Poetics of Mystery: About Osip Mandelstam's Poem “Tonight, I Will Not Lie...”

Скачать / Download:

PDF
Absract: The article is dedicated to the poorly studied poem by Osip Mandelstam "Tonight, I will not lie..." (1925), entitled in one of the editions "The gypsy"; it analyzes particularities of its poetics and semantics, its folklore plot and its language. The article also gives a commentary about motifs and images in the poem, reveals its subtexts, in particular the ones that refer to Pushkin, connections to episodes from "Evgeny Onegin", "The journey to Arzrum", the ballad "The groom", the tragedy "Boris Godunov". The central image of the poem is studied within the context of the gypsy subject in Mandelstam's work. In the article is being substanciated the idea that the lyrical plot of the poem is based on a dream, signs of which appear in the text. The poetics of the poem is defined as "poetics of mystery", "poetics of meaning gap", that leaves open ways of understanding the text. The folklore dream of the protagonist and the whole plot fill up with meanings in the general perspective of Mandelstam's work in the beginning of the 1930s, and, in particular, in comparison with the poem "Falsehood" (1931), in which motifs of "The gypsy" are repeated and rethought.   
Keywords: Osip Mandelstam, lyrics, poetics, semantics.
Category: Vol 78, NO 6 (2019)
DOI: 10.31857/S241377150007804-7
Pages: 67-73
Author: Irina Surat
Information about the author: ORCID: 0000-0001-5933-0491. Affiliation: A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

Список литературы/ References

1. Mandelshtam, O.E. Poln. sobr. soch. i pisem v 3-kh tomakh. T. 1 [Complete Works and Letters in 3 Vols. Vol. 1]. Moscow, Progress–Pleyada Publ., 2009. 808 р. (In Russ.)

2. Mandelshtam, O. Tsynagka [A Gypsy Woman]. Novyj mir [New World]. 1927, N 6, p. 80. (In Russ.)

3. Mandelshtam, O. “Segodnya nochyu – ne solgu…ˮ [“Tonight, I Will not Lie...ˮ] Leningrad [Leningrad]. 1925, N 20, p. 4. (In Russ.)

4. Shindin, S.G. Stikhotvorenie Mandelshtama “Segodnya nochyu, ne solgu..ˮ: opyt “kulturologicheskojˮ interpretatsii [The Mandelshtam's Poem “Tonight, I Will not Lie...ˮ: A “Culturologicalˮ Interpretation Attempt]. Natura i kultura: slavyanskij mir [Nature and Culture: Slavic World]. Moscow, The Institute of Slavic Studies of the RAS Publ., 1997, pp. 146–164. (In Russ.)

5. Shindin, S.G. Kniga v biografii i khudozhestvennom mirovozzrenii Mandelshtama. III [Book in the Bioography and Artistic Outlook of Mandelshtam. 3]. Toronto Slavic Quarterly, N 59, Winter 2017 – http://sites.utoronto.ca/tsq/59/shindin_59.pdf (In Russ.)

6. Mandelshtam, O.E. Stikhotvoreniya. Proza [Poems. Prose]. Moscow, Ripol Klassik Publ., 2001. 894 p. (In Russ.)

7. Polyakova, S.V. “Olejnikov i ob Olejnikoveˮ i drugie raboty po russkoj literature [“Olejnikov and on Olejnikovˮ and other Essays on Russian Literature]. St. Petersburg, Inapress Publ., 1997. 381 p. (In Russ.)

8. Tolkovyj slovar russkogo yazyka v 4-kh tomakh. Red. D.N. Ushakov. T. 1 [Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language in 4 Vols. Ushakov, D.N. (Ed.). Vol. 1]. Moscow, Sovjetskaya Entsiklopediya Publ.; OGIZ Publ., 1935, p. 83. (In Russ.)

9. Tsvetaeva, M.I. Sobr. soch v 7 tomakh. T. 1 [Collected Works in 7 Vols. Vol. 1]. Moscow, Ellis Lak Publ., 1994. 640 p. (In Russ.)

10. Mandelshtam, O.E. Poln. sobr. soch. i pisem v 3-kh tomakh. T. 2. [Complete Works and Letters in 3 Vols. Vol. 2]. Moscow, Progress–Pleyada Publ., 2010. 760 p. (In Russ.)

11. Mandelshtam, N.Ya. Vospominaniya [Memoirs]. Moscow, Soglasie Publ., 1999. 552 p. (In Russ.)

12. Senderovich, S.Ya. Morfologiya zagadki [Morphology of a Mystery]. Moscow, Yazyki Slavyanskoj KulturyPubl., 2008. 208 p. (In Russ.)

13. Gershtein, E.G. Memuary [Memoirs]. St. Petersburg, Inapress Publ., 1998. 518 p. (In Russ.)

14. Kommentarii N.Ya. Mandelshtam k stikham O.E. Mandelshtama v zapisi V.M. Borisova. Publikatsiya S.V. Vasilenko [N.Ya. Mandelshtam's Commentaries on O.E. Mandelshtam's Poems Written by Borisov, V.M. Vasilenko, S.V. (Publ.)]. “Sokhrani moyu rech…ˮ Mandelshtamovskij almanakh. Vyp. 6 [“Save My Words...ˮ Mandelshtam Anthology. Iss. 6]. (In Press.) (In Russ.)

15. Lotman, Yu.M. Roman A.S. Pushkina “Evgenij Oneginˮ [A.S. Pushkin's Novel “Eugene Oneginˮ]. Leningrad, Prosveschenie Publ., 1980. 416 p. (In Russ.)

16. Lotman, Yu.M. Son – semioticheskoe okno [A Dream – a Semiotic Window]. Lotman, Yu.M. Kultura i vzryv [Culture and Explosion]. Moscow, Gnozis Publ., Izdatelskaya gruppa “Progressˮ Publ., 1992. (In Russ.)

17. Mandelshtam, N.Ya. Tretya kniga [The Third Book]. Moscow, Agraf Publ., 2006. 559 p. (In Russ.)