Reflections on the Mandelstam’s Poem “In my Gardens Where no Wind Blows…” (1909)

PDF: http://izv-oifn.ru/images/2017-2/60-69-frolov.pdf
Absract: The poem “In my gardens where no wind blows…” was attached to a letter addressed to Maximilian Voloshin within the flow of letters with poems sent to different persons during the years of 1909–1910. The flow stopped shortly before the first publication of Mandelstam in “Apollo” (1910). The poems in letters allow us to have an insight into the creative workshop of the poet in the period between the lectures in the Tower of Vyacheslav Ivanov and the “Apollo” publication. The most part of this time Mandelstam spent in Heidelberg. Mandelstam’s poetry of the period is built on the associations with symbolism. The main theme of the poem is art and artist, immortality of the first and fragility, mortality of the second. M.L. Gasparov outlined its context field, which includes “I’ve been given a body…” and “The flame of gold leaves…”. Another poem, “Thin dust wears thin…”, can be added to it. The poem in question stands out by the fact that almost half of the words in it occur it Mandelstam’s poetry only once or twice. In other words, it has a “borrowed” vocabulary and its analysis allows us to deepen our understanding of its meaning and poetics.
Keywords: Mandelstam, M.A. Voloshin, symbolism, context field, “borrowed” vocabulary.
Category: Vol 76, NO 2 (2017)
Pages: 60-69
Department: Materials and Notes
Author: Dmitriy V. Frolov
Information about the author: Doctor of Philological Sciences, Corresponding member of the RAS, Professor at the Institute of Asian and African Countries of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, 11–1 Mokhovaya street, Moscow, 125009, Russia dvfrolov@yandex.ru

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