Who is Zabolotsky

Who is Nikolai Zabolotsky?

Nikolai Zabolotsky was a much admired Russian poet of the 20th century. He was prominent during the Soviet period and made his literary debut in 1929 with the publication of his first book of poetry, Scrolls. It was a remarkable collection of descriptions of urban life in Leningrad during the first years of the Soviet era. The poems created a sensation and Zabolotsky was severely criticized for his satirical view of life and pessimistic tone. As a result, many of the copies of the edition of 1,100 were confiscated and destroyed.

As the political situation steadily worsened, the authorities had enough of his strange brand of pessimism and parody and he was arrested in 1938 and sentenced to seven years in an NKVD labour camp. In 1946 he was released and allowed to return to Moscow; he continued to write poems, but now in a more classical form of nature poetry. He died in 1958.

A note about Zabolotsky's later poetry

A note about Zabolotsky's later poetry

Following Zabolotsky's expressionistic poems about Petersburg during the 1920s, he was led to a larger poetry exploring man's place in nature. An idealist at heart, his philosophical tone and ecological vision of nature is particularly relevant for us today.

Zabolotsky fell victim to the Stalinist purges and did not write any poetry until his release in 1946, whereupon he began to write with his earlier intensity. His work, from the early avant-garde pieces to the later classical lyrics, is unified: the poems add up to an epic about man's place in the scheme of creation

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Blind Man

With face upturned to the sky,
Head uncovered,
He lingers by the gates,
This God-accursed old guy.
All day he sings,
And his sad, angry refrain,
Striking at the heart,
Startles pedestrians again.

Around the old man
Younger generations stir.
Blossoming in the gardens,
A mad siren's moan is heard.
In a white grotto of bird-cherries
Along silvery leaves of plants,
A dazzling day
Rises skyward...

Why do you weep, blind man?
Why torment yourself in spring for naught?
The past long ago ceased to leave
Traces of hopeful thought.
Your black abyss you cannot hide
With spring leaves,
Your half-dead eyes,
Alas, will never open wide.

Indeed, your whole life is
Like a large familiar wound,
You're no favorite of the sun,
No kin of nature's womb.
You learned to live
In the depths of eternal mist,
You learned to look
Into the eternal face of darkness...

And I am afraid to ponder,
That somewhere on nature's fringe
I'm that same blind man,
With face turned skyward in a cringe.
I watch the spring floods,
Only in my soul's depths dark,
Conversing with them
Only in my sorrowful heart.

O, how difficult
To observe earth's elements
Wrapped in the mist of habit,
Careless, vain, and evil!
These songs of mine lament--
How many times are they sung in the world!
Where can I find the words,
So my lofty songs of life can be heard?

Where are you leading my hand,
O dark, dreadful Muse,
Along the great roadways
Of my unbounded land?
Never, at any hour
Did I seek union with you,
Never, did I wish
Submission to your power.

You chose me yourself,
And pierced my soul at birth,
You showed me
The great wonder of the earth...
Sing out, old blind man!
Night approaches. And the stars,
Echoing your song,
Shine indifferently from afar.

1946
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Monday, September 26, 2011

The Thaw

The thaw after a snowstorm,
A blizzard has just subsided,
Now snowdrifts have settled,
And the snow is turning grey.
 
A sliver of moon shines
Through tattered clouds.
The pine-trees' boughs
Are heavy with wet snow.

Icicles melt and flow down,
Piercing the snowdrift.
Puddles, like shallow saucers,
Glisten near paths.
 
Let white fields breathe
Silent and drowsy,
Again, earth is renewed
By its immense labor.

Soon, trees will awaken,
Soon, flocks of nomadic birds,
Flying in formation,
Will sound the trumpets of spring.
1948
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