Brodsky prefers an allusion to myth over a more consistent use of it, but several poems are exceptions to this rule. I will consider only two of them: "Aeneas and Dido"147 and "The Odysseus to Telemaku".148
In the myth of Aeneas and Dido, the source of which for Brodsky was, apparently, Virgil's Aeneid, the poet was interested not in Dido's suicide as such because of unhappy love (the cliché motif of many poems and paintings), but the reasons that led to it . One of these reasons, the poet considers the difference in the psychology of a great man and an ordinary woman. For Aeneas, the affair with Dido is just an episode, one of the many adventures on life path. Aeneas is a social being, life for him is really a path, not a harbor, he is constantly attracted by new horizons, new trials. In addition, after fleeing from Troy, Aeneas does not just sail the seas and oceans, he has a certain cherished goal - to find a new home.
The storm that brings Aeneas to Carthage is an accident, like an accident and his love for Queen Dido. No matter how strong the latter, in the understanding of Aeneas, the hero and public figure- love in general is immeasurably lower than public affairs in the hierarchy of its moral values. There is no clear boundary between the personal and the public in his mind, his inner world merges with the outer, geographical world, which is boundless, while for Dido the whole world has narrowed and become equal to love for Aeneas, therefore the loss of his love is equivalent to the loss of the world for her. This difference in the attitude of the characters is given in the first stanza of the poem:
The great man looked out the window
and for her the whole world ended with the edge
his wide Greek tunic,
an abundance of folds resembling
stopped sea.
The stopped sea is an image, an unusual thing - in essence, not the sea, but Aeneas through the eyes of Dido, his tunic is a shell that hides from the eyes of the queen his true "I", which is no longer with her, but somewhere far beyond the seas, and beyond the real seas. This aloofness of the characters in the poem is given on a reduced non-heroic level and is applicable to any two lovers in general: he looks out the window and his thoughts are not with her; she looks at his back, thinking about the inevitable separation. Two people, two worlds. The difference in the understanding of the world turns into a difference in the understanding of love in the third stanza:
And her love
was only a fish - maybe capable
go to sea after the ship
and, cutting through the waves with a flexible body,
perhaps overtake him - but he,
he mentally already set foot on dry land.
Dido's love is many times stronger than Aeneas' love - it is a fish that can outrun a ship (Brodsky's favorite "fish comparison"), but it competes not with the ship, but with the feelings and thoughts of Aeneas, that is, again, with his "I", which is no longer even in the sea, but on land, where the fish have nothing to do, in a foreign environment.
The end of the poem is unusual. The suffering of Dido and the details of the scene of self-immolation are taken out of the plot. Instead of a picture of a woman suffering at the stake, Dido's own perception is given. this moment, and the perception is visual:
She stood
in front of a fire that was kindled
under the city wall her soldiers,
and saw how in the haze of a fire,
trembling between fire and smoke,
Silently disintegrated Carthage
long before the prophecy of Cato.
Such an unexpected end of the poem also reveals to us the interpretation of its theme on a symbolic level - the destruction of love is a prophecy of the destruction of the city.
The description of strong feelings is replaced by a description of perceptions that are signs of these feelings and are capable of evoking them in their entirety in the mind of the reader. The technique that Brodsky uses here is akin to montage in cinematography. Indeed, the whole poem consists of several frames. It can be divided into frames due to the poet's clear orientation towards visual perception:
I frame (impressionism): Aeneas and Dido in the room. He stands at the window with a glass in his hand and looks into the distance. She is on him.
Frame II (surrealism): Dido the fish overtakes the ship, but Aeneas is already setting foot on the coast of Italy.
III frame (neorealism): Aeneas sails away from Carthage, Dido looks after (both of them against the background of extras).
Frame IV (expressionism): Dido looks at Carthage, disintegrating in the haze of a fire.
The verbal-figurative instrumentation of the poem is formed on the images of the sea: Aeneas's tunic is a stopped sea, his lips are shells, the horizon in a glass is a reflection of the sea horizon, Dido's love is a fish, Aeneas is a ship (and a man on a ship), Dido's tears -- the sea. At the level of sound symbolism, the sea of the first four stanzas passes into the haze of the last, fifth.
At the semantic level, the content of the poem outgrows the framework problem situation mythical heroes - in general - this is the archetype of the difference in attitude to love between a man and a woman, especially a man - a public person. In this sense, it is curious that there is no mention of names in the text, but if the image of Aeneas is given by a paraphrase " great person" and "great husband", then Dido is simply "she". In the poem, the poet does not condemn either side, he only shows two different worldviews that come into collision, due to fate.
It should be noted that Brodsky could also get acquainted with the plot from the tragedy "Dido", which was written by the "receptive" Knyazhnin. By the way, in Pushkin's time, "impressive" meant not a tendency to plagiarism, but positive quality- the ability to process, "incline to Russian customs" classical or foreign plots. Knyazhnin's "Dido" could serve Brodsky only as the most general impetus to the theme, for neither in genre, nor in volume, nor in content can it be compared with a short poem. Knyazhnin, in fact, could not be mentioned at all if we did not consider Brodsky's work against the backdrop of the traditions of Russian literature, because Virgil's plot is well known and, in addition to translations, exists in numerous retellings and transcriptions. In addition, the impetus to the theme can be given not only by the text of the myth, but also by the picture or the libretto of the opera.
In the poem "Odysseus of Telemachus" the mythological substratum is used more fully. However, the manner of approach to the material of the myth is very similar: all collisions and physical tests (that is, real action) are taken out of the scope of the plot; the state of the hero is reflection, reflection.
The great man looked out the window
and for her the whole world ended with the edge
his wide, Greek tunic,
an abundance of folds resembling
stopped sea.
He is
looked out the window, and his gaze now
was so far from these places that the lips
froze, like a shell, where
lurking rumble, and the horizon in the glass
was motionless.
And her love
was only a fish - maybe capable
go to sea after the ship
and, cutting through the waves with a flexible body,
maybe overtake him... but he -
he mentally already set foot on dry land.
And the sea turned into a sea of tears.
But, as you know, just in a minute
despair and starts to blow
tailwind. And a great husband
left Carthage.
She stood
in front of a fire that was kindled
under the city wall her soldiers,
and saw how in its haze,
trembling between fire and smoke,
Silently crumbled Carthage
Long before Cato's prophecy.
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I. BRODSKY "Dido and Aeneas" (linguistic analysis of the text)
INSTITUTION: MBOU secondary school №12
The text refers to artistic style speech. It is characterized by figurativeness and the use of figurative and expressive means of language, through which there is an impact on the reader's imagination. We imagine the sea and the threatening fire under the walls of the city; a tunic flowing over a man's body; his figure and gaze fixed on sea distances full of despair and expectation; We feel fear and the inevitability of fate. Mentally draw the image of a beautiful maiden; we feel the wind of the upcoming changes that eventually destroyed Carthage; we understand everything that was in the thoughts and hearts of Dido and Aeneas.
Genre "Dido and Aeneas" - a lyric poem. Subjective images of reality come to the fore. portrayed mental life, which is based on the torment of love, generated by a sense of male duty. As you read the poem, a number of emotions change. The state of the soul is compared with nature. This work is characterized by a marine theme and the elements of fire (love -fish in the sea , the tunic is similar tostopped sea , whichturned into a sea of tears , and Dido's love is comparable to the destructive power of fire). At the same time, the series of events is outlined very sparingly (Aeneas looks out the window in anticipation of future events, and Dido stands in front of the fire and looks at Aeneas).
The work is written in poetic form, it has a certain rhythm, small size, increased expressiveness, the presence of a lyrical hero (in our case, two), on whose behalf experiences are expressed.
To emphasize the importance of the moment, the words "high style" are used:great man, the sea turned around, a moment of despair, set foot on land, great husband, Carthage crumbled . And the names lyrical heroes, the name of the city and its fate are taken from the myth ancient rome"Aeneas".
Only sfamiliarity with the myth explains a seemingly small storyline. The woman does not want to let go of her lover. She is ready for anything. The bonfire is designed to burn the weapon of the chosen one, not the city. New feelings and emotions appear - a masculine sense of duty and the power of a promise that defeated the feeling of love, and a feminine sense of abandonment is full of tears, curses, a desire to take revenge, even at the cost of one's own life. You don't even need a city. He fell apart without his queen,soundlessly crumbled , sobbing like a child left to its own devices. The understanding comes that the fire was needed not in order to destroy or capture the city, but in order not to let go of love. Due to this, the plot turned 180 degrees, appeared from a completely different point of view.
It turns out that the poem has two stories. One is the reader's assumption: a certain maiden wants to capture the city of her lover and subjugate his feelings to herself. The second is a legend, covered with a blanket of mystery, what supposedly was in fact and was told by the mouth of an eyewitness.
Joseph Brodsky seemed to lift the veil of myth and allowed each of us to understand it and tell it in our own way. This mixture of legend and concrete, familiar to everyone words and expressions of feelings, makes the work mysterious and alluring, but, nevertheless, simple and understandable.
Among the means artistic expressiveness are usedepithets: a great man, the horizon is motionless, a flexible body, a moment of despair, a fair wind; from equation: lips are frozen, like a shell, where the rumble lurks (numb); mmetaphors : his gaze was now so far from these places (mentally imagined another area),the horizon in the glass was still (frozen and small, as if looking through the glass of a glass),her love was just a fish able to go with the flow, follow the loved one,stood in front of the fire, which was kindled under the city wall by her soldiers (according to the myth, the fire is a metaphor for hopelessly leaving love),Silently crumbled Carthage (died, collapsed). As well assynecdoche : I saw how in its haze, trembling between flame and smoke, Carthage silently crumbled (following the legend, love and the queen herself died, the city was orphaned without a mistress, the servants wept, people were left without a patroness).Avatars the author does not use. It seems to confirm the idea that nature does not come to life, it opposes a sense of duty, it is an assistant to love and does not intend to help in its loss. With helphyperbole the author showed that the sea has become a kind of offender of love, a provocateur of female grief, taking life from love(And the sea turned into a sea of tears). Litotes helped to narrow the picture of the world of a woman in love to the edgewide, Greek tunic beloved.paraphrase : great person helped to recognize the leader of the Trojans in the man standing on the balcony.
Among the stylistic figures there isantithesis : The great man looked out the window, and for her the whole world ended with the edge of his wide, Greek tunic, with an abundance of folds like a stopped sea (for him, life is the distant lands of Italy, for her, only he). The whole text seems to be saturatedinversion . Such a special construction of sentences creates a feeling of tragedy and something heroic at the same time, the reality of life and the romance of love, mixed with passion and despair. And the default of the names of the characters (they are given only in the title) is used by the author so that everyone can try on this story for themselves.
The poem consists of two stanzas. The size is iambic pentameter. The foot is two-syllable with stress on the second syllable. Rhyme and sound figurative means are absent. This is blank verse. It seems that we have a prose text, designed "like" lyrical work. It reads like prose. If it were not for the saturation with various tropes and stylistic figures, we can assume that we have an ordinary legend with a simple plot. FROM capital letter only the sentences themselves begin. If you do not see the text, then it is almost impossible to guess that this is a poetic speech. This is necessary to bring intrigue and impress the reader, because in itself it seems simple and not very interesting. Only after learning the story of Dido and Aeneas, you understand the beauty and unusualness of phrases, the skill of the poet to make the truth out of the legend, and to wrap the truth in the mystery of the legend.
Such a peculiar rhythmic organization of a poetic work makes it possible to “hear” it: to define the work as sad and at the same time impulsive, impulsive, subject to passion. Dynamics in it both is, and is not present. We see the growing fire of the fire, the views of the heroes, we are imbued with their feelings and thoughts. However, at the same time, we understand that we are outside observers and the picture is as old as the world.
And one line seems to stand out. It adds a special tragedy to the situation. The prophet Cato predicted the death of Carthage, but the death began much earlier. The queen committed suicide and thereby gave impetus to destruction. This, in turn, confirms the story as the prose of life, veiled under a certain romance of the lyrics.
The text is not saturated with verbs (the action both takes place and stands still), almost all of them are used in the past tense, as if the irrevocableness of both love and history is emphasized. For the figurative description of objects and the presentation of their features in dynamics, participles and adverbial phrases. used in sufficient in large numbers nouns in the nominative case, which indicates the significance of a person and the objects surrounding him. Designs with instrumental (was only a fish; between fire and smoke attachpicturesqueness, ease of descriptions. Thanks to personal pronouns, a special expression of the text is achieved. They bring a touch of sincerity and excitement of the moment.
This text consists only of narrative full two-part sentences. This emphasizes the factuality of history. It was, is and will be in the life of both individuals and entire eras. In addition, all sentences, except for one, are complex and a little tricky. This is the essence of life and the meaning of love. Everything is not simple. Everything is in the name of something. But what exactly? Each of us has an answer to this question, and it is different for everyone.
I was invited to the city library for an event, dedicated to Joseph Brodsky. I was not previously familiar with his work. All my knowledge about the poet came down to the fact that he was expelled from the USSR for something. I don’t feel very good about anti-Soviet people, because heated anti-Sovietism usually leads to hatred for all of Russia, but I decided to go. And did not regret.
I am generally opposed to
to indiscriminately label a person and turn away from his work because of his biography. A talented poet writes appropriate verses. For example, I don’t like Yevtushenko’s work, but this did not stop me from learning the poem “Careerist” by heart.
Since it was not interesting to just sit and listen, I learned one of Brodsky's poems - "Dido and Aeneas" for the event. This is probably the most dramatic episode in Virgil's epic poem "Aeneid". I chose very well, since a mini-study of the poem and the biography of the author led me to unexpected conclusions.
A bit of context. Aeneas - one of the Trojan heroes who fled the city, after its fall, with his people. Do not think anything bad about the hero - the gods told him so. The gods, led by Jupiter (Zeus), bequeathed to him to found a new nation, which would then become the greatest in the world (this is about the Romans). Juno (Hera) knew a little about the future, including the fact that the Romans would subsequently destroy Carthage, which was close to her heart.
Juno harmed as best she could, and as a result of one of the misadventures, the ships of Aeneas were thrown near (ironic of fate!) Carthage. There, the guests were greeted very well (why? This is a separate big topic), and the local queen and founder of the city, Dido, fell in love with Aeneas.
After a year's rest of travelers, Jupiter decided to remind his pet that it was time to know the honor. Moreover, due to the fact that Aeneas, at the founding of a new family, was to make a dynastic marriage, Dido was highly discouraged from taking with him. Therefore, our hero solved the problem in a tried and tested way - he sailed away slowly. Well, the gods ordered.
Dido threw herself into the fire in grief.
Now the poem itself, which, of course, is the author's interpretation of the plot (read in the manner of a Greek hexameter):
The great man looked out the window
and for her the whole world ended with the edge
his wide, Greek tunic,
an abundance of folds resembling
stopped sea.
He is
looked out the window, and his gaze now
was so far from these places that the lips
froze, like a shell, where
lurking rumble, and the horizon in the glass
was motionless.
And her love
was just a fish - maybe capable
go to sea after the ship
and, cutting through the waves with a flexible body,
maybe overtake him...
But he -
he mentally already set foot on dry land.
And the sea turned into a sea of tears.
But, as you know, just in a minute
despair and starts to blow
tailwind. And a great husband
left Carthage.
She stood
in front of a fire that was kindled
under the city wall her soldiers,
and saw how in its haze,
trembling between fire and smoke,
Silently crumbled Carthage
long before the prophecy of Cato.
(1969)
Aeneas can be treated differently, but the first layer of the poem lies on the surface: in the dilemma of supreme duty / love, the real hero chooses duty. In addition, Brodsky clearly states that Dido is not able to be a worthy companion of Aeneas already in the first lines: he, looking to the future, and she, closed in her love for one person.
After reading the descriptions of the poet's life, it became clear that Marina Basmanova was his muse for a long time, who even gave birth to his son in 1967. It turns out that the second layer of the poem is a description of Brodsky's relationship with his beloved, or rather the decision to break them in order to fulfill some higher mission.
"Dido..." was written 3 years before Brodsky's forced emigration in 1972. It turns out that he foresaw, foresaw the inevitable separation. Or did you really know? And what kind of "Carthage" collapsed in his last lines?
I found the answer thanks to the article "Between the hammer and the anvil. How consciousness was crushed Soviet man". A poem which has been reviewed antiseptic , "Performance", plunged me into a small shock.
It was written already in exile, in 1986. The poem simply burns with hatred for the Soviet people, Russian culture and Orthodoxy. In addition, it hits cultural values in general, since everything that is possible is soiled in it: the higher and the lower are interchanged, the sacred rhymes with obscenities, and other tabooing. Moreover, it is written with knowledge of the matter: tasty, detailed and with pleasure.
Why did Tolstoy not please Brodsky?
Miracle Yudo: Gentle Count
Turned into a bookcase!
Orthodox?
Let me cross myself, otherwise I'll hit you in the face ...
Kremlin?
The Kremlin looms like a zone...
Even the clouds over our country did not please him
Look - swollen, like cotton wool from an immodest hollow,
multiplying without reason, clouds cling to architecture.
The Russian North also got:
"Barge haulers in Severomorsk
pulling a tow-line cruiser,
emaciated from radiation."
And I chose not the most poisonous lines. To fully understand all the hatred, it is better to read the original. In 1991 (or 1992), Dibrov created a video (now called "performance") for this poem, in which, thanks to the video sequence, he managed to accomplish the impossible - he added more poison. For example, the phrase "By the way, we all jerk off" is pronounced by children.
But this was not the case in the early Brodsky. Where is this from? How could the author of such lines write such a thing:
My people, who do not bow their heads,
My people, who have preserved the habit of grass:
In the hour of death, clutching grains in handfuls,
Retaining the ability to grow on the northern stone.
My people, patient and kind people,
Drinker, screaming songs, forward
Aspiring, rising - huge and simple -
Above the stars: in human height!
…
My people! Yes, I'm happy that your son!
You will never look at me sideways.
You will drown me if my song is not honest.
But you will hear her if she is sincere.
The answer to this can be found if you carefully read the biography of Brodsky. From his youth, he was both cherished as a poet and brought up hatred for the USSR. The "system" fought him, as it were, but not to the end.
They were sentenced to 5 years of forced labor for parasitism and sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region, but after 1.5 years they were released on parole. Although, during this time, our hero managed to get a lot of complaints for absenteeism and even 15 days of arrest for refusing to do work (also released ahead of time). By the way, the time in this link, Brodsky himself called best time In my life. He intensively wrote and studied the work of foreign classics. (I wonder how he got books during the period of shortage, even in a distant village?)
A couple of times they were sent to "treat" in a "psychiatric hospital". But don't we know that in the appropriate institutions they can do such a thing to a person that he can neither read, nor write, nor even speak? But everything ended well. The KGB could not or did not want to?
Then deprivation of citizenship and expulsion from the country. Can you imagine that a serial killer or a thief would be sent out of the country? Who would have known Brodsky, given the ban on the printing of his poems in the USSR? He would be widely known in narrow circles. Very narrow. And that's it. Who in the West would care about his fate, except for a part of Russian emigrants?
Expelled from the USSR, Brodsky got the opportunity to print in large numbers. Already from the plane, he was met by a professor at the University of Michigan and, concurrently, the owner of a publishing house (specializing in publishing books by authors banned in the USSR), K. Proffer.
It turns out that the poet in the USSR was "pressed" just enough to cause hatred for the state, but not fear for the "organs". And this was done by the KGB, or rather part of it. Why, you ask? This is another question. But the facts point precisely to the systematic work to develop hatred. Moreover, in the West, someone took the baton and continued to strengthen it. Brodsky did not want to leave and hoped to return to native city- Leningrad, but when such an opportunity presented itself, with the collapse Soviet Union, did not. He even bequeathed to bury himself in Venice (Venice, as the antipode of "Northern Venice").
Heated anti-Sovietism led to hatred for all of Russia. By the way, here we have found another puzzle that allows us to understand the poem "Dido" - the collapse of the USSR. This is Carthage, which Aeneas-Brodsky set out to destroy across the sea. And I knew it back in 1969!
What kind of "gods" predicted Brodsky such a future is an open question. But it is very likely that it was not fate that led the poet through life, but something more mundane.
