Best Russian Poetry

[Jeana Rodia]

Wejust couldn't start with anyone else. "Pushkin is our everything," Russians often say. He is without a doubt our main poet. During his relatively short life of 37 years (it's common for Russian poets to die young), he created poetic works in all possible genres, and also wrote drama plays and a verse novel, Eugene Onegin, which has a unique 'Onegin stanza' with a strict inner order of rhythms and rhymes. It's hard to find a topic that Pushkin would not dwell on through his poetry: from love and friendship, to freedom and loyalty to the state, and finally to a sense of art and life, and the very special feelings that a man feels as he gets older and his life is coming to an end.

Lermontov lived just 27 years, and like Pushkin, he died after being injured in a duel. He first gained fame as well as official disgrace after blaming St. Petersburg high society for Pushkin's death (The Poet's dead! - a slave to honor -/ He fell, by rumor slandered). For this poem he was exiled to the Caucasus region. Lermontov is best known for his romanticism in poetry where he put his lyrical character in opposition to the rest of the world. The poet is also keen on the image of the Demon, a fallen angel who is alone against the universe. Inspired by the Caucasus and its legends, Lermontov wrote two brilliant long poems: Mtsyri and Demon. He is also an author of the frequently staged drama, The Masquerade, where a protagonist falls into insane jealousy and kills his innocent wife.

Tyutchev was a diplomat and worked 20 years in Germany, and he was the first to translate Henrich Heine into Russian. His poetry is very diverse - from archaic odes and lyrics about nature that are beholden to romanticism where a character is left alone against the universe, and has a dialogue with the skies and stars. In his last period of poetry, Tyutchev turned to patriotic stanza, ruminating on Russia and its unique path in history. He strongly believed in Russia and thought that the country had to stay strong and withstand attacks. Tyutchev formulated the most famous poem about his homeland:

After the war her poetry was deemed harmful for the Soviet nation, and she was banned from publishing. Up to her death in 1966 she was a very reputable poet among the intelligentsia - and her poems were among the first to spread via samizdat - illegal, handmade publications of the Soviet underground.

Critics still argue whether Yesenin is a great poet, but for sure he is one of the most beloved owing to the deceptive simplicity of his poems. He praised Russian nature, wrote heartbreaking poems about the beauty of golden fields, birch trees and the expanses of our motherland. (Those who have had the chance to visit his native village of Konstantinovo in Ryazan Region, or actually any Central Russia hinterland, can imagine what expanses and landscapes he means).

Mayakovsky was a Malevich for poetry, but he also brought new breath into drama and theater art, and even tried himself in cinema. He was also one of the first to create advertising posters in an astounding avant-garde style.

His lifestyle was also quite modern for his times - he lived with his beloved, Lilya Brik and her husband, Osip Brik. Today, we would say that it was a toxic relationship, and indeed Mayakovsky suffered a lot (his fans even consider Lilya to be a witch). His poetry and life was so vivid that it burned out too fast - aged 36, he shot himself.

Pushkin is considered to be backbone of Russian poetry. Therefore it is not surprising that his poems are among the best known in Russia and are an overwhelming majority in the school curriculum. Even then, there are certain poems that stand out, like this classic 1825 love poem dedicated to a mysterious heartbreaker. Pushkin wrote it during his exile to Mikhailovskoe village. It has since then become the love poem of an epoque and gained even more popularity when put to music by composer Mikhail Glinka.

In ecstasy the heart is beating,

Old joys for it anew revive;

Inspired and God-filled, it is greeting

The fire, and tears, and love alive.

The poet Alexander Blok lived through the turbulent years of the Russian revolution. He came from a well-educated intelligentsia family, but unlike many people of his class, decided to stay in Russian and remained loyal to his country. This 1905 poem reflects the uncertainly of the times: the first revolution, the short but shameful war with Japan and the ongoing discontent with the current government.

And every one thought that the joy was there, That the ships were all in a quiet bay, And the weary people abroad, full of care, Were now all blessed with a happy day.

so far, among the favorite things i've read here are your takes on irish folk music and russian poetry. great stuff. along with the people's reactions to them. i bet if you dug around the stacks you'd come up with the same treatment on the blues. . .

I've mentioned in the past about how the CHEERS writers were always so great in finding the comedy without forcing the characters to "go out of character," so to speak, and to be able to get a laugh out of actions which stem from their most basic human behavior traits... Another instance I thought of where it holds true (and Ken, I'm also not sure if you and David penned the episode) but was still hilarious, is where Sam substituted for a week as a sportscaster on the local news for Fred Dryer's character; and after being told that even as well-liked and as well-known a sports personality as Sam Malone was to Bostonians, he was too dull to be doing sports on TV... Whereby, digesting the criticism at his own Sam Malone intellectual level, he showed up the next night and did his sportscast to a rap beat coming from a boombox... I still laugh thinking about the last line he came up with: "...a fella with a groin injury, a g-g-g-groin injury..."

I guess reading today's blog got me thinking about the Fred Dryer episode because I had heard somewhere where that he and Julia Duffy were both originally considered for the parts of Sam and Diane...

To answer Ian,

Great shows like Cheers and Taxi allowed moments that simulated reality, moments where you could breathe, moments that weren't simply set-up, joke. And when the joke eventually came (character-driven, clever, smart yet not too written sounding) it was that much richer. A lot of the idiots running the asylum today seem to have forgotten all this. Or they think the audience is no longer interested in this. They're wrong.

Hilarious poem. Julia was so good in this episode. I like it when she decides she wants a man, somebody of good peasant stock. Hairy arms and one-word sentences.

This was also maybe the first time Diane Chambers uses what turns out to be the same French in several episodes. When she displays her knowledge of French, it's almost always something which translates into, "I say, if you speak slowly, I can understand you." I think it was also used in the episode when Dianne, Sumner Sloan and Sam go out, but Sam is left out of the conversations. Je dit, S'il Vous Parlez lentement, je vous comprends. Something like that. It got to where Diane said it trippingly.

The only thing more depressing than Russian poetry? Russian "Comedy".

In London in 1994, I saw a production of an 1850 Russian comedy (It said it was a comedy right on the posters and programs, as how else would you know?) by Tugenev, called "A Month in the Country", which WAS how long it seemed to last.

Helen Mirrin played a woman in her 50s who gets a letch for a handsome gent in his 20s (Joseph Finnes), like you do, and makes a pass at him. Result? All the characters's lives are destroyed and end in misery. A laff riot. You had to be a Nineteeth Century Russian to find a smile in it. (A typical Russian in 1850: "The cossacks never came and ate them. How hilarious!") Ever since, I've been referring to Turgenev as Turgidnev.

Nicely acted though. John Hurt was also suffering in it.

I think I'll go eat some worms.

I have that scene memorized. "At least tonight we eat." Cracked me up.

Another "Cheers" scene embedded in my brain is when Coach's daughter comes to visit, bringing along her hideous boyfriend. He's a suit salesman. He tries to sell Norm and Cliff an ugly suit by highlighting its flame-retardant qualities: He holds a lighter under the suit and says, "See? It won't burn!" And someone (maybe Sam) mutters, "Well, that's a drawback."

Alice Beardsley (sp?) played the daughter. A lovely episode. "No, Roy. You don't get Pennsylvania and you don't get me. You just get more and more annoying."

Great stuff.

The Russian poetry scene is my all-time favorite! Ken, you're my hero.

Now, did you write the one where Carla, Fraiser, Lillith and Carla's brilliant son are out for dinner in a fancy restaurant. Fraiser advises the waiter that Lillith cannot eat something-or-other because of her delicate constitution. He deferrs to Carla and Carla says to Fraiser something like:

"Thank you for asking, Fraiser. I too have a delicate constitution. (to the waiter) I can have nothing with extra-heavy barbecue sauce, or I will be repeating like a howitzer."

If that was also you, well, there is no other Cheers writer in my opinion.

The poem reminds me of one of my (many) favourite lines from Withnail and I, in which Withnail is complaining about Russian drama,

""Always full of women staring out of windows, whining about ducks going to Moscow"

Hi, I'm 18, i'm from Spain and i just discovered "Cheers". When i saw this episode i was a bit depressed because of a lot of different thing. But when i saw this scene i just coudn't stop laughing. I think it was the time i've had more fun with TV EVER. I'm going to watch the whole show. Thanks a lot for cheering me up, even if you done it more than 20 years ago.

I just noticed (as Max did, in a comment above) that the "...J'ai dit, si vouz parlez lentement ..." comment that Diane says in this episode was also said by her in S2 EP (Sumner's Return) when she's speaking to Sumner. Now I really want to know where this comes from and what the joke is!

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