tsvetaevas letters to Rilke. Their meeting was based on a chain of coincidences as can only happen between people with Russian souls: In 1900 Boris Pasternak's father Leonid had befriended the young, still unknown Rilke on his second sojourn with Lou Andreas-Salomé to Russia. When in December 1925 all the world celebrated Rilke's 50th birthday, Leonid, now living in Berlin, had written the famous poet a long, humble letter, in which he had mentioned Boris. Three months later, Leonid's letter had to be forwarded by the publisher to Rilke in a Swiss sanatorium, Leonid received an equally long, handwritten reply from Rilke in 50
German and Russian! In a postscript Rilke mentioned that he had just read a French translation of “several impressive poems by Boris Pasternak in a literary journal edited by Paul Valéry.” A personal letter from the famous poet! Leonid informed Boris, who had remained in Moscow with his family, of Rilkes praise, but the precious letter had first to be copied by one of Boris' sisters. Boris received a transcription only weeks later. He had been in a deep depression, which Marina had tried to unravel during the past year. And now this accolade from the “greatest living poet!” A bolt from the blue! Impestuous, he composed a letter to Rilke: “Great, most beloved poet!” followed by six pages of effusive enthusiasm, “...and now I feel like I am reborn!...” Toward the end he asked Rilke to send a copy of his Duino Elegies, to Marina Tsvetaeva, “my greatest and probably only friend, who shares my love for you...” He had to send the letter via his father. Since Lenin's departure, there existed no postal services or diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Russia. Rilke responded to Boris' request with surprising speed. On May 7, 1926 Marina received a letter from Rilke; his Dunio Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus arrived a day later. [PTR p.103-105] Val-Mont par Glion, Vaud, Suisse, May 3, 1926 Dear Poet, This very hour I received a letter from Boris Pasternak, a letter brimming with joy and a great flow of feeling. All the emotions and gratitude that this letter stirs in me is to go first of all to you, as I understand from his lines, and then through you to him! The two books that follow this letter are for you, are your property. Two further copies will follow as soon as I have any: these are to go to Boris Pasternak. I am so shaken by the fullness and power of his message to me that I cannot say more today, would you forward the enclosed sheet to our friend in Moscow for me ...A stay in Paris last year brought me back into contact with Russian friends I hadn't seen for twenty-five years. Rainer Maria Rilke Muzot, 1926 But why, I must now wonder, why was it not vouchsafed me to meet you, Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva ... Will we ever have a second chance to meet Rainer Maria Rilke Marina was so excited that she “forgot” to mail Rilke's note to Boris which caused him great anguish. She wrote Rilke by return mail, even postdating her letter. Her forward style is remarkable. 51
Page 1 and 2: Marina Tsvetaeva A Life in Poems No
Page 3 and 4: poetic power like distress and - lo
Page 5 and 6: Childhood Moscow 8 Tryokhprudny Per
Page 7 and 8: children. In “Mother and Music”
Page 9 and 10: seventeen Marina began to smoke, a
Page 11 and 12: Koktebel Maximilian Voloshin's Have
Page 13 and 14: The motley crowd of greater and les
Page 15 and 16: did not concern her. My poems, writ
Page 17 and 18: Sofia Parnok Koktebel and Moscow 19
Page 19 and 20: She writes and a few days later des
Page 21 and 22: And I'll tell you: - All the same -
Page 23 and 24: orderly. Eventually he was drafted
Page 25 and 26: In December 1915 Marina was invited
Page 27 and 28: To Osip Mandelstam A strange anxiet
Page 29 and 30: Marina escaped on flights to the ot
Page 31 and 32: Love! Love! Even in convulsions, ev
Page 33 and 34: - Alya had these frequent attacks.
Page 35 and 36: ... Dead - and risen! Just enough f
Page 37 and 38: Berlin - Prague Ilya Ehrenburg Serg
Page 39 and 40: her and writes that “he had been
Page 41 and 42: etween her insatiable need for free
Page 43 and 44: Moscow. I don't want to write about
Page 45 and 46: Swan-like... - But what happened Li
Page 47 and 48: toe of the heart, not yet touched b
Page 49: France 1925 - 1939 The Summer of 19
Page 53 and 54: thus alien after all!) One more thi
Page 55 and 56: affirmation around a spring. Around
Page 57 and 58: horseman. Your penciled notation (i
Page 59 and 60: Boulevard de Crancy, 3 (not far fro
Page 61 and 62: in 1924 and 1925), hence my long so
Page 63 and 64: You are alive, I want to see you. A
Page 65 and 66: trug uns ein blinder Befehl durch d
Page 67 and 68: to feign halves. We, confined to ci
Page 69 and 70: German is deeper than French, fulle
Page 71 and 72: eflection when it appears in the wa
Page 73 and 74: asleep, fast asleep. I sound quite
Page 75 and 76: winter!... "You don't need to answe
Page 77 and 78: This letter became the last in thei
Page 79 and 80: France 1925 - 1939 The Lure of the
Page 81 and 82: Mur and Marina, 1936 Photo dommuseu
Page 83 and 84: In your family album! Children! You
Page 85 and 86: People are all the same to me, And
Page 87 and 88: go. But there was, of course, no ch
Page 89 and 90: Marina Tsvetaeva, Golitsyno 1939 No
Page 91 and 92: The idea of suicide is disturbing t
Page 93 and 94: Marina Tsetaeva (1892 - 1941) Chron
Page 95 and 96: August 1, move to Prague, where the
Page 97 and 98: August 17, Marina and Mur evacuated
Page 99 and 100: Marina Zwtajewa, “Mutter und die

Marina Tsvetaeva, Her Life in Poems - Rolf Gross

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