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Sergei Esenin — Fifteen Poems (1911)
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Sergei Esenin — Fifteen Poems (1911)
Fifteen early lyrics by Sergei Esenin, all from 1911 — the school-notebook years, when the sixteen-year-old poet was filling copybooks with songs of grief and wonder: a life given over to suffering, a cool spring night that can never be brought back, a river slumbering silver under the moon, a sunrise, a burial, the first frosts of winter, an old robber's song of lost strength, and a blizzard addressed like a living soul. Sorrow runs through the whole set — thoughts, sounds of sorrow, tears — yet everything is seen through the eyes of a village boy for whom the river, the moon, the reeds and the snow are alive.
The fifteen poems, in order: My Life (Моя жизнь); What Is Past Cannot Return (Что прошло — не вернуть); Night — "The river quietly slumbers…" (Ночь — «Тихо дремлет река…»); Sunrise (Восход солнца); To the Dead Man (К покойнику); Winter (Зима); Song of the Old Robber (Песня старика разбойника); Night — "The weary day inclined to night…" (Ночь — «Усталый день склонился к ночи…»); I Have No Strength to Sing or Weep (Нет сил ни петь и ни рыдать); Am I to Blame That I Am a Poet (Я ль виноват, что я поэт); Thoughts (Думы); Sounds of Sorrow (Звуки печали); Tears (Слёзы); Nothing Can Be Seen Beyond the Misty Distance (Не видать за туманною далью); The Blizzard of 26 April 1912 (Вьюга на 26 апреля 1912 г.). The two poems both titled "Night" are different works, distinguished above by their opening lines. By Sergei Esenin, in new English verse translations made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.
Esenin.
Intermission: "The Longest Night by the River 2" — instrumental.
KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.