Osip Mandelstam - a miracle of poetic pristine

MOSCOW. Anniversary of Osip Emilievich Mandelstam.

Osip Emilievich, who died from exhaustion, cold, illness in a transit camp and was buried in a mass grave, would only smile incredulously if he knew about the scale of the celebrations in honor of his anniversary. Exhibitions, literary evenings, plaques, contests, film festivals. Russia, Germany, America, Holland, Israel will celebrate one of the best poets of the XX century for more than one month. His archive, which survived thanks to the love and dedication of his wife, Nadezhda Yakovlevna, and several friends, made it possible to get acquainted with Mandelstam’s brilliant prose.

According to the famous writer and literary critic Alexander Genis, this is the peak of the prosaic genre, which is worthy of the closest attention. As well as translations of the poetry of Barbier, Gaprindashvili, Verfel and Petrarch, demonstrating linguistic intuition, innovation, rich vocabulary, the ability to capture the rhythm and style of the original. It was him who Akhmatova considered a miracle of poetic primitiveness, worthy of admiration. Mandelstam’s prophecy came true that the lines he wrote would affect the "structure and composition" of Russian poetry. Akhmatova will also hear the visionary: “Poetry is power, since they kill for it.” A wolfhound eyelid rushing over his shoulders killed him gradually. First, frightened and sent to jail in 1934 for the reckless and libelous (from the point of view of those in power) poem "we live without us sensing the country." Then, reacting to the denunciation, he finished it off completely in 1938.

In a photograph sent from France, a young student at the Sorbonne, Osip Mandelstam, wrote to his mother: “I turned around on purpose to send my regards.” The opened expositions, verses from the stage, the beautiful film by Liberov “Save my speech forever…” is another greeting from the irrevocable distance.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru