Послушайте!
Ведь, если звезды зажигают -
значит – это кому-нибудь нужно?
Значит – кто-то хочет, чтобы они были?
Значит – кто-то называет эти плевочки
жемчужиной?
И, надрываясь
в метелях полуденной пыли,
врывается к богу,
боится, что опоздал,
плачет,
целует ему жилистую руку,
просит -чтоб обязательно была звезда! -
клянется -
не перенесет эту беззвездную муку!
А после
ходит тревожный,
но спокойный наружно.
Говорит кому-то:
“Ведь теперь тебе ничего?
Не страшно?
Да?!”
Послушайте!
Ведь, если звезды
зажигают -
значит – это кому-нибудь нужно?
Значит – это необходимо,
чтобы каждый вечер
над крышами
загоралась хоть одна звезда?!
1914
Author: Владимир Маяковский
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
valentina could we have a tranlation please, i tranlations are not the original, but yet..
love’
aditya
Listen !
Listen,
if stars are lit
it means – there is someone who needs it.
It means – someone wants them to be,
that someone deems those specks of spit
magnificent.
And overwrought,
in the swirls of afternoon dust,
he bursts in on God,
afraid he might be already late.
In tears,
he kisses God’s sinewy hand
and begs him to guarantee
that there will definitely be a star.
He swears
he won’t be able to stand
that starless ordeal.
Later,
He wanders around, worried,
but outwardly calm.
And to everyone else, he says:
‘Now,
it’s all right.
You are no longer afraid,
are you?’
Listen,
if stars are lit,
it means – there is someone who needs it.
It means it is essential
that every evening
at least one star should ascend
over the crest of the building.
1914
Author: Vladimir Mayakovsky
Love, Valentina
singing “Ave Maria” possibly….
have we met Valentina before?
Hi Valentina anyway.
((**))
Я ненавижу свет Однообразных звёзд.Здравствуй,мой давний бред-Башни стрельчатой рост!Кружевом,камень,будь И паутиной стань:Неба пустую грудь Тонкой иглою рань!Будет и мой черёд-Чую размах крыла.Так-но куда уйдёт Мысли живой стрела?Или свой путь и срок,Я,исчерпав,вернусь:Там-я любить не мог,Здесь-я любить боюсь… Осип Мандельштам.
Irina, thanks for the poem! I found more translations of it in Internet but this one, I think, is the best:
I hate the starlight’s
monotonous spectrum.
Hail, ancient delirium –
tower’s arrowed heights!
Stone, be lace,
be a cobweb spell:
pierce the empty breast of sky
with the finest needle!
My turn will arrive –
I sense the wing’s sweep.
Yes – but where will my living
arrow of mind leap?
Or I’ll return, my move
and time worked through:
there – I couldn’t love,
and here – I’m afraid to…
Author: Osip Mandelshtam
My country’s great poet, Orhan Veli.
Thank you, my friend Coelho :)
Valentina
Pasciba>
Nice!
Пару дней тому назад с подругой ночью шли домой и вдруг я ей говорю: “Посмотри!!! Все звезды над крышей нашего дома!” А она мне в ответ: “Ну ты и блондинка…” Ну что поделаешь, бывает…:)
Илва
Латвия
Would you like to offer us a translation, Ilva? That would be great if you could!
Thanks!
Savita
It’s one of Maiakovskii’s earliest poems. I’m afraid, I can not provide you, Savita, with good translation but I can do all my best and tell what this poem is about. Is that ok? :)
I could say it’s poet’s cosmic flight and his cosmic vision.
As you know from the start Maiakovskii loved to use cosmological theme in his poetry. As well, in this poem appears mytho-poetic concept (stars, God and man).
Maiakovskii’s symbolic system relate man to the cosmos. In the poem he says that stars exist just because man wants them to exist. So, if stars (poet compares stars with spittles!) are being lit up (“eсли звезды зажыгают”), it means that man needs it. And it is man who calls “these spittles PEARLS” (“…эти плевочки жемчужиной”).
Stars are “indispensable” for man to exist (“это необходимо, чтобы каждый вечер над крышами загоралась хоть одна звезда” =”it’s indispensable that each evening at least one star light up over the rooftops!”). So, man rebels against the absence of stars and implores God to give the stars back to him – he kisses God’s arms,… etc. But if there are no stars man feels FEAR to LIVE…
But maybe you wanted that I translate my foolish comment? :)))
Much love,
Ilva
More about „Cosmic Era”:
The year before (1913) Kazimir Malevich proposed his theory about suprematism. So, if K. Malevich was „a cosmonaut” in art, Vladimir Majakovskii, in my opinion, could be in poetry.
Thank you, Valentina! Very, very beautiful.
Thank you, Ilva. Your interpretation is not in the least bit “foolish,” but very helpful. I read the translation above, offered by Valentina, a few moments ago, but your explanation helped me to understand the poem even better.
It is very interesting, as well, what you say about how the work of Kazimir Malevich coincides with the poetry of Vladimir Majakovskii. This sort of phenomenon is not at all uncommon throughout history, and I once heard Joseph Campbell, the American mythologist speak upon this subject. Sometimes these “coincidences” in creation, invention, discovery or understanding occur even in cultures that are widely diverse and have no connection or communication with one another whatsoever. In one remote society an astronomer discovers some new secret of the universe. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in a society which has no connection to the former, an artist paints canvasses which illustrate this same understanding of the cosmos. At the same time, in yet some other society, a poet pens verses that reflect the same ideas as those held by the astronomer and the painter, whom he has never met and knows nothing of.
The way that Campbell explained this is through the concept of a Cosmic Consciousness, which might also be called the World Soul or Universal Mind. All great leaps of human understanding or invention spring forth out of this Universal Mind. The scientist, as well as the artist accesses this Cosmic Consciousness (which is all-knowing) when they utilize their own intuition to arrive at profoundly new ideas and creations.
Perhaps both Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Majakovskii were tapped into this same Universal Mind, which led them to their creations. The temptation, of course, is always to explain this sort of phenomenon by “direct influence” – they knew one another, or were aware of one another’s work, and thus influenced one another directly. But I believe that when the Cosmic Consciouness deems an idea or concept ready to be born, it disperses that understanding out amongst many individuals in many fields of knowledge, much in the same way that the stars are scattered throughout the heavens above us.
Thank you again, Ilva, for your very insightful comments and helping us to better understand this poem.
Much Love,
Savita