130 years have passed since the birth of the Soviet poet Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak (1887-1964). He is known as a children's poet, although not all of his poems were intended for children.
As a child, my father enjoyed reading to me Marshak's poem "Exam for the certificate of bestiality" about a young Nazi. He apparently remembered it from his school years, which just fell on the 40s. I also liked it very much, it had something from the early Soviet films like "The Feast of St. Jorgen" and "The Trial of the Three Million", saturated with a revolutionary spirit ... Probably - a satirical intensity of denying what the poet described. And at the same time - without the slightest hint of falsehood, which, alas, the Soviet official propaganda of the 70s sinned so much.
Who would have thought then that these poems from a literary exhibit of the 1940s would turn into a real description of our new post-Soviet reality with its "Right Sectors", ultra-right torchlight processions and other delights...
Young Fritz
or Exam for the certificate of "bestiality"
Young Fritz, mother's favorite,
Came to class for an exam.
They ask him a question:
- Why does a fascist have a nose?
Fritz answers instantly:
- To sniff out treason
And scribble on everyone denunciation.
That's why a fascist has a nose!
They say to him: - Listen,
And what are the ears of the Nazis?
We keep our ears open
We wear a pen behind our ears.
Everything that we hear with our ears
We write with a pen in a notebook -
Into our secret "tashen-bukh"
That's why a fascist needs a rumor!
The priest of science asks:
- Why do fascist hands?
- To hold an ax and a sword,
To steal, cut and burn.
Why do fascists have legs?
- To stomp on the road -
Left, right, one and two!
- What is the head for?
To wear a steel helmet
Or a gas mask
To think nothing.
(The Fuhrer thinks for him!)
Fritz's teacher praised:
This guy will come in handy.
From such a youth
You can make a scoundrel!
Happy mom, happy dad
Fritz was taken to the Gestapo.
And this is from other poems, more precisely, Marshak's translations. Poetic translation them poems by Mao Zedong "Changsha" (Changsha - main city Hunan Province, where Mao was born).
On a cold autumn day
I'm standing over a deep river,
Over the northward flowing Xiangjiang.
I see mountains and groves in crimson attire,
Emerald waters of a transparent river,
On which the fishermen scurry about shuttles.
I see: the falcon soars with an arrow to the sky,
A fish in shallow water flashed like a shadow.
All living things are now striving for freedom
On this clear, frosty day.
Seeing the multi-colored expanse before him,
What is lost somewhere in the mist,
You wonder who rules fate
All living things on the boundless earth?
I remember the days of distant spring,
Those friends with whom I studied at school.
We were all strong at the time.
And dreamed of a future will.
As a student, with fervour, we argued
About the universe, about the fate of the native land
And poems during leisure
They inspired each other to greatness.
In frank conversations with their youth
She did not spare the then arrogant nobles.
Our boats rushed against all the winds,
But on the way, the waves of the river delayed us ...
Statue of young Mao in Changsha
To whom is the poem about the absent-minded from Basseinaya Street and other lines of Marshak familiar to everyone from childhood dedicated?
November 3 marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of the author of our favorite poems - Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak
The funny lines of Samuil Marshak about a terribly absent-minded person are familiar to everyone who grew up in our country. Already a generation of children laugh at the adventures of an eccentric who got into an uncoupled car, hoping to reach his destination and not believing that he was still in the city of Leningrad. A funny cartoon was made based on this poem.
And it hardly occurs to anyone that Marshak wrote these verses, meaning real person- Professor of Moscow State University, a fairly well-known chemist. He was so distracted that he often confused proper name and surname, in thought he rearranged words in places or even uttered incomprehensible phrases. Naturally, those around him were amused.
Yes, and Samuil Marshak himself was distinguished by phenomenal absent-mindedness, so, according to his relatives, the features of the author can be traced in the image of the Distracted from Basseinaya Street. For example, my friend Polina Borozdina, Marshak once, in 1960, sent a postcard, which he dated 1930.
"Mr. Twister"
In 1933 Marshak wrote a satirical poem " Mister Twister”, which ridiculed racism and racists. American rich man - "owner of factories, newspapers, steamboats" - Mr. Twister comes to the USSR with his wife and daughter Suzy. He made sure in advance that neither on the ship on which he was sailing with his family, nor in the Leningrad hotel where they were going to stay, were there people with a different skin color - "Negroes, Malays and other rabble."
However, in the hotel, he discovers a black guest. Oh God! Twister urgently cancels the reservation and looks for another hotel, but there are no places anywhere - everything is occupied by the delegates of the congress. Twister and his ladies have to spend the night in the hallway. When the black children took pity on him, one of the hotel employees put everything in its place with one phrase: “He is very proud of his white skin - so he sleeps on a chair in the hallway!”
Marshak decided to write this poem after his acquaintance, an academician, Dmitry Mushketov told him cautionary tale about an American who came to Leningrad. The arrogant tourist flatly refused to live in the same hotel with blacks and as a result did not find a lodging for the night, despite all his money. Marshak wrote about this in one of his letters.
The author rewrote the poem several times. At first, the "former minister" was called "Mr. blister", then -" Mr. Priester". Marshak also tried a completely different option - he called his hero “businessman spanking". The car in which the American tourist traveled around Leningrad changed in different editions - either it was a domestic ZIS, or a foreign Lincoln.
Marshak first wrote in a poem that after the scandal at the Angleterre, where Twister noticed a black man, the hotel porter called the porters of other Leningrad hotels and persuaded them not to let the arrogant foreigner in under the pretext of lack of space. The editors persuaded him to cut out this piece - they were afraid that foreign tourists would stop visiting our country, having learned that, with the help of a few phone calls, they could be boycotted by doormen.
The poems turned out to be cheerful, sonorous, elegant, well-remembered lines were immediately loved by both children and adults. At the same time, it is known that Marshak, before getting the sound range that satisfied him, wrote at least ten versions. Even after the poem was published, Samuil Yakovlevich repeatedly returned to his work, again and again finding a more accurate rhyme, a more witty metaphor, a more accurate comparison.
"Mustachioed - Striped"
In this poem lies an inexplicable charm for children of different generations. Either they are so fascinated by the game with the word - Marshak alternates between poetic lines and prose, or it’s nice for kids to feel big and smart compared to a little stupid kitten, or the story about the little mistress of a little cat just makes them laugh ...
And this poem was born thanks to the son of the poet - Yashe. A two-year-old boy asked his father to read a book. Marshak went through several children's books, but none of them captivated the child.
Then his father began to tell him a fairy tale about a kitten, composing on the go - first in prose, and then, imperceptibly to himself, the lines began to take shape in poetry. Little Yasha was delighted and asked his father to repeat the tale again and again. So the famous book "Mustache-striped" was born.
"Funny siskins"
A simple funny story about “forty-four siskins”, each of which is busy with his own business - “Chizh is a dishwasher, Chizh is a scrubber, Chizh is a gardener, Chizh is a water carrier”, is remembered from the first time, so the poem has a simple and clear rhythm and simple words. Marshak wrote this poem together with Daniil Kharms. Harms came up with the first lines: “Forty-four funny siskins lived in apartment 44.” Then it is told about how the siskins were engaged in housework, rested, played music ... Quite a lot of verses were imperceptibly written. The time has come to complete the poem - and the co-authors began to put their heroes to bed. The siskins lay down in all directions - on the bed, on the sofa, on the basket, on the bench...
It would seem that one can rest: the poets were tired, smoked a lot of cigarettes, wrote down a mountain of drafts ... But then Kharms went to Marshak and whispered: "Lying in bed, forty-four merry siskins were whistling in unison ..." And it became clear to Marshak: on this the poem is not finished! The merry siskins have not calmed down - they still have to whistle. And the co-authors added a funny ending.
Marshak's funny poems still give great pleasure to young children and older readers - after all, they are written in a truly cheerful and kind person who was very fond of children.
Yuri Kanner, President of the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC), told how, by a lucky chance, he became involved in the events of Marshak's anniversary, meeting on Tsvetnoy Boulevard Alexei Gordeev, Governor Voronezh region who contributed to the opening of the monument to Marshak in Voronezh. Kanner was surprised that this monument is the first monument to Marshak in Russia. Thus, the idea was born to erect a monument to the famous author in Moscow.
"I always thought that Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak was a Soviet poet. I was very surprised to learn that he translated from Hebrew and translated from Yiddish, knew these languages and met his future wife in Israel, then it was called Palestine. Already after I got into the project, I realized that I got into the project correctly!- said Yuri Kanner.
The city leadership provided support, and now the paperwork is nearing completion, allowing the erection of a monument in Lyalin Lane, near the apartment where Samuil Yakovlevich lived.
The writer's grandson Alexander Marshak noted right choice memorial sites. It was in Lyalin Lane that the writer, together with the Kukryniksy, climbed onto the roof and shot incendiary bombs during the war, and also worked on the fairy tale "Twelve Months", which he wrote during the Great Patriotic War. The place for the monument is the best, historical. Alexander Immanuelovich emphasized that both he and Yuri Kanner would like the monument to be truly a work of art. He remembered the words of Samuil Marshak from a dialogue with Naum Korzhavin: " Any art is as good as it contains poetry. By the way, this also applies to poetry.". It is necessary that poetry be present in the monument." We will not be, and Moscow will be decorated", - such bright phrase said the grandson of Marshak, after expressing the hope that if the monument is "humane", then it will become especially valuable and important for people.
The grand opening is scheduled for November 4th. And on June 1, on Children's Day, the Samuil Marshak train will be solemnly launched on the Moscow-Voronezh route.
Photos from open sources
Also Alexander Marshak recalled the literary merits of his grandfather: Samuil Marshak is not only a writer and translator, but also the organizer of the first children's publishing house and theater in Russia, as well as several magazines for children. It was Marshak who attracted many major contemporary writers to children's literature, and everything that was published from children's literature during Marshak's youth was his editing.
Alexander Marshak spoke about the family's contribution to the popularization of the writer's work. Son Immanuel, an outstanding physicist and talented translator (he was the first to translate Jane Austen into Russian), after the death of his father, dismantled Marshak's archives almost single-handedly, presenting his legacy to publishers in a processed form. After the death of Immanuel, the legacy of Samuil Marshak to this day, Alexander Marshak is engaged with great enthusiasm.
Four volumes of approximately selected translations of Marshak have recently been released. It is planned to publish a four-volume collection of children's works.
General Director of the publishing house "Eksmo" Oleg Novikov emphasized that Marshak is invariably in the top ten most popular authors, and sales of his works are growing every year. It is planned to republish 10 books with classic illustrations, on which several generations have grown up.
Together with the Moscow metro, the publishing house is preparing the Marshak train on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line for launch in September: illustrations, audio recordings and special tickets will delight people. Not less than interesting project Russian Post is preparing - they will print collectible postcards and hold an exhibition dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the poem "Mail".
A special program is being prepared, of course, for the Red Square Book Festival: leading Russian actors will take part in it, and bookstores and libraries have planned many events that involve the entire book industry.
Photos from open sources
Olga Muravyova, Director of the Department of Children's Literature of the AST Publishing House, emphasized that a cultural environment in which it would be interesting and comfortable for all generations to interact is one of the main goals of the anniversary year.
Reading aloud championship among high school students "Page 17" has already been launched with a hashtag in social networks#mymarshak. 12 thousand teenagers from 20 regions of Russia take part in the readings, and the prize fund of the championship is 300 thousand rubles. Held folk readings with the support of the All-Russian competition of readers "Live Classics". Moscow Theater of Russian Drama launched " International Festival school theaters". Not a single organization, which was approached with ideas dedicated to the anniversary year, did not refuse the publishing house.
The director of the Russian State Children's Library continued to talk about projects Maria Vedenyapina. She noted the literary competition "Letter in Poems" organized together with the Malysh Publishing House, which is aimed not only at popularizing children's reading, but also at developing thinking. Children of two age groups, from 8 to 12 and from 13 to 16 years old, will be able to write poems addressed to Samuil Marshak or one of his literary characters. The competition started on April 2, International Children's Book Day, and so far 46 entries have been received. Applications will end in mid-September and will be evaluated by a professional jury, which will include contemporary children's authors: Sergey Makhotin, Andrey Usachev, Mikhail Yasnov, Anastasia Orlova and director of the Voronezh Regional Children's Library Alla Vladimirovna.
About the train Moscow-Voronezh "Samuil Marshak" spoke in more detail Evgeny The railroad workers were not indifferent to participation in the anniversary events of Marshak. Recently, a new double-deck rolling stock has been put into operation on the Moscow-Voronezh route. It is he who will become the base for the thematic train. Since last year, it has included a car with a specially designed children's play area, and now the branding and improvement of the train for the festive year is almost completed.
Anastasia Kozlova
Presentation "To the 130th anniversary of the birth of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak"
November 3, 2017 marks the 130th anniversary of birth of a Russian poet, playwright and translator, literary critic, screenwriter and most importantly children's writer author of popular children's books Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak. Not a single generation of children has grown up on his children's works, and to this day, "Cat's House", "Twelve Months", "Luggage" and many other fairy tales delight kids. This event did not go unnoticed in our children's garden: exhibitions of his works were organized, quizzes and field events were held. Children senior group visited a neighboring kindergarten, where they organized an educational and entertaining event based on the writer's work. The children took part in the play, drew illustrations for the story "Baggage", took an active part in the role-playing gymnastics "Cat's House", successfully answered quiz questions in the library of the kindergarten. I present to your attention presentation which helped children to get acquainted not only with creativity Samuil Yakovlevich but with his biography.
Related publications:
November 3, 1887 The well-known children's writer Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak was born. A life dedicated to children All his work is a poet.
Children's project "Introduction to the work of Samuil Marshak" Topic: "Introduction to the work of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak" preparatory group In our kindergarten there was a competition of readers on works.
Dear colleagues. April 21, Friday, at the district level, a competition of readers dedicated to the 135th anniversary of the birth was held.
The Kamyshlov City Children's Library hosted a reading competition dedicated to the one hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the birth of the famous child.
In our kindergarten "Golden Fish" No. 4 in Dmitrov, events were held dedicated to the 130th anniversary of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak. In our group.
In our Kindergarten there was a competition of readers dedicated to the one hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the birth of the famous children's writer Samuil Yakovlevich.
Purpose: to generalize and deepen knowledge about the work of K. I. Chukovsky, to introduce the history of the creation of some works, to form in children.
