Do you know whose poetry these are?
easy life I asked God
No, I don't know, I replied. But I'll know in 10 minutes.
Useful in Randex - there are 260 sites, most of them quote this couplet, some say about some unknown translator O. Khayyam. And suddenly -
Yakov KHELEMSKY (1914-2003)
"Not cycles of poetry and not volumes of prose..."
Ending. For the beginning, see Vestnik #17 (354), 2004
***
And now about the main thing - about what prompted me to turn to the Myatlev phenomenon. The thing is, he's not alone. Our literature knows many amazing accidents. Myatlev did not wait for Turgenev's discovery. But the years allotted to him, he lived safely. The same cannot be said of most of those to whom I intend to dedicate the following pages of this essay. Their fates are very heterogeneous, they had a chance to create in different time. Some are gone, others are far away. But they, both the departed and the living, are united by something in common. Failing to get big name, they, in spite of all the hardships, worldly and literary, endowed us with priceless grains of poetry.
Their individual lines, and even stanzas, became our companions, entered our everyday life, into our moral and speech treasury.
Here are a few unusual stories arranged strictly chronologically.
Ivan Ivanovich Tkhorzhevsky (1878-1951) for a long time was known as a master literary translation. Arrangements from French and Italian, especially the lyrics of Verlaine and Leopardi, brought him well-deserved recognition. But the rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, re-voiced by Tkhorzhevsky, had a special attraction. The aphorisms of the medieval sage, who wrote in Farsi, which became the property of the Russian reader, were memorized, snapped up into quotations and epigraphs, sounded from the stage, at friendly feasts.
Tkhorzhevsky also wrote original poems. But two collections of his lyrics - "Clouds" and "Tribute to the Sun", as in the case of Myatlev - how similar everything is! - went unanswered.
Years passed. Ivan Ivanovich was no longer alive, when suddenly they began to pass from hand to hand a wonderful eight lines. The last two lines were especially striking. They were repeated aloud and to themselves. But the conciseness of this masterpiece allows us to quote it in its entirety. And everything will immediately become clear. Let's read:
I asked God for an easy life:
Look how dark it is all around.
And God answered: - Wait a little,
You will ask for something else.
Here the road ends
Every year the thread of life is thinner.
I asked God for an easy life,
You should ask for an easy death.
Two stanzas, belonging to the pearls of Russian lyrics, were attributed to Bunin for a long time. But in none of the books of Ivan Alekseevich, by that time already deceased, these lines were not. They were not in the writer's archive either. Neither Annensky, nor Gumilyov, nor Khodasevich found what he was looking for... For some reason, it never occurred to anyone to look through collections of poets not in the first row.
The moment of truth has come relatively recently.
And again something unexpected happened. Fate bestowed posthumous laurels on those whose books, individual publications, and surviving manuscripts had never been looked at before. The author was Ivan Tkhorzhevsky. His name took on a new meaning. And the lines: "I asked God for an easy life, I should have asked for an easy death" - became an essential saying.
Another insight, which volumes are much heavier.
I couldn't resist posting this piece.
In addition, Yakov Helemsky is the father of my classmate Sasha Helemsky.
He - Sasha, of course - like many, sinned in verse. From time to time we exchanged - orally, of course - our opuses. Most often - parodies or stylizations.
As always, by purely sound association,
remembered.
My classmates, and sometimes classmates, gradually turned out to be a course lower. And somehow it turned out that most I spent time with friends, a course younger, and after I suddenly turned out to be a mountain tourism instructor in the Caucasus, I also had a course future wife(both companies soon merged).
And meeting me at the gosakh, Sasha Helemsky asked in surprise:
- What are you doing here?
“The same as you,” I replied. - Gossy I give up.
(Goses - state exams).
PS Myatlev, mentioned in the text by Y. Helemsky, is the author of poems
"How good, how fresh were the roses"
,
which Turgenev was never able to recall in his most famous "poem in prose."
I asked God for an easy life:
Look how gloomy everything is around.
God answered: wait a little,
You will ask for something else.
Here the road ends
Every year the thread of life is thinner ...
I asked God for an easy life,
You should ask for an easy death.
Ivan Tkhorzhevsky, free translation from oriental poetry, 1940s
When you read the little that is written about Ivan Tkhorzhevsky, it seems that in his biography the fates of two completely different people. One - a government official, was promoted to a real state councilor, and a chamberlain, an expert on the constitutions of all countries and peoples, a skeptic and a conservative, the author of the fundamental historical and statistical work "Asian Russia". The other is an exquisite reclusive poet, an armchair philologist, a translator from English, French, German ... It is impossible to comprehend how these two coexisted in one soul. And it is even more difficult to understand why it is so bright and fast paced life was so swiftly carried away by the waves of oblivion that of everything written by Ivan Ivanovich Tkhorzhevsky, only two lines remained in the memory of the descendants ("I asked God for an easy life, // I should ask for an easy death ...") and the faintly flickering name of the author. What is it - luck or misfortune: to be known as "the poet of one poem"?
Ivan Tkhorzhevsky was born in Rostov-on-Don, spent his childhood and adolescence in Georgia. After graduating with honors from the Tiflis Gymnasium, he entered Faculty of Law Petersburg University and made a rapid career. In the fall of 1905, Witte involved a 27-year-old lawyer in the examination of a new edition of the Fundamental Laws. Russian Empire. A year later, he was appointed by Stolypin as assistant head of the resettlement department, which was supposed to coordinate the resettlement of tens of thousands of people to the east of the country. Ivan Tkhorzhevsky became one of Stolypin's closest assistants in carrying out the long overdue agrarian reform, a witness to his dedication and fearlessness. When, after the eleventh assassination attempt, Stolypin died, Tkhorzhevsky dedicated mournful and chased lines to his memory: "Already forgotten at times // Half-mad reeling // He brought back to life - a solid system, // He returned power - charm ..."
It is difficult to understand how, with such a busy schedule, Tkhorzhevsky managed to follow everything that happens in world literature and prepare one book of translations after another. In 1901 he made his debut with a book by the French philosophical lyric poet Jean Marie Guyot. In 1906 he published a collection of translations from Verhaarn, Maeterlinck and Verlaine. In 1908 Leopardi was published in translations by Ivan Tkhorzhevsky. In 1911, in his translation in Russia, the works of the first laureate Nobel Prize Armand Sully-Prudhomme. Tkhorzhevsky translates Goethe's "West-East Divan", prepares a collection of translations of the aristocratic poet Prince Emil Shenaikh-Karolat. He also publishes two collections of his own poems - in 1908 and 1916.
After the revolution, Ivan Ivanovich went through all the stages white movement, up to the evacuation from the Crimea. Shortly before the tragic outcome, Tkhorzhevsky (being in the position of managing director of the Council of Ministers of the Wrangel government) gathered representatives of Russian financial and industrial circles living abroad in order to enlist their support. Oligarchs patriotic words they did not spare, but they did not give money to save the army and numerous refugees.
In exile, Tkhorzhevsky did a lot to help his compatriots. At the same time, his translation work continued. In 1928, the ruby of Omar Khayyam appeared in Tkhorzhevsky's translations. In the 1930s, Ivan Ivanovich translated American poetry and compiled the anthology Poets of America. During the Second World War, he wrote the book "Russian Literature".
Ivan Ivanovich Tkhorzhevsky died on March 11, 1951 in Paris and was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery.
In the Soviet Union, nothing would have been known about Tkhorzhevsky if it were not for two of his lines, which had a mysterious power. Konstantin Vanshenkin recalled: “In the 1960s, many people were unexpectedly attracted and touched by two lines: “I asked God for an easy life. // One should ask for an easy death ... "It was not clear where they came from. They began to say that they were looking for Bunin, but they did not find him. Then a version appeared that this was a translation. Ivan Tkhorzhevsky was called the translator. Later, some became to assert that he is not a translator, but directly an author. A flash of almost universal lasting interest in this emerging aphorism is characteristic. There was something personal, vital here. A kind of impetus that makes you look around differently, think ... "
140 years ago, on September 19, 1878, a poet was born in Rostov-on-Don and statesman Ivan Ivanovich Tkhorzhevsky.
Verbatim
Ivan Tkhorzhevsky.
Translations from Omar Khayyam
The world - I would compare with a chessboard:
That day, that night. And the pawns? We are with you.
Moved, squeezed - and beaten;
And put into a dark box, to rest.
Are you out of luck? - Forget it!
The days are rushing by; forget it!
Careless wind: in the eternal book
life
Could move the wrong page.
Kosorotov Alexander Ivanovich, playwright and prose writer
The glory of this donets sounded throughout theatrical Russia, but the end of his life was, unfortunately, tragic.
Alexander was born on February 24, 1868 in the village of the Nizhnechirsk region of the Don Cossack Army, in the family of Ivan Fedorovich, a doctor in the district infirmary. After the death of his mother, he lived with his father in Novocherkassk, graduated from high school. From childhood, he showed an aptitude for painting and music, composed romances, and painted portraits.
“I became a writer only because fate blocked the path of a musician before me,” his autobiography says frankly.
In 1893 Kosorotov graduated from the Historical and Philological Faculty of Moscow University. After serving military service in the Life Cossack regiment in St. Petersburg, he served in government bodies. But he lived a creative dream. After retiring, he took up literary activity.
He published his first stories in 1895 in the newspaper Svet, published autobiographical story"Babel. The history of one gymnasium. A separate edition of it was published in St. Petersburg in 1900. The story "The Forgotten Gate" writer A.V. named amphitheaters the best work Kosorotov "...excellent in truthfulness, and a very subtle confession of a child's soul by instinct."
Kosorotov actively collaborated in the Novoye Vremya newspaper, published interesting theatrical and critical articles.
Since 1901, Alexander Ivanovich has been living in France as a Parisian correspondent for this newspaper. Possessing the ability to paint, he attends the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, paints portraits, and at the same time publishes polemical notes. But, being prone to neurasthenia and depression (manifestations of hereditary tuberculosis), he left Paris without the consent of the editors.
Alexander Ivanovich wandered through colorful Italy and Corsica, but he was in poverty and asked for financial assistance from the editor, playwright A. Suvorin.
Returning to Russia in 1902, he participated in the organization of the Rus newspaper, published articles about severe, Russo-Japanese War. Collaborated in the publications "Theater", "Review of theaters", "World Bulletin of Literature".
Kosorotov, as a playwright, becomes famous for his play "Spring Stream" (St. Petersburg, 1905), popular in all theaters of Russia, right up to the 20s!
Maxim Gorky approved the play while still in manuscript. In our Tsaritsyn, the play "Spring Stream" staged by the Sobetsky troupe opened the theater season of 1906-1907. The performance spoke sharply about the complex relationships between the sexes, about love and hypocrisy.
The play caused a heated controversy in the press. Kosorotov did not expect such fame. In the play "God's Flower Garden", about the struggle of views in art, leading role performed by M.G. Savina, known in Tsaritsyn for the play "Tatyana Repina", staged at the local theater "Concordia".
The tragedy of his “Korfinsky miracle”, which took place in St. Petersburg and Moscow, directed against religious fanaticism, was criticized, but the author himself considered it his own. the best essay. The melodramatic play "Dream of Love" was a huge success in the provinces. It was recognized as his "swan song", he "gave his strength and his love" to her.
“Criticism noted the predominance of talk over action, some far-fetchedness of the plot, and the absence of a “vital nerve”. However, the entertaining plot, “gentle and exciting tones”, “simplicity and clarity of provisions”, attracted directors, actors and the public to it, critics say today.
Contemporaries ranked A.I. Kosorotov to prominent representatives of the capital's St. Petersburg creative society. His name aroused admiration among writers, and envy among others.
In 1912, in the village of Lesnoy near St. Petersburg, the bright glory of the Don nugget Kosorotov went out.
Material hardships, a sharp exacerbation of the disease, more frequent bouts of depression (with signs of insanity), caused him tragic death. Alexander Kosorotov committed suicide.
Alexander Ivanovich was buried in mourning wreaths of fresh flowers at the Volokov cemetery.
Here are the words of the poet, a native of Rostov-on-Don, Ivan Tkhorzhevsky.
I asked God for an easy life:
Look how hard everything is around
God answered: "Wait a little,
You ask me for something else."
Here the road ends
Every year the thread of life is thinner,
I asked God for an easy life,
You should ask for an easy death.
Characteristic is the opinion of Maxim Gorky about Kosorotov, who played along more than once. Soviet power: "I could call myself his literary godfather, it seemed to me that he was capable of much, but it turned out somehow stupid. He immediately choked on "glory", then stopped working and began to force. It's a pity for him."
The name of our original fellow countryman, Donets Alexander Kosorotov forever entered the history of Russian drama.
Ivan Ivanovich Voronov (born in 1972) - candidate historical sciences. Lives in Abakan.
ї Ivan Voronov, 2008
Ivan Voronov
Served the Fatherland in word and deed
I asked God for an easy life:
Look how gloomy everything is around.
God answered: wait a little,
You ask me for something else.
Here the road ends
Every year the thread of life is thinner ...
I asked God for an easy life,
You should ask for an easy death.
This octagon comes to mind as an image of the fate of the Russian people at the beginning of the 20th century. The author of the poems is I. I. Tkhorzhevsky. Ivan Ivanovich was known as a master poetic translation. But he was directly involved in the implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform as an assistant to the head of the resettlement department, and then the manager of the office of the Ministry of Agriculture. In the government of P. N. Wrangel, Tkhorzhevsky was the manager of the Council of Ministers.
I. I. Tkhorzhevsky was born in 1878 in Rostov-on-Don.1 His father, Ivan Feliksovich, was a lawyer, and his mother, Alexandra Alexandrovna Palm, was the daughter of a writer. Parents were engaged in translations, combining names in the pseudonym Ivan da Marya. In 1893 they published " complete collection Beranger's songs translated by Russian writers.
Ivan's childhood and youth were spent in Georgia. After graduating with honors from the Tiflis Gymnasium, he entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1901 and was left to prepare for a professorship in the department of state law. But Tkhorzhevsky preferred university career public service. While still at university, he became friends with Baron Nolde, the son of a comrade-in-chief of His Majesty's Own Chancellery, which decisively influenced his career. Nolde-father advised Tkhorzhevsky, in addition to the university, to be included in the office of the Committee of Ministers. “There you will see Russian state law in its live action, in the very process of its formation. It will be much more instructive for you and as a scientist than any book references ... ”- recalled the words of Baron Tkhorzhevsky.2
Following the advice, Tkhorzhevsky was soon enrolled in the Siberian branch of the office of the Committee of Ministers, at first without a position. In the office, Ivan Ivanovich immediately became known as a person who “knows how to write” competently and beautifully draw up important documents. And although the young Tkhorzhevsky was interested in science, he soon mastered the practical public work which captivated him.
TO significant event- the approaching centenary of the establishment of the Committee of Ministers - it was supposed to publish the history of the work of the Committee. The main part of the book was prepared by Professor S. M. Seredonin, but he did not have time to finish it by the anniversary. Therefore, an outline of the history of the Committee during the years of the reign Alexander III A. N. Kulomzin, manager of the Committee’s affairs, not daring to entrust the work with “fresh” archives stranger, instructed I. I. Tkhorzhevsky, and he brilliantly coped with the task. Thanks to the work of Tkhorzhevsky in the Special Conference on the needs of the agricultural industry in 1905, S. Yu. Witte drew attention to him. Tkhorzhevsky became one of six officials who alternately were on duty at the minister.
In connection with the publication of the tsar's manifesto of October 17, 1905, a number of new freedoms were announced in the country, but the conditions for their grant were not determined. It was necessary to change the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire. As Tkhorzhevsky recalls, he, “as he was preparing for the department of state law and had in his home library the French texts of all the constitutions of the world”3, S. Yu. Witte was instructed to check new edition Fundamental laws of the Russian Empire. Based on the results of the check, Ivan Ivanovich compiled a detailed note, which formed the basis of the later edition of the Fundamental Laws, adopted by the Council ministers. Perhaps Witte intended to use the young official in the future, but was soon dismissed himself. After Witte's departure, I. L. Goremykin, and then P. A. Stolypin, headed the Council of Ministers for some time.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the whole of Russia was characterized by the presence of archaic remnants and imbalances in economic and political development. The country possessed vast territories that needed to be developed. At the same time, a personally free peasant, due to various kinds of formalities, could not actually leave the community in order to use his right to independently manage the economy. The country needed a new economic reform. The beginning of the course of reforms was laid by P. A. Stolypin, whose name is associated with the implementation of agrarian reforms in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.
The goal of the Stolypin agrarian reform, which began in 1906, was to create a layer of peasant proprietors, the backbone of the tsarist regime, and a new land order. The essence of this order boiled down to the following: the destruction, where possible, of the community, the transition to farm and cut-off farms, the resettlement of part of the peasants to the outskirts. The resettlement administration, in particular, had to carry out the Stolypin reform. I. I. Tkhorzhevsky was appointed assistant to the head of this department and became an active supporter of the reform. He was then thirty years old.4
Despite the responsible work, Tkhorzhevsky always found time for his favorite business - translations, which he was fond of since student years and he also wrote original poetry. Ivan Ivanovich “in the year of graduating from the faculty, he published translations from the French philosophical lyricist Jean-Marie Guyot, in 1906 - the second book from French (Verharn, Maeterlinck, Verlaine), in 1908 - the third book of translations, from the Italian Leopardi, and in that the same year - a collection of his own original poems ("Clouds"), and in 1916 his second collection - "Tribute to the Sun".5
In the late summer of 1910, Tkhorzhevsky accompanied Stolypin and Krivoshein on their trip to Siberia. Stolypin's trip to Siberia seemed to many an eccentricity of the all-powerful premier. On this occasion, V.P. Myatlyaev even composed an ironic poem:
He called Krivoshein
And so he said to him:
It hasn't been sown yet!
Let's go to the station!<...>
At the end of the trip, the emperor was presented with a two-page loyal report and a 127-page appendix to it, published as a separate book, which helped the development of Siberia so much. Both the report on the trip to Siberia and the note were written by the “pen” of the chief administrator of land management and agriculture A. V. Krivoshein - I. I. Tkhorzhevsky.6
Few people know that this book was written before the trip beyond the Urals. Despite all the advantages of seeing the results of the reform on the spot, Stolypin could not leave important state affairs for several weeks to study Siberia. Here he was helped by Krivoshein, who considered such a trip as one of the ways to attract the attention of the ruling circles and the public to the settlement of Siberia by publishing an interesting and convincing report about it. Therefore, even before the final decision on the trip was made, Krivoshein turned to Tkhorzhevsky, who knew the situation well on the ground, with a paradoxical proposal to write a preliminary draft report. The trip was to take place if the report was interesting. The report to Ivan Ivanovich was a success, the trip took place. I. I. Tkhorzhevsky describes this trip as follows: “Since then, the interesting, but tiring for everyone └Siberian cinema“ began and continued to spin until September 10th. On the train, on the steamboat along the Irtysh, in a frenzied gallop across the Siberian steppes across the Siberian steppes, from exit to exit, from village to village, pictures of Siberia flashed by. Muzhiks, Kirghiz, immigrants, their churches and hospitals, warehouses of agricultural implements. Minor resettlement officials and important Siberian authorities took turns reporting to Stolypin.”7 Then the ministers also visited the Volga region. On the way back, Tkhorzhevsky spent nights on the train supplementing and correcting the previously written text in relation to reality, supplementing it with Stolypin's thoughts and impressions.
P. A. Stolypin was in a hurry to complete the transformations in Russia and prevent the revolution, but the right did not understand him and the left hated him. Eleven assassination attempts were made on the prime minister, in which his children suffered, a lot of people died ordinary people, and now he was gone. I. I. Tkhorzhevsky, deeply experiencing this death, wrote a poem “In Memory of P. A. Stolypin”:
Killed - and he is not with us,
Now that the elements are thundering!
But he bequeathed a celebration
A stronger, future Russia.
He was one piece
Like a block of solid granite.
And his thought was bright,
Fearless and open.
Already forgotten sometimes
half-mad reeling
He brought back to life - a solid system,
He returned the power - charm.
cherish the new Russia,
He defended the Russia of his grandfathers!
And he lived, belonging to her,
And he fell, commanding her loyalty.
Brilliant is his crown!
Fire of speeches, hardness of deeds
And a heroic end
Everything is like a banner: "Honor and pride."
And what is our sinful guilt
And his earthly weaknesses...
He knew one thing: that "we need
Only you, Great Russia!”
In 1913, Ivan Ivanovich was appointed manager of the Office of the Ministry of Agriculture. In this position, he became the closest assistant to Krivoshein, who continued the work of Stolypin. In 1914, under his editorship, the fundamental historical and statistical work “Asiatic Russia” was published.
But the first began World War, and there was no time for reforms. As a result of disagreements with the tsar, Krivoshein was forced to resign. A.P. Naumov was appointed the new chief manager of land management and agriculture. Despite the resignation of Krivoshein, Tkhorzhevsky's ascent through the ranks continued: Tkhorzhevsky was promoted to full state councilor, received the court rank of chamberlain.
Naumov generally continued the policy of Krivoshein. He could not bear the appointment of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers B.V.
to the responsible work of the prime minister. The minister reported to Nicholas II that “the current prime minister cannot be a worthy assistant to him.”8 As a result, Naumov was dismissed: the emperor no longer considered the opinion of the ministers. Tkhorzhevsky, not wanting to work in the Stürmer government, voluntarily resigned.
After his resignation, Ivan Ivanovich was elected chairman of the board of shareholders of the Netherlands Bank for Russian Trade, joined the board of the Commercial and Industrial Bank, and became a shareholder of the Petrograd industrial manufactory "Triangle".
Ivan Ivanovich did not accept the revolution. The abdication of the sovereign was a heavy blow for him. He treated the Provisional Government with distrust,
a to October revolution- sharply hostile. Together with Krivoshein, he created the anti-Soviet organization Right Center at the end of 1917. The first meetings of the Right Center took place in Tkhorzhevsky's apartment in St. Petersburg.9
The right center collapsed, it was dangerous to stay on the territory occupied by the Bolsheviks - and in the summer of 1919 Ivan Ivanovich secretly left for Helsingfors. While in Finland, he participated in negotiations with representatives of the North-Western government under General N. N. Yudenich. On his initiative, the Society for the Fight Against Bolshevism was created. He also participated in the creation of the newspaper "Russian Life". Soon Tkhorzhevsky moved to Paris, but, having received a letter from Krivoshein at the end of the summer, he left for the Crimea. In the Crimea, Tkhorzhevsky became the manager of the Council of Ministers.10 Despite all the difficulties, he managed to take Soviet Russia your family.
However, the position of the Whites in the Crimea was unstable. Even the conference on economic issues convened at the initiative of Krivoshein, which brought together many representatives of Russian financial and industrial circles living abroad, did not help. This meeting generally approved the actions of the government, thus raising its status abroad, but real help did not. Tkhorzhevsky was one of the participants in this meeting and, on this occasion, composed caustic verses “The Crimean Congress”:
They came, they spit a lot of sharp language;
But Crimea did not become a mainland from a peninsula ...
Already on November 1, 1920, the last meeting of the government took place. The evacuation of the Crimea was scheduled for November 12. On November 10, Krivoshein and Tkhorzhevsky, on the instructions of P. N. Wrangel, left the Crimea for Constantinople to meet the evacuated troops and refugees.
In December 1920, Tkhorzhevsky returned to Paris, where he joined the board of the Russian Commercial and Industrial Bank. Soon his family also arrived here. But in 1924, the government of France sequestered the property of two Russian banks in Paris. Tkhorzhevsky tries to create a union of writers and begins to work in the Russian émigré press. Under the pseudonym John and under own name Ivan Ivanovich writes articles, publishes his poetic translations. For many years he was a regular contributor to the Vozrozhdeniye newspaper. The former hobby has become a source of livelihood.
Ivan Ivanovich has long been known as a master of literary translation. And at the beginning of the century, and in exile, he translated a lot and successfully. In 1925, he published a book of translations of the first Nobel Prize winner, Sully-Prudhomme. But main work poet - rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated and published in 1928. In 1930, Tkhorzhevsky published a book of translations New Poets of France, then a translation of Goethe's West-Eastern Divan.11 Actively participates in public life Paris.
In the late 1930s, he prepared for publication the book "Poets of America", the publication of which was prevented by the war that began in 1939. The book was supposed to include the works of 35 poets, the book was divided into sections: "First Tenors", "Americans", "Poetry of the Indians" and others.
During the Second World War and the occupation of Paris, he continued to work. The Renaissance newspaper was closed, and he was in great need. During the war years, he wrote the book "Russian Literature". This book was published twice in Paris after liberation.
The newspaper could not be revived, but in 1949 the magazine "Vozrozhdeniye" began to appear. Tkhorzhevsky became the editor-in-chief of the journal, but a year later, due to health reasons, he was forced to give up editing. He had many more plans, but only age and the shocks experienced made themselves felt. Ivan Ivanovich Tkhorzhevsky died at the age of 73 on March 11, 1951 in Paris and was buried in the Orthodox cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.12 Many people came to see him off in last way, and only in the homeland did his death go unnoticed.
“We will not be!” And the world, at least that.
"The trace will disappear!" And the world, at least that.
We were not there, but he was beaming; and will be!
Disappear - we. And the world, at least that!13
1 Spout B. M. On the churchyard XX. SPb., 2000. S. 493.
2 Tkhorzhevsky I. I. Last Petersburg. Memoirs of a chamberlain. SPb., 1999.
pp. 22-24.
3 Ibid. S. 72.
4 Ibid. pp. 6-7.
5 Spout B. M. Decree. op. pp. 493-494.
6 Krivoshein K. A. A. V. Krivoshein (1857-1921). His appointment in the history of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Paris, 1973. S. 137.
7 Tkhorzhevsky I.I. Decree. op. S. 121.
8 Ibid., p. 12.
9 Krivoshein K. A. Decree. op. pp. 13-14.
10 Tkhorzhevsky I. I. Decree. op. pp. 13-14.
11 Spout B. M. Decree. op. pp. 493-494.
12 Tkhorzhevsky I. I. Decree. op. S. 20.
Tkhorzhevsky's father and mother, Ivan Feliksovich and Alexandra Alexandrovna (nee Palm), at one time, under the common pseudonym "Ivan da Marya", released "The Complete Collection of Beranger's Songs in the Translation of Russian Writers" (Tiflis, 1893; St. Petersburg, 1914). Glory to Tkhorzhevsky was brought by the eight lines, which in itself were neither original nor translated - rather, they were poems “on the theme of Hafiz” (where and when it was published for the first time has not yet been clarified):
I asked God for an easy life:
Look how gloomy everything is around.
God answered: wait a little,
You ask me for something else.
Here the road ends
Every year, the thread of life is thinner -
I asked God for an easy life,
You should ask for an easy death.
In Tkhorzhevsky's book of memoirs "The Last Petersburg" (St. Petersburg, 1999), it is published as original, but with reference to a strange "first publication" (V. Soloukhin. Pebbles in the palm of your hand. M., 1988, p. 240). In any case, these famous lines seem to belong to Tkhorzhevsky rather than to Hafiz. Both at the beginning of the century and in exile, Tkhorzhevsky translated a lot and diligently, often successfully. Anthologies of new French poetry, the first - in Russia (1906), the second - in Paris (1930), by no means contained everything that was done. The first Nobel laureate, Armand Sully Prudhomme, was published in Tkhorzhevsky's translation, first in Russia (1911), then in Paris (1925). In addition, he translated Goethe's West-East Divan, Khayyam's rubaiyat (definitely from English version Fitzgerald - there are few originals in translations, but, according to S. Lipkin, it was in such cases that the best Russian Khayyam turned out). Quite a few books Tkhorzhevsky announced, apparently prepared for publication, but never published due to the circumstances of his turbulent fate. In particular, before 1918 he promised to issue separate edition the works of the now unfairly forgotten aristocratic poet (by the way, a friend of Rilke) - Prince Emil Shenaich-Karolat. Going abroad, Tkhorzhevsky probably lost the white manuscript, and in the meantime the poet himself was forgotten. However, in the RGALI, in the fund of the Academia publishing house, a white typescript (according to the old spelling) has been preserved: Prince Emil von Schöneich Carolat. Selected poems in translations of Iv. Tkhorzhevsky. Pg., 1919; The site considers it its pleasant duty to thank the leadership of the RGALI for the opportunity to publish several translations from this book. Already in exile, Tkhorzhevsky prepared an anthology "Poets of America", the release of which was prevented by the war that began in 1939. Until recently, Tkhorzhevsky's archive was kept in Geneva by his son Georgy, from whom it is known that "the American book should have included the works of 35 poets", and the book was divided into sections "First Tenors", "Americans" (inevitable Dickinson), "Poetry Indians, etc. Some of this anthology appeared in periodicals as a translation of a poem by Wallace Stevens (perhaps the first Russian translation from this poet). Distinctive feature creative manner Tkhorzhevsky: understanding the text very deeply, almost without making "mistakes", he treated the form "as the soul ordered."
