About salt, stars and an axe (Poetic triptych of 1921 by Nicoloz Mitsishvili – Anna Akhmatova-Gorenko – Osip Mandelshtam)

Abstract

Aim. The article is aimed at presenting a comparative analysis of «Parting» («Proshchanie»), an underexplored poem written by Georgian poet Nikoloz Mitsishvili (Sirbiladze) in March 1921 and translated by Osip Mandelshtam in the same year, Osip Mandelshtam’s poem «Washed at night in the yard...» («Umyvalsya noch'yu na dvore...», September-October 1921) and Anna Akhmatova-Gorenko’s poetic sketch «Fear, sorting through things in the dark...» («Strakh, vo t'me perebiraya veshchi…», 27–28 August 1921). Research methods. Comparative analysis based on multilevel historical and literary text commentary. Results. We show that the poems «Parting» («Proshchanie») by N. Mitsishvili, «Washed at night in the yard...» («Umyvalsya noch'yu na dvore...») by O. Mandelshtam and «Fear, sorting through things in the dark...» («Strakh, vo t'me perebiraya veshchi…») by A. Akhmatova-Gorenko objectively form a lyrical cycle, whose context is critical for perceiving each of its constituent components. Research novelty. The poems «Parting» («Proshchanie») by N. Mitsishvili, «Washed at night in the yard...» («Umyvalsya noch'yu na dvore...») by O. Mandelshtam and «Fear, sorting through things in the dark...» («Strakh, vo t'me perebiraya veshchi…») by А. Akhmatova-Gorenko were analyzed for the first time as a lyrical triptych. The three literary pieces have common imagery and display their authors’ simultaneous attempts to search for a new poetics to depict a severe and dreadful new world coming in. A thorough examination of the three poets’ association zones, their «physical» and «metaphysical» worlds, helps to substantially clarify the spiritual, ethical and historical attitudes of the triad to the new post-revolutionary reality that started to take shape in 1918. Practical value. The results of the study may encourage further research into the oeuvre of the three poets in a specific historical perspective.