Poets of
OBERIY [1] group were considered curiosities at their time, as well as long thereafter.
Only recently the true significance of this group as one of the brightest
poetic constellations of the first post-Revolutionary years was
recognized. An analogy with the visual
arts seems appropriate. Picasso, Matisse and Dali towered in their lifetimes over XXth century painting,
yet Duchamp, Malevich and Warhol are now widely considered to be more influential. Similarly, the Russian literary criticism slowly but inevitably
recognizes Platonov’s prose and poetry of Akme (Mandelstam, Akhmatova) and Oberiy poems and short stories as the pinnacles of
achievement in XXth century Russian-language literature.
Oberiyts
were truly remote from the social agenda of Soviet State, neither opposing it
directly, nor supporting it in any meaningful way. Their desire to continue literary life as if the situation in the country was normal in part explains the
group’s tragic fate, unusually harsh even by the standards of Stalinist terror. All the members of the group, except Vaginov who died from TB on the eve of Stalin’s purges and Igor Bakhterev, were
either executed, or imprisoned. Of these, only Zabolotsky survived the camps to
live for four more years.
The “Old Woman” written by Kharms in 1939
predated existentialist prose of Sartre and Camus, being every bit as masterful
and provocative as “Le Chute”. All in all, Kharms and his influence on the Russian literature can be compared to Beckett's influence on Anglo-American-French literature. His later poems and short stories became much more
worked upon and polished (young Oberiyts preferred instantaneous expression),
and one may only guess, in what direction his literary genius would have taken
him were he to survive Stalin’s executioners and the siege of Leningrad.
Later in his life, Kharms assembled a narrow circle (Kharms, Lipavsky, Druskin and a few others) who, according to Russian historian of literature L. F. Katsis, considered themselves kind of apostles with the mission of ushering the New Age into the world. This agenda and attitude, odd even for the post-Revolutionary Russia, and fit only for 1960s San Francisco, was completely out of sync with late 1930s Stalin's tyranny. Kharms died in NKVD prison, probably simply starved to death, Lipavsky disappeared in the chaotic first days of war. Only Druskin, a standard-bearer and keeper of Kharms' papers survived to preserve Kharms' genius for posterity. A special role in preservation of Kharms' heritage was played by his wives (he had three; all beauties and cheated on them all). The first one perished in 1935 when the Great Purges only gained momentum, but the two remaining collated his writings, hid them from the Stalin's secret police at a grave danger to themselves and transmitted them, when it was relatively safe, to Druskin, Bakhterev and Western Slavists to preserve his writings for the future generations.
[1] Oberiyts
for the members of the group.
Смерть дикого воина
Часы стучат
Часы стучат
Часы стучат
Летит над миром пыль
В городах поют
В городах поют
В пустынях звенит песок
Поперёк реки
Поперёк реки
Летит копьё свистя
Как легкий пар
Как легкий пар
Летит его душа
И в солнца шар
И в солнца шар
Вонзается кóсами шурша
Четыреста воинов
Четыреста воинов
Мечами небу грозят
Супруга убитого
Супруга убитого
Отламывает камня кусок
И прячет убитого
И прячет убитого
Под ломанный камень, в песок
Четыреста воинов
Четыреста воинов
Четыреста суток молчат.
Четыреста суток
Четыреста суток
Над миром часы не стучат.
27 июня 1938 года.
The Death
of a Savage Warrior
The clocks
tic-toc
The clocks
tic-tac
Dust flies
all over the world
In the
cities they sing
In the
cities they sing
In the
desert—the sand that rings
Across the
river
Across the
river
A whistling
javelin flies
A savage
had fallen
A savage
had fallen
And he
sleeps while his amulet shines
As a subtle
vapor
As a subtle
vapor
His soul
flies to the skies
And the
round sun
And the
round sun
It pierces
by his screeching braids
Four
hundred warriors
Four
hundred warriors
Threaten
the sky by their swords
The wife of
the fallen
The wife of
the fallen
Crawls to
the river on her knees
The wife of
the fallen
The wife of
the fallen
Breaks a
piece off the stone
And hides
the fallen
And hides
the fallen
Under a
broken stone, in the sand.
Four
hundred warriors
Four
hundred warriors
Four
hundred days keep silence.
Four
hundred days
Four
hundred days
The clocks
stopped all over the world.
Russian original is cited according to Daniil Kharms, Circus Shardam, St. Petersburg, Crystal, 1999. Grammar and punctuation of the Russian text follows this edition.
Russian original is cited according to Daniil Kharms, Circus Shardam, St. Petersburg, Crystal, 1999. Grammar and punctuation of the Russian text follows this edition.
Рисунок Алисии Порет, одной из жен Хармса
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