Tsvetaeva your name is a bird in the hand genre. The secret of the poem by M. Tsvetaeva “Your name is a bird in your hand ...

I am. You'll. Marina Tsvetaeva

I am. You will be.

My Translation from Marina Tsvetaeva. June, 1918

I am. You will be. Between us
................................. store of wisdom.
I drink. You thirsty. Agreement - uselessness.
Us dozens, centuries, hundreds of thousands of years
separate. - God does not build bridges.

Please Be! - this is my commandment.
Please, Let me pass by, with b"ated breath...
I am. You will be. You'll tell me over
...................................ten Springs,
............through many trials: "I am..." ,
...............................and I "ll answer:
"Once up on a time...,
....................we shall wait long before..."

(Marina Tsvetaeva)

I am. You'll. Between us -
...................................abyss.
I drink. You are thirsty. Talking is futile.
We are ten years old, we are a hundred millennia
Disconnect. - God does not build bridges.

Be! - this is my commandment. Give - by
Pass, breathing without disturbing growth.
I am. You'll. Ten springs later
You say: - there is! - and I will say: -
.................................... once upon a time...

********************************************
2.

(YOUR NAME IS a BIRD ON MY PALM!)

Your name is a bird on my palm.
Your name is ice on my tongue.
Your name is a stone in a swamp.
It is a bullet, and a cramp.

Your name is an invisible moment
of my lips
A kiss in the eyes
My breath in your hold.
Sometimes - a reasonable advise.
Sometimes - snow, and a scold.

A horse on a cloud
A ball which I try to catch,
A candle which is blown out,
A painful skin scratch...

It is a light from darkness,
A nap which is deep and clean.
Your name is a holy sparkle
A game which I need to win.

*
POEMS TO THE BLOCK

YOUR NAME IS A BIRD IN THE HAND.

Marina Tsvetaeva

Your name is a bird in your hand
Your name is ice on the tongue
One single movement of the lips
Your name is five letters.
Ball caught on the fly
Silver bell in the mouth

A stone thrown into a quiet pond
Sigh like your name is.
In the light clicking of night hooves
Your loud name thunders.
And he will call him to our temple
A loud clicking trigger.

Your name - oh, you can't! -
Your name is a kiss in the eyes
In the gentle cold of motionless eyelids,
Your name is a kiss in the snow.
Key, icy, blue sip...
With your name - sleep is deep.

3.

The smell, the smell of your cigarette! M. Tsvetaeva

Scent, scent of your cigarette. Marina Tsvetaeva.

(My Translation from Marina Tsvetaeva).

Scent, scent
of your cigarette!
Dark complexioned cigar's
Scent!
Finger-rings, feathers,
Eyes, panamas...
blue night
in Monaco.

Fu "nny scent,
Musty a little:
West in red haze
lamppost-
a single illuminated pillar -
moonlight,
roar of Temza river waves,
What else?
What else...

Ah! It smells like Vein!
Perfume, hay, an open stage,
like-
......Betrayal,
...............Adultery!

***
(Marina Tsvetaeva)

Smell, smell
Your cigarette!
Of a swarthy cigar
Smell!
Rings, feathers,
Eyes, hats...
blue night
Monaco.

The smell is strange
Slightly musty:
In the red mist
West.
Lamp post
And the roar of the Thames
What else?
With what?

Ah, Vienna!
Spirits, hay,
open stage,
Treason!
.............................................
*********************************************

I kiss you on the forehead. Marina Tsvetaeva.

(My Translation from Marina Tsvetaeva. June 1917)

A kiss on the forehead - to wash away care,
...................to white it out.
I kiss your forehead.

A kiss on the eyes - your sleeplessness
terminal.
...................... Insomnia stop.
I kiss your eyes.

Ah, kiss on these lips! Quench, slake
thirst forever! Drink water, my love!
I kiss your lips.

A kiss on the forehead - drop out of memory.
You'll never be missed!
I kiss on your forehead.

Kissing on the forehead - erase care. M. Tsvetaeva

Marina Tsvetaeva

Kissing on the forehead - erase care.
Kiss you on the forehead.

Kissing in the eyes - relieve insomnia.
Kiss you in the eyes.

Kiss on the lips - drink water.
Kiss you on the lips.

Kiss on the forehead - erase the memory.
Kiss you on the forehead.

***
illustration by the artist Gino
Art Deco

Reviews

The daily audience of the Potihi.ru portal is about 200 thousand visitors, who total amount view more than two million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

Soamo 04/29/2002: Tsvetaev's "poems to Blok" (1):

Your name- bird in hand
Your name is ice on the tongue
One single movement of the lips
Your name is five letters.

Why 5 letters? Block - 4 letters. Alexander - 9 letters. Sasha, right? So, they were not close friends. Mystery...

maalox: A. Blok? 1 2345

Konstantin Karchevsky: Because in the pre-revolutionary transcription "Blok" was written with "yat" at the end - Blok. Hence the five letters.

earil: Block. Not yat, but ep. Not Blok, but Blok.

Novel: And why did you have to make riddles, what do you think, fellow accomplices?

Your name is a bird in your hand
Your name is ice on the tongue
One single movement of the lips.
Your name is five letters.
Ball caught on the fly
Silver bell in the mouth

A stone thrown into a quiet pond
Sigh like your name is.
In the light clicking of night hooves
Your loud name thunders.
And call him to our temple
A loud clicking trigger.

Your name - oh, you can't! -
Your name is a kiss in the eyes
In the gentle cold of motionless eyelids.
Your name is a kiss in the snow.
Key, icy, blue sip…
With your name - sleep is deep ...

This poem has been analyzed and interpreted many times. The non-naming of the name “Blok” was associated, in particular, with the imyaslav heresy. Tsvetaeva "glorifies" the name of Blok, but does not call it sacred. Imyaslavie was interested in Mandelstam, with whom just at that time Tsvetaeva was experiencing a surge romantic relationship.

An unnamed name - “bird in hand”, “ice on the tongue”, “one single movement of the lips”, “five letters”, “ball”, “bell”, “stone”, hit “hooves”, click “trigger”, “ kiss", "sip". All comparisons are characterized by the brevity of the name, its monosyllable, the stress of that single syllable of which it consists.

But the name itself is gradually introduced: the last rhymes of the second and third stanzas already rhyme with “Block”, and in the final word “deep” the name of the addressee is already contained as an anagram: “DEEP”.

The motive for the ban is implemented in two ways. Firstly, there is a ban on naming a name, and its violation through indirect naming. Secondly, there is a ban - on love: “Your name - oh, you can’t! - / Your name is a kiss on the eyes ... ". Here, the word “no” and “kiss” correspond vertically.

It is noteworthy that, in accordance with the "articulatory" theme of the poem, the reader's attention is always focused on the "tongue" - "lips" - "mouth" - "sob" complex, but the "kiss" is addressed to the "eyes", to the "gentle cold motionless eyelids, as if deceiving expectation.

Instead of the erotic development of the motive, to which the set of "romantic" motives "pond" - "night" - "hooves" - "trigger" sets up. And yet, the retardation of the development of the image of the “kiss” - “throat” is noticeable, as if by its very duration bypassing the ban.

The ban on love is marked by the motifs of "snow" - "ice" - "cold" - "immobility", intensifying towards the end, and culminating in the final image of "sleep". And the "trigger" suggests that we are talking about a "dead dream".

I asked Xenia Zhogina to comment on these ideas, and received the following response:

To be honest, having read Zubov, I did not fully understand her either now or now, since in no even patristic literature is there an emphasis on not naming a name, because main idea consists in the fact that in prayer, repeatedly calling the Name of God, there is a unity of the energies of the human and divine, with which the Name of God is filled, - synergy with God. From Mandelstam:

And to this day on Athos / A wondrous tree grows, / On a steep green slope / The Name of God sings. // In each cell rejoice / Men-worshippers: / The word is pure fun, / Healing from longing!// Nationwide, loudly / Chernetsy condemned; / But from the beautiful heresy / We must not save ourselves. // Every time we love, / We fall into it again. / We destroy the nameless / Together with the name of love(1915).

My idea was that Tsvetaeva proceeded from a kind of "imyaslavic" reverence for the name of Blok, but with a ban on rude touching of the name itself, as well as of Blok himself. Compare the early "Mistake" dedicated to Ellis:

When a snowflake that flies easily
Like a fallen star gliding,
You take it with your hand - it melts like a tear,
And it can't be returned to air.

When captivated by the transparency of the jellyfish,
We will touch it with the whim of our hands,
She is like a prisoner in bonds
Suddenly turns pale and suddenly dies.

When we want in wandering moths
To see not a dream, but an earthly reality -
Where is their outfit? From them on our fingers
One dawn painted dust!

Leave flying snowflakes with moths
And do not ruin the jellyfish on the sands!
You can't grab your dream with your hands,
You can't keep your dream in your hands!

It is impossible for what was unsteady sadness,
Say: "Be passion! Grieve madness, rejoice!”
Your love was such a mistake
But without love, we perish. Wizard!

Marina Tsvetaeva's poem “Your name is a bird in your hand” was written in 1916 and is dedicated to Alexander Blok. This poem opens a whole cycle of Tsvetaeva's poetry, written from 1916 to 1921.

The verse “Your name is a bird in your hand” is dedicated to Blok, however, Tsvetaeva never mentioned his name in the work itself, but everyone understands who it is about. Blok and Tsvetaeva were kindred spirits, rebellious spirit, inexhaustible energy, rebelliousness and eccentricity - all this made them similar.

In the poem, the poetess tries to beat every sound of Blok's name. His name is something warm like a bird in your hand, but elusive, you open your palm and it will fly away. The sound “l” in the name of the poet prompted Tsvetaeva to associate with an ice floe on the tongue. His image for her is at the same time disturbingly cold - one sound, one movement of the lips pronounced: “Block” tickle the tongue with a chill and touch the innermost corners of the soul.

For Tsvetaeva Blok is the embodiment of her spiritual love, he is like an angel, like a man, but sublime, elusive and immaterial.

The name of Blok is only “five letters”, the poet always signed “A. Block ”, but the musicality of the poem is amazing, here is the ringing of a bell, and the clatter of hooves, and the clicking of a trigger. The word "Block" for Tsvetaeva is such a palette of sounds - and a ball caught in the wind, and a stone thrown into a quiet pond, and the sound of a kiss.

In general, the whole poem is a monologue of the poetess. There is no plot in the verse, it is just a set of emotions. When you read Tsvetaeva's lines, diametrically opposed feelings replace each other. Warmth from the bird in the palm of your hand, then suddenly a chill, then some suddenness from the lines about the caught ball, then as if a quiet sound is heard from a stone thrown into the water and then a loud clatter of hooves, and in the finale, first a warm loving and unforgettable kiss in the eyes and cold and sobering - in the snow.

Such an expression of feelings arises from the poem, probably Blok himself evoked such feelings in Tsvetaeva. Symbolically, the verse ends with the word "deep", a word that contains all the sounds of Blok's name and reflects his essence, the depth and immensity of his poetry.

Marina Tsvetaeva's poem "Your name is a bird in your hand" was written in 1916 and is dedicated to Alexander Blok. This poem opens a whole cycle of Tsvetaeva's poetry, written from 1916 to 1921.

In the poem, the poetess tries to beat every sound of Blok's name. His name is something warm like a bird in your hand, but elusive, you open your palm and it will fly away. The sound "l" in the name of the poet prompted Tsvetaeva to associate with an ice floe on the tongue. His image for her is at the same time disturbingly cold - one sound, one movement of the lips pronounced: "Block" tickle the tongue with a chill and touch the innermost corners of the soul.

For Tsvetaeva Blok is the embodiment of her spiritual love, he is like an angel, like a man, but sublime, elusive and immaterial.

Blok's name is only "five letters", the poet always signed "A. Blok”, but the musicality of the poem is amazing, here is the ringing of a bell, and the clatter of hooves, and the clicking of a trigger. The word "Block" for Tsvetaeva is such a palette of sounds - and a ball caught in the wind, and a stone thrown into a quiet pond, and the sound of a kiss.

Analysis of the poem by M. Tsvetaeva "Your name is a bird in your hand"

Analysis of the poem by M. Tsvetaeva Your name is a bird in your hand

CONTENT: Analysis of the poem by M. Tsvetaeva "Your name is a bird in your hand" Author: Tsvetaeva M.I. Blok and Tsvetaeva. What is Tsvetaeva's secret? What makes her unlike anyone else and at the same time internally connects with Blok? First of all, the eccentricity of the personality of the fighting poets, the rebellious spirit, rebelliousness, unprecedented energy, emphasized tension. Freedom from conventions modern life embodied in style.

Analysis of the poem by M. Tsvetaeva "Your name is a bird in your hand"

Blok and Tsvetaeva. What is Tsvetaeva's secret? What makes her unlike anyone else and at the same time internally connects with Blok? First of all, the originality of the personality of the fighting poets, the rebellious spirit, rebelliousness, unprecedented energy, emphasized tension. Freedom from the conventions of modern life was embodied in the peculiarities of style. These features were reflected in the poems dedicated to Blok. Love confessions in them are combined with funeral lamentation, an extremely sincere confession sounds. The tragic feeling of loneliness makes Tsvetaeva related to Blok. For her Blok is "two white wings", an angel, God's righteous man. Block is something sublime, light, but for some reason elusive and immaterial. Tsvetaeva praises the name of Blok, loves, heeds, prays to him. In all the verses of the cycle, written from 1916 to 1921, we feel the bitterness of loss and the hope of resurrection. The title poem in the cycle is "Your name is a bird in your hand." It is surprising in that in it, which opens the cycle, Blok's name is never uttered, but still we unmistakably determine who in question. The poem consists of 3 stanzas. In the first, Tsvetaeva recreates the phonetic and even graphic image of the word "Block", each line is significant in shaping the image of the Block. "Your name is a bird in your hand" - there is only one syllable in the word "block", but we feel this elusiveness of the moment. Here it is, a bird, alive, warm, but if you open your palms, it will fly away and it will not exist. Echoes this and the line "one single movement of the lips." Say the word - it flies away, do not return. for Tsvetaeva, every sound of the block's name is important. When we pronounce "l", an image of something light, cold, blue appears. So the line "your name is an icicle on the tongue" appeared. An icicle is a tickling chill of mystery, a touch to the innermost depths of the soul.

The musical palette of the poem is extremely saturated: here is the ringing of a bell, and the clicking of a trigger, and the clatter of hooves. The word "block" absorbs all the sounds, all the colors, so skillfully applied to the canvas of the verse by the artist. He is both "a ball caught on the fly" and "a stone thrown into a quiet pond." One wants to repeat the words of Tsvetaeva from the third stanza, reminiscent of the sound of a kiss. Blok Tsvetaeva - her love, spiritual love, unearthly. Tsvetaeva is trying to hear in the sound of the poet's name the world of his snow mask: "key, icy, blue" It is also symbolic that the last word of the poem - "deep" - contains all the sounds of the poet's name and rhymes with him, because he is immeasurable, like his poetry .

The syntax of the poem is very close to the syntax of the lok itself. Tsvetaeva uses verbless syntactic constructions, which allows her to achieve special expression in conveying her feelings. The sentences fix the present time, but they have a special, timeless character. They emphasize Blok's immortality. This allows you to focus on the main thing for her - the associative array. That is why the tension, the excitement of the poet is so great. Tsvetaeva uses syntactic parallelism: the construction of syntactic constructions of stanzas 1 and 3 are the same, which gives the poem compositional completeness and integrity. Anaphora "your name" draws our attention to keyword and enhances admiration for the poet. Even Tsvetaeva's dash carries a syntactic load - you need to pause. Helps Tsvetaeva and inversion. It makes the lines especially smooth: ". in a slight click. ". The visual image of Blok helps to create tropes: metaphors ("a bird in the hand", "ice on the tongue") - they express an emotional attitude towards the poet; epithets ("gentle cold of motionless eyelids"); personification ("will call the trigger"), which makes the image of Blok more vivid, memorable.

The narrative is held not so much by the plot as by the energy of Tsvetaeva's monologue. This energy is given to the poem by each of its elements.

Online store offers

We write an essay. Lyric analysis. Teaching aid

Currently, each block of graduation essay topics includes an analysis of a lyrical poem. This type of written work in literature causes many difficulties for schoolchildren. Our manual will help you learn how to write an essay of this type. In addition to 85 poems by poets different eras and their analysis can be found here practical advice according to the technology of writing an essay - analysis of a lyrical poem. For students general education schools, colleges and lyceums, applicants, the manual will help prepare not only for introductory and final essays, but also for oral answers in exams and literature lessons, and for teachers and teachers - to make the lessons of acquaintance with Russian poetry more meaningful.

265 newest compositions "excellent". Tutorial

Publisher: Exam, 2016

The collection contains samples of essays on Russian literature by graduates and applicants who received an "excellent" rating. The proposed essays are written on the topics of ancient Russian literature, literature of the 18th century. and on topics related to the work of writers of the XIX-XX centuries. A.S. Griboedova, A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontova, N.V. Gogol, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharova, A.N. Ostrovsky, L.N. Tolstoy, F.I. Tyutcheva, A.A. Feta, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.G. Chernyshevsky, A.P. Chekhov, I.A. Bunina, S.A. Yesenina, V.V. Mayakovsky, A.I. Kuprin, AA. Akhmatova, MI. Tsvetaeva, B.L. Pasternak, A.T. Tvardovsky, M.A. Sholokhova, N.A. Zabolotsky, A.I. Solzhenitsyn, E.A. Evtushenko, B.C. Vysotsky and others, as well as essays on free themes based on the works of Russian literature of the XIX-XX centuries. The genres of the proposed works are diverse: an essay-characteristic of a literary hero, Comparative characteristics heroes, analysis of the poem, analysis of the episode, problematic topic, essay-review. The book is intended for graduates, applicants, as well as students of secondary schools, gymnasiums, lyceums. 12th edition, revised and corrected.

Analysis of the poem. Writing a final essay

The directory includes all the texts of poems in in full school curriculum. Each poem is disassembled according to a certain scheme: the history of the creation of the work is presented, the type of lyrics, the style of the poet, the genre, the poetic size are determined, it is indicated which stanza is presented in the work. The means of artistic expression (tropes) and lexical means are indicated. This guide will help you quickly, easily, answering the task, perform an analysis of the poem, write an essay on the work of the poet Zolotoy or Silver Age. Also, this collection may be useful to you in preparing for the exam in literature and in preparing for the final final essay.

French. Blue bird. Grade 9 Audio course (CDmp3)

Audio course for the textbook "French language. Blue bird" for grade 9 educational institutions. Total playing time: 2 hours 31 minutes 08 seconds. 320 kbps, 16 bits, 44.1 kHz, stereo.

ADD A COMMENT[possible without registration]
before publication, all comments are considered by the site moderator - spam will not be published

Analysis of the poem by M.I. Tsvetaeva "Poems to Blok" ("Your name is a bird in your hand.")

The cycle "Poems to Blok" was created over the course of several years - from 1916 to 1921. There are many things in common between these poets: a tragic sense of loneliness, rebellious spirit, rebelliousness, energy and tension of the lyrical narrative. In this cycle, Blok appears as a "knight without reproach", an angel, God's righteous man. Tsvetaeva enthusiastically glorifies the name of Blok and mourns his loss:

And forced to die.

Died now. Forever. -

Cry for a dead angel!

The title poem in the cycle is “Your name is a bird in your hand. ”, one of the most famous poems of the poet. It is surprising in that in it, which opens the cycle, the name of Blok is never uttered, but the reader, nevertheless, unmistakably determines who is being discussed.

The poem consists of three stanzas. In the first, Tsvetaeva recreates the phonetic and even graphic image of the word "Block". The first line - "Your name is a bird in your hand" - recreates the brevity (only one syllable) of Blok's name. It is like a bird that will instantly fly away, one has only to unclench his fingers. This brevity, instantaneity and other lines emphasize this - “one single movement of the lips”, “a ball caught on the fly”, “a stone thrown into a quiet pond”. In the second line (“Your name is an icicle on the tongue”), the sound “l” is brilliantly played out, which is really subconsciously associated with cold.

Tsvetaeva manifests in the sound of the name of the poet the world of his poems of the period " snow mask”, “Faina”, “Carmen”: icy, night, whirlwind, snowy.

Found an error? Select and press ctrl + Enter

“Your name is a bird in your hand…” M. Tsvetaeva

“Your name is a bird in your hand…” Marina Tsvetaeva

Your name is a bird in your hand
Your name is ice on the tongue.
One single movement of the lips.
Your name is five letters.
Ball caught on the fly
Silver bell in the mouth.

A stone thrown into a quiet pond
Sigh like your name is.
In the light clicking of night hooves
Your loud name thunders.
And call him to our temple
A loud clicking trigger.

Your name - oh, you can't! -
Your name is a kiss in the eyes
In the gentle cold of motionless eyelids.
Your name is a kiss in the snow.
Key, icy, blue sip…
With your name - sleep is deep.

Analysis of Tsvetaeva's poem "Your name is a bird in your hand ..."

Marina Tsvetaeva was very skeptical about the work of the poets she knew. The only person she idolized in the truest sense of the word was Alexander Blok. Tsvetaeva admitted that his poems have nothing to do with the earthly and ordinary, they were written not by a person, but by some kind of sublime and mythical creature.

Tsvetaeva was not closely acquainted with Blok, although she often visited him. literary evenings and every time she never ceased to be surprised at the power of the charm of this extraordinary person. It is not surprising that many women were in love with him, among whom were even close friends of the poetess. Nevertheless, Tsvetaeva never spoke about her feelings for Blok, believing that in this case there can be no talk of love. After all, for her the poet was inaccessible, and nothing could belittle this image created in the imagination of a woman who loves to dream so much.

Marina Tsvetaeva dedicated quite a few poems to this poet, which were later framed in the cycle “To Blok”. The poetess wrote some of them during the life of the idol, including a work called “Your name is a bird in your hand ...”, which was published in 1916. This poem fully reflects the sincere admiration that Tsvetaeva feels for Blok, arguing that this feeling is one of the strongest that she has ever experienced in her life.

The name Blok is associated with the poetess with a bird in her hand and an ice floe on her tongue. “One single movement of the lips. Your name is five letters, ”says the author. Some clarity should be introduced here, since Blok's surname was indeed written with a yat at the end before the revolution, therefore it consisted of five letters. And it was pronounced in one breath, which the poetess did not fail to note. Considering herself unworthy of even developing the topic of a possible relationship with this amazing person, Tsvetaeva seems to try his name on the tongue and write down the associations that are born in her. “A ball caught on the fly, a silver bell in the mouth” - these are far from all the epithets with which the author rewards his hero. His name is the sound of a stone thrown into the water, a woman's sob, clatter of hooves and thunder. “And the loudly clicking trigger will call it to our temple,” the poetess notes.

Despite her reverent attitude towards Blok, Tsvetaeva still allows herself a little liberty and declares: “Your name is a kiss on the eyes.” But the coldness of the other world emanates from him, because the poetess still does not believe that such a person can exist in nature. After Blok's death, she would write that she was surprised not by his tragic picture, but by the fact that he generally lived among ordinary people while creating unearthly poems, deep and filled with hidden meaning. For Tsvetaeva, Blok remained a mystery poet, in whose work there was a lot of mysticism. And it was precisely this that elevated him to the rank of a kind of deity, with whom Tsvetaeva simply did not dare to compare herself, believing that she was unworthy even to be next to this extraordinary person.

Addressing him, the poetess emphasizes: "With your name - sleep is deep." And there is no pretense in this phrase, since Tsvetaeva really falls asleep with a volume of Blok's poems in her hands. She is dreaming amazing worlds and the country, and the image of the poet becomes so intrusive that the author even catches himself thinking about some kind of spiritual connection with this person. However, she has not been able to verify whether this is actually the case. Tsvetaeva lives in Moscow, and Blok lives in St. Petersburg, their meetings are rare and random, they do not have romance and high relations. But this does not bother Tsvetaeva, for whom the poet's poems are the best proof of the immortality of the soul.

Listen to Tsvetaeva's poem Your name

Themes of neighboring essays

Picture for composition analysis of the poem Your name

Your name is a bird in your hand
Your name is ice on the tongue.
One single movement of the lips.
Your name is five letters.
Ball caught on the fly
Silver bell in the mouth.

A stone thrown into a quiet pond
Sigh like your name is.
In the light clicking of night hooves
Your loud name thunders.
And call him to our temple
A loud clicking trigger.

Your name - oh, you can't! -
Your name is a kiss in the eyes
In the gentle cold of motionless eyelids.
Your name is a kiss in the snow.
Key, icy, blue sip…
With your name - sleep is deep.

Analysis of the poem "Your Name is a Bird in Hand" by Tsvetaeva

M. Tsvetaeva treated the creativity and the personality of A. Blok with great trepidation and respect. Between them there was practically no, even friendly relations. This is partly due to the fact that the poetess idolized the symbolist poet, considering him an unearthly creature who mistakenly visited our world. Tsvetaeva dedicated a whole cycle of poems to Blok, including "Your name is a bird in your hand ..." (1916).

The work, in fact, is a set of epithets with which the poetess endows the name of Blok. All of them emphasize the unreality of the poet, in which Tsvetaeva was sure. These diverse definitions are united by swiftness and ephemerality. A five-letter name (according to pre-revolutionary spelling, the letter “er” was written at the end of Blok’s surname) for the poetess is like “a single movement of the lips.” She compares it with objects (ice, ball, bell) in motion; short-term, jerky sounds (“clicking ... hooves”, “clicking trigger”); symbolic intimate actions (“kiss on the eyes”, “kiss on the snow”). Tsvetaeva deliberately does not pronounce the surname itself (“Oh, you can’t!”), Considering this blasphemy in relation to an incorporeal being.

Block really made a strong impression on nervous girls, who often fell in love with him. He was at the mercy of the symbols and images created in his imagination, which allowed him to exert an inexplicable influence on those around him. Tsvetaeva fell under this influence, but managed to preserve the originality of her own works, which undoubtedly benefited her. The poetess was very subtly versed in poetry and saw real talent in Blok's work. In the poems of the poet, which for an inexperienced reader seemed to be complete nonsense, Tsvetaeva saw a manifestation of cosmic forces.

Of course, in many ways, these two strong creative personalities were similar, especially in the ability to completely abandon real life and exist in the world of their own dreams. Moreover, Blok succeeded in this to an incredible degree. That is why Tsvetaeva respected and secretly envied the symbolist poet to such an extent. The main difference between the poetess and impressionable young ladies was that there was no question of a love feeling. Tsvetaeva could not imagine how one could feel too “earthly” a feeling for an ephemeral being. The only thing the poetess counts on is spiritual intimacy without any physical contact.

The poem ends with the phrase "With your name, sleep is deep," which brings the reader back to reality. Tsvetaeva admitted that she often fell asleep while reading.