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Vladimir Mayakovsky — Fifteen Poems (1915–1916)
Description
The bribe-takers are told to take everything at once, so that no one need ever write about it again; a monstrous funeral carries dead laughter through a city in mourning, with old woman Life weeping behind the coffin; a fat face looms all year in the factory smoke and is punched, politely, in the mug; Russia is begged for something newer — Capri, duels, cognac, new stars embroidered on the sky; a betrayed lover swears vengeance on all and everything and bequeaths the orchard of his great soul; the letter to Lilichka swears his love will hang on her like a heavy weight, wherever she runs, and begs to pave her departing step with one last tenderness; cabmen multiply until the poet walks alone; a mysterious creature in a café works at a calf's leg until a second ugly mug makes the first look like Leonardo; the poet offers his immortality for one tender human word; the great die one after another, mastodon after mastodon, and heaven itself takes offence; the moon hangs full while God rummages with a silver spoon in the fish soup of the stars; victory's herald bursts in and drags everyone off to the restaurant; Bryusov is warned that Pushkin's fist is shackled in copper; and at Christmas there will be no fir tree, because papa is at the factory that makes gunpowder — though a tree is coming, one solid Christmas, too big to tire of.
An Attentive Attitude to Bribe-Takers (Внимательное отношение к взяточникам), A Monstrous Funeral (Чудовищные похороны), My Attitude to This (Мое к этому отношение), Hey! (Эй!), To All and Everything (Ко всему), Lilichka! (Лиличка!), Mockeries (Издевательства), Worthless Self-Consolation (Никчемное самоутешение), Fed Up (Надоело), The Cheap Sale (Дешевая распродажа), Gloom (Мрак), A Moonlit Night (Лунная ночь), The Next Day (Следующий день), For V. Ya. Bryusov, in Memory (В. Я. Брюсову на память), and Pine Needles (Хвои) — fifteen poems of 1915–1916 by Vladimir Mayakovsky, in new English verse translations made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.
Внимательное отношение к взяточникам · Чудовищные похороны · Мое к этому отношение · Эй! · Ко всему · Лиличка! · Издевательства · Никчемное самоутешение · Надоело · Дешевая распродажа · Мрак · Лунная ночь · Следующий день · В. Я. Брюсову на память · Хвои
Mayakovsky.
Intermission: "Glacial Forest 3" — instrumental.
KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.