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Sergei Esenin — Fifteen Poems (1911–1912)

Fifteen early lyric poems by Sergei Esenin (1895–1925), written in 1911–1912 — the school-notebook years, before fame — in new English verse translations made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed. A young poet chafes inside the cold walls of his school, hears a merry song he no longer has the strength to echo, dreams of sharing other people's sorrow, and calls on his listener to stand beside Brother Man at the plough. He lights his bonfire and watches it burn down to ash and a single tear; he listens to the tumbledown village hut, where every song is a song of grief; he is told, gently and finally, to step away from the window. Then spring comes: a silvery river, a nightingale in the birches, a star burning dimly through the mist above an overgrown path. An accordion strikes up at the edge of the village, a mother walks the Kupala forest, and evening settles over the hut — the cat drowsing on the beam. The young poet defines what a poet must be, watches autumn drops slide down the windowpane, and stands, at the end, at a grave beneath the willows.

The fifteen poems, in order: My Stay at School (Пребывание в школе), A Distant Merry Song (Далёкая весёлая песня), My Dreams (Мои мечты), To Brother Man (Брату Человеку), I Lit My Bonfire (Я зажёг свой костёр), A Little Village Hut (Деревенская избёнка), Step Away from the Window (Отойди от окна), A Spring Evening (Весенний вечер), And Above Me a Star Burns (И надо мной звезда горит), Play On, Play, Little Accordion (Заиграй, сыграй, тальяночка, малиновы меха), Mother Walked in the Forest at Kupala Time (Матушка в купальницу по лесу ходила), The Evening Grew Smoky (Задымился вечер, дремлет кот на брусе), The Poet (Поэт), Drops (Капли), and In Memory of the Departed — At the Grave (На память об усопшем. У могилы) — by Sergei Esenin.

Esenin.

Intermission: "Napoli in Fiamme" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.