And if anything remains. A poem by G.R. Derzhavin "The river of times in its striving ...". Perception, interpretation, evaluation. Expressive reading by heart. Already bowing my head I stand ...

[What I am going to write about is apparently well known to everyone who is interested in such things (keywords: Supposed acrostic by Derzhavin, "Alexiad" by Anna Komnenos, map "Der Strom der Zeiten" by Friedrich Strass, map "The Wall Chart of World History" by Edward Hull).]

Many collections of Derzhavin's poems end with the following passage:

The river of time in its striving
Takes away all the affairs of people
And drowns in the abyss of oblivion
Peoples, kingdoms and kings.
And if anything remains
Through the sounds of the lyre and the trumpet,
That eternity will be devoured by the mouth
And the common fate will not go away.

This was the last thing Derzhavin wrote. In the notes, they usually write that this is the first stanza of the unfinished poem "Into Perishability." Derzhavin wrote it not even on paper, but on a "slate" board, and died a few days later. As far as I understood, the board with an unerased passage was transferred to the museum and was shown in this form either for a long time, or even until now.
I immediately have a few questions. First, how do you know what the poem was supposed to be called? Derzhavin himself wrote the name on the board, or is it just a convention? How do you know that this is a passage, and not a complete poem? Surely literary critics can give an authoritative answer to this, for example, this: apparently, Derzhavin could not write such a short poem on such a fundamental topic; it's more like an intro short description subject; it was clearly supposed to be followed by the development of the theme in small details - in general, most of all it seems that a solid poem was conceived, like an ode to the death of Prince Meshchersky ("Verb of times! Metal ringing!").
At some point, several people noticed that the first letters of the lines formed something that seemed not entirely meaningless: RUINS. Many people believe that Derzhavin was going to write an acrostic: the first word is "ruin", and then ... yes, what happens next, it's impossible to know for sure. There are several versions, for example: this is the abbreviated word "honor", or: it is part of the word "honor" in some form, for example, "the ruin of the honored" - do not forget that this is only the beginning of the poem! There is also such a version: Derzhavin first wanted to write an acrostic; the first five lines he formed into the word "ruin", but then it did not work out; so he was going to continue it as an ordinary poem, not an acrostic - but just then he died.
First of all, it is curious how old this hypothesis is - that there was at least an attempt to write an acrostic. Did anyone notice "immediately", at the beginning of the 19th century, that the first letters add up to something like that? If so, then, probably, no one suggested that "it was him on purpose", otherwise it would have been widely known (for sure it would have been mentioned in the same notes). Meanwhile, Gasparov writes that he himself noticed (apparently, years in the 60s), and mentions another person, M. Halle, who also noticed and wrote an article defending (unconvincingly, according to Gasparov) one of the versions. So it wasn't widely known.
Do you believe that there was an acrostic there? I’m thinking: firstly, they wrote so many poems there at the beginning of the 19th century! Why not assume that in one of them 5 letters accidentally formed a word? Secondly, is a ruin really such a thing in honor of which Derzhavin might want to write an acrostic? In fact, it’s not clear here: it seems that in the 19th century this word had some kind of touch of romance, made people think about ancient times, about the fact that everything passes, and the cities that once flourished are now in ruins - well, suits the theme of the poem. Thirdly, was Derzhavin inclined towards such games? By the way, usually an acrostic is found in poems "in case", or playful. And relatively short ones - perhaps this is some kind of special exercise, and the longer such a poem, the more irregularities in it - not quite clear phrases, not quite suitable words - because you have to attract words specifically for the sake of a letter. And here, again, it seems that a serious, fundamental and long poem was planned, and there were no irregularities, every word in its place. And on the other hand, why not imagine a 73-year-old Derzhavin who wrote the word "ruin" on the blackboard in a column and is trying to start the poem with these letters, and continue as it will? Here the acrostic didn't even "go wrong" (as Gasparov put it), but it was simply not supposed to go beyond the fifth line.

Recently, Omri Ronen wrote in which he mentions that he once noticed that this passage by Derzhavin is very similar to the first phrase of Anna Komnenos' Alexiad:

The stream of time in its unstoppable and eternal flow entails everything that exists. He plunges into the abyss of oblivion both insignificant events and great ones worthy of memory; the vague, as they say in tragedy, he makes clear, and the obvious hides. However, the historical narrative serves as a reliable protection against the flow of time and, as it were, holds back its irrepressible flow; it absorbs what the memory has preserved and does not allow it to perish in the depths of oblivion.

The first two sentences are so similar to Derzhavin's first four lines that you immediately begin to think - could Derzhavin have read this? Had the Alexiad been translated into Russian by that time? However, why Russian? Surely Derzhavin could read French or German. Is there somewhere a list of books from Derzhavin's library (as there is a list of books belonging to Pushkin)? If there were such a list, and there would be "Alexiad" in it (and if with these lines underlined! Or - lying open in this place near the very board!) - probably, one could try to draw conclusions. And so - if this amazing coincidence does not deprive us of vigilance, then we will notice that further texts just diverge: Anna Komnenos writes that only historical narrative can protect the past from complete oblivion, and Derzhavin - on the contrary: that in the end this is also will not help.
The similarity of these texts was also noticed a few years ago by lj-user i_shmael: several literate people discuss what could be and what could not be. Several comments say that the "river of time" is a "topos", a common place, an image that passes from work to work, so it is not at all necessary to assume direct (or, for example, through one intermediary) borrowing. This opinion seems to be very reasonable, moreover, it is supported by examples, and also explains the discrepancy in the continuation: it is logical that the very first, instant, development of the image will be similar for different authors, and then everyone goes in his own direction.

Returning to the standard notes to Derzhavin, we find there that Derzhavin began to write this poem, looking at the " historical map"under the title "The River of Times, or the Emblematic Image of World History", made by the German Friedrich Strass (it seems that Derzhavin had a Russian version of this "map"). It seems that this fact greatly weakens the hypothesis that Derzhavin's text occurs [more or less] directly from the "Alexiad": since we know that the impetus for writing the poem was the map, which is called "The River of Time", why try to look for another (direct) source. Actually, everything is consistent with the idea of ​​"topos".
What was this card? Can we find it on the Internet? Not immediately, after unsuccessful searches with the word Fluß, they found approximately what they needed (the search was also hampered by the fact that the same name, Friedrich Strass, was with the jeweler who invented "rhinestones" (which are so called in his honor)). Here it is: Straß, Friedrich: Der Strom der Zeiten oder bildliche Darstellung der Weltgeschichte von den ältesten bis auf die neuesten Zeiten [Friedrich Strass. The flow of time, or a graphic representation of world history from ancient to modern times]:

This copy is dated around 1828, so Derzhavin had a copy of an earlier version. It seems that this same Friedrich Strass made many versions of this map during his life, changing it in accordance with recent events. One of them was for sale on ebay; it looks like it is different from the previous one at the bottom.

Yeah, I think I'm in this place, but I also have a similar map! This is the edition of The Wall Chart of World History, which looks like this:

It was first released in 1890 (author - Edward Hull) - i.e. it is closer in time to the Strass maps than to today- and since then, from time to time, released in an updated form. My edition is 1990, the names with which the corresponding branches end - Reagan, Thatcher, Mitterrand, Gorbachev. The latest "biggest events" are the California earthquake and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The beginning of the map is the creation of the world, which is marked 4004 BC (yes, there is such a version), Adam and Eve, Cain, Abel ("the first Martyr"). At first - only biblical characters, and only in 2300 BC Canaanites, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Greeks and Chinese come out of the Tower of Babel. At some point the Russians show up; their first rulers: 862 Ruric; 878 Igor; 900 Olega, Regent. After "Oleg" the mysterious Spendoblos appears... Searching for this word in Google leads primarily to sports sites, but still manages to find out what Svyatoslav means (in Greek he was called Σφενδοσθλάβος).
Here is a piece of this map - it is clear that the authors did not set out to make it look exactly like a river (or, for example, a tree) - this photo also shows the Russian branch: "Ivan IV, "The Terrible": Promotes Commerce, &c ., but cruel":

Good cards, really. Probably, there are quite a few people who more or less imagine what, and even in what order, the kings were in France or in England, but they do not know which of them was at the same time at least with the same Ivan the Terrible. Without pretending to be more, sometimes pleasing with their simplifications (although, on the contrary, they probably annoy someone), they to some extent "protect from the flow of time" the most famous names- in fact, showing us this stream.

River of time. July 20, 2016 marks exactly 200 years since the day Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin passed away

Text: Arseny Zamostyanov
Collage Year of Literature. RF

We remember Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin most often thanks to Pushkin's not too respectful, although, of course, benevolent lines about the old man who, going down to the coffin, blessed. Meanwhile, before the meeting with the young genius at the Lyceum in 1815, which went down in history, the 72-year-old (at that time) poet and statesman managed to gain lasting fame and admiration for himself - both contemporaries and descendants.
Arseniy Zamostyanov, a poet who defended his dissertation on Derzhavin’s work and wrote a book about him, and since last year has been the editor-compiler of Derzhavin’s 10-volume edition published by the Narodnoye obrazovanie publishing house, tells about this “Year of Literature”. It is hard to believe, but this is the first multi-volume collection of Derzhavin's works since the 19th century (it was published well in Soviet years, but in single volumes). The first five volumes have already been published, the sixth volume is in print.

The river of time in its striving
Takes away all the affairs of people
And drowns in the abyss of oblivion
Nations, kingdoms and kings...
This is how the poem begins, which Gavriil Romanovich drew on a slate board in his bedroom three days before his death. Having written eight lines, the poet did not have time to finish it. And this is symbolic: the "river of times" by Gabriel Derzhavin flows - into eternity.

In the role of the river of time - of course, the Volkhov. There is no better candidate. The last river in the life of a real Privy Councilor and many orders of the holder, retired Minister of Justice Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin. He was born on Kazan soil, was interested in Bulgar and Horde antiquities, but fell in love with the North. I fell in love with the region, which is reasonably considered the cradle of Russian statehood. He settled on Novgorod land, better days spent his retired life on Zvanka - in the estate on the banks of the Volkhov. He died there two hundred years ago. According to leaf calendars, this is a significant date.

I immediately remember 1937, the 100th anniversary of the duel and the death of Pushkin, which turned into the largest serial literary festival. I have heard that Stalin's diabolical plan took place here, who hated humanity so much that he celebrated the date of Pushkin's assassination. Well, Stalin, as you know, is responsible for everything. But in this case, he only took advantage of an old tradition. The date of birth of our distant ancestors was not interested. They often could not accurately name even the year of their own birth. And not unknown peasants, but such aristocrats as, for example, the Suvorovs. And the death of an outstanding person is always an event of national significance. It is remembered. This is truly a milestone in history. Therefore, the twenty-five years since the death of Derzhavin, and fifty years in the literary world, have left their mark.
Derzhavin's death became. In front of us is rare case when the last poem of the poet is known to all initiates, although Gavrila Romanovich was not a suicide and died in old age, retired, in his own estate:

The servant was Mars I, Themis,
Now a retired poet...
In Derzhavin's Zvan office there was a map-table, famous in those days. "The River of Time, or the Emblematic Image of World History from Ancient Times to the End of the Eighth and Ten Centuries". This map was compiled by the German scientist Frederick Strass. He schematically depicted the history of civilizations in the form of river flows. Derzhavin gazed at this novelty, and indulged in thought...

A retired Privy Councilor and in old age remained a striking poet.

The history of Russian poetry is rich - for three and a half centuries a spring has been beating. But which of the sixty-year-old and seventy-year-old poets can compare with Derzhavin? And his last poem - unfinished, perhaps draft - cannot be deleted from any Russian anthology.

I am old - young in spirit for sins ...

The river of time... The enigmatic octet line is perhaps the beginning of Derzhavin's conceived lengthy ode "To Perishability". Although not always the first lines written become the beginning of a poem. In Derzhavin's poetry, many optimistic assessments of his own posthumous fate are scattered: "But I pee - and I will not die." Not without reason he hoped to remain on earth and serve for the benefit of justice. And then he suddenly fell into sadness, almost reaching black despondency. It is easiest to assume that in the following stanzas the poet would have formulated the antithesis of despondency, would have turned to the Almighty and consoled himself in prayer. But the ode is called "On Perishability" - and only God knows where this topic would lead Derzhavin. In his old age, he again turned to spiritual lyrics - and even during the days of the war with foreign invaders he worked on the lengthy ode "Christ". Russian regiments fought in France, the driven Napoleon fought with his last strength, throwing boys into battle. Then the winners - monarchs and diplomats - decided the future of mankind in Austrian capital. It would seem that Derzhavin had to delve into the weaving of political calculations, but he wrote:

Who are you? And how to portray
Your greatness and insignificance
Incorruptibility to agree with decay,
Merge with impossibility opportunity?
You are God - but You suffered from torment!
You are a man - but you were a stranger to revenge!
You are mortal - but the scepter of death is gone!
You are eternal - but your spirit is gone!
The result was a huge theological ode about Christ, an agitated reflection on the God-man, written at the limit of the outgoing forces. And now - the river of time in its aspiration ...
This stream devours everything - both bad and good. Both Napoleon and Suvorov. Batiev and Maratov - and the great martyrs. An eternal mill - like those that can be found both in Zvanka and in Arakcheevsky Georgia.

Everything passes, "All eternity will be devoured by the mouth" But are our efforts in vain? Optimists and life-lovers often fall into misanthropy in their old age. Is it really Derzhavin?

An unfinished etude - or is it still a polished fresco? Derzhavin was skeptical about his possibilities in the small poetic form. Epigrams, inscriptions - how strong Sumarokov was in these laconic genres! Perhaps Derzhavin underestimated himself: "On the bird," the inscriptions on the portrait of Lomonosov and on the character of Emperor Paul - aren't these the poet's victories?
And eight lines of the unwritten ode "On Perishability" made up a mysterious but complete poem. For the most part, there was no need for a sequel. And the consoling antithesis, let it be implied, remains in the subtext.
Eight lines - and not a single random or dubious word. "Sounds of a lyre and a trumpet" - is it really possible to define Derzhavin's poetry, the poetry of the 18th century in general, more clearly and precisely? The trumpet is the Homeric line, the heroic. Lira is Derzhavin's anacreontics and his philosophical reflections in verse. The very concept of the “River of Time” is associated, as was often the case with Derzhavin, with a visible object. In 1816, these eight lines appeared in the magazine Son of the Fatherland. First post! There is also a short note: “Three days before his death, looking at his well-known historical map “The River of Time” hanging in his office, he began the poem “To Perishability” and managed to write the first verse.
On what route did the old poet intend to take the ship of the philosophical ode?

This secret will never be revealed. The poet is dead.

Eight lines remained on the slate, no more, no less. And no consolation. "All eternity will be devoured by the mouth". And this is the life-loving, full-blooded Derzhavin. Not even warm, but hot in any poem, in any replica. Probably, this is for the best - the poem has become bitter, stronger, there is not a single superfluous, random word in it. We know these eight lines by heart. And Murza’s life-affirming lines (Derzhavin liked to call himself with this Tatar title) are already quite a few ...
A misleading impression may arise: what if Derzhavin, at the end of his days, became disillusioned, fell into despondency, which was so unusual for him in his mature years? It happens with strong people: losing health, they panic, turn sour. But this is not about Derzhavin!

In his old age, despite his ailments, he wrote perhaps the best poems - yes, at least these last eight lines ...

He always lived with new poems, happy moments when you feel power over the word, when the breath is taken away from the flight - and inspiration (let's call it that) did not leave him to the end.
After the capture of Paris, Derzhavin decided to write a eulogy to Emperor Alexander. In the summer of 1814, he asked his niece, Praskovya Nikolaevna Lvova, to read panegyrics to various historical figures aloud to him. Some of them made him sleepy, but the old man liked the praise of Marcus Aurelius Antoine Thomas. But in the end Derzhavin interrupted the reading: “I have written a lot in my lifetime, now I am old. My literary career is over, now let the young ones sing!”. The following entry was preserved in his archive:

And yet he wrote even in last summer- and how he wrote! And the life of Zvanskaya dragged on slowly. Only childless old people fall in love with dogs as much as Derzhavin falls in love with his Taika. He always wore it in his bosom, stroked it ... We know about those days from the notes of Praskovya Lvova.

Already bowing my head I stand ...

One damp evening, playing solitaire, he felt sick, he crouched down, began to rub his chest. They called the doctor. Derzhavin groaned, even screamed in pain. But still fell asleep in the office, on the couch. Waking up, cheered up. He was persuaded to go to St. Petersburg, to the doctors - the old man only chuckled. Jokes began again, cards, Voltaire's readings ... A few days later, on July 8, at breakfast, he announced: "Thank God, I feel better." Tame birds flew around the room, amusing him. I had to refuse dinner: the doctors recommended abstinence in food. But for dinner he ordered fish soup - and ate three plates. It was then that he became ill. The doctor prescribed sage, Lvova advised me to drink tea with rum. "Oh, it's hard! Oh, it's boring. Lord, help me, a sinner... I didn't know it would be so hard. So it is necessary. So it is necessary. God help me…"
Late in the evening the pain dulled. He asked everyone for forgiveness for worrying: "Without me, they would have slept for a long time." And he gave the word to Daria the next morning to go to St. Petersburg. And suddenly he got up a little, took a deep breath - and everything was quiet. The doctor looked confusedly at Lvova. The room filled with women's sobs. July 8th is the 20th according to the new style.

Eight lines written in chalk remained on the slate board - the same ones.
His body was covered with a simple muslin - from flies. Neighbor - Tyrkov - chattered all the time: “We need to tell the sovereign. The emperor loved him so much, he will certainly want to say goodbye. The emperor really was nearby - in Georgia at Arakcheev, this is a neighboring estate. But no ... The sons of Kapnist and Lvov were standing at the coffin, while Felitsa's grandson was absent, and he did not know in time about Derzhavin's death. The servants got drunk in those days - presumably from mournful thoughts. On July 11, it was time for the last service. Priests gathered around the tomb. “What impatience he had to do good!” Praskovya Lvova said. Under funeral singing, the coffin was transferred to a boat, and the funeral procession headed for the Khutynsky monastery.

And I - piit, and I will not die ...

Those letters on the slate board have long been erased - they, of course, managed to be rewritten, which is why "Derzhavin's last poem" appeared in our anthologies. After all, our poetic reader does not begin at all with Pushkin. In the 18th century, a whole anthology was created, which the poets of Pushkin's Golden Age read carefully and with indifference.
The weakness of 18th-century poetry lies in the fact that, following the guidelines of classicism (and sentimentalism, too!) poets become predictable. But Derzhavin broke all the canons. He is a poet, extremely "wrong" and biased. It was not for nothing that Derzhavin stopped all attempts by his friends to edit his powerful but wild talent. And Derzhavin's ode is always a mixture of panegyric and satire, reality and fantasy, delight and self-irony. By the way, it was for this that Catherine fell in love with him. After all, "Felitsa" is not a solemn ode, it's just a smart and witty conversation at the level of poetic images. And this seemed to the empress amusing - in contrast to the bored high-flown odes of Vasily Petrov.
That is why it turned out to be necessary either to Baratynsky, then to Sluchevsky, then to Tsvetaeva, then to Mandelstam, then to Brodsky. And this list can be continued for a long time. Poets have always found gold nuggets in the heaps of Derzhavin's tongue-tied tongue. And when Pushkin's harmony got fed up, they turned to Derzhavin's chaos.
Although between Pushkin and Derzhavin there is much more related than divisive. Without "Felitsa" with its "funny Russian style", in which irony was easily intertwined with pathos, "Eugene Onegin" would hardly have taken place.

Now the balalaika is sweet to me
Yes, the drunken clatter of a trepak
Before the threshold of the tavern.
My ideal now is the hostess,
My desire is peace
Yes, a soup pot, but a big one itself. —

This is from Onegin. And this was clearly overheard in Derzhavin. And to health! And in "Poltava" Pushkin could not do without the rhythms and gnashing of Derzhavin's battle odes - such as "The Capture of Ishmael".
In Felitsa, that liberated tone is found in which irony and self-irony become more important than satire. At the same time, for example,

in the genre of spiritual lyrics, Derzhavin remains unsurpassed. After all, it is also surprisingly diverse. When he was thrown into a religious fever, he created wonderful formulas for “God”, angrily preached in “Lords and Judges”.

At the same time, he mastered the “funny Russian style” and did not shun low topics. And he did not keep them in the closet of the poetic kitchen. Sometimes he expressed the main thoughts in the most "amusing" verses!

And how many popular expressions he gave us even before Krylov and Griboyedov. “It’s never too late to learn”, “Fatherlands and smoke are sweet and pleasant for us”, “Where the table was food, there is a coffin”, “The donkey will remain a donkey, although shower it with stars”, “Moderation is the best feast”, “Excessive praise - mockery! or listen! - "Life is heaven's instant gift" ...

Well, and most importantly and recognized by all - Derzhavin was the first to leave a psychological self-portrait. In detail, cheerfully, without hidden rooms, he showed his way of life. He did not hide his own weaknesses and vices. And he found poetic charm in such mundane frankness: “There are two sips of coffee; I'll snore five minutes" Well, many people remember Derzhavin's detailed and sumptuous gastronomic descriptions. Sometimes they are quoted without naming the author. I would like to compare such poetry with painting - and with excellent:

Sheksninskaya golden sterlet,
Kaimak and borscht are already standing;
In carafes of wine, punch, shining
Now with ice, now with sparks, they beckon;
Incense pours from the censers,
The fruits among the baskets are laughing,
The servants do not dare to die,
Waiting for you around the table;
The hostess is stately, young
Ready to lend a hand.

The taste of these dinners has not run out of steam. Perhaps the first of the Russian poets, he became simply a pleasant and useful conversationalist - sharp, emotional, to whom you listen, because he does not scream and does not stand on stilts. It is no coincidence that success came to him after the publication of "Felitsa" in the magazine "Interlocutor".

However, Derzhavin could shout and cast spells for a sweet soul. But he distinguished himself from his contemporaries by his humanity. Earth charm! Vivacious poetry:

In a word: burned love if the flame,
I fell, got up in my age.
Come on, sage! on my coffin stone,
If you are not human.

“The river of times in its striving” is a poem by Derzhavin, which was written on July 6, 1816. The poet died three days later. This is only part of the work, since the author did not finish it.

The record was found on the board, where the poet wrote draft versions. He created the passage while looking at the painting "The River of Time". It had a historical character and it was a depiction of world history.

The poet's poem shows the power of time. It is so fleeting that no one can resist. Tsars and kingdoms, entire peoples and nations bow before time. Everything plunges into the abyss of oblivion. No matter how many achievements there were, how much was done, everything will eventually disappear.

The meaning of the work is that you need to value time, and the main idea of ​​​​the verse is that world history is constantly repeating itself.

Again and again new epochs come, new kingdoms that make the same mistakes. This cycle will be eternal, so we can only put up with it.

The full poem was supposed to be called "On Perishability", but since it was not written in full, the passage was named after the first line.

On July 6, 1816, at Zvanka, his estate near Novgorod, the seventy-three-year-old Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin wrote down these lines on a black slate board (his usual draft).

Eight lines, which, according to relatives, apparently should have been followed by others. However, a day later, July 8, " he lay down in bed at half past two, sighed more than usual, and with that sigh he died"... The inscription on the tombstone immortalized" Acting Privy Councilor and various Orders of the Knight"(about the poet - not a word) ...

The slate board with a draft of the last poem was delivered to the Imperial Library at the request of its director, A.N. Olenin, and fifty years later Academician Ya.K. Grot, an outstanding researcher of Derzhavin's work, testified: " Everyone can see (a board) on the wall, in the department of Russian books; but almost nothing is left of the lines inscribed on it".

In the same place, in the Department of Manuscripts of the State public library USSR named after M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in Leningrad, you can still see it today, under glass in a frame of lacquered wood. With good lighting, individual letters, words are guessed ...

However, the "river of times" has not yet overcome these lines. Copied on paper immediately after the death of the poet, they were soon published in Son of the Fatherland, one of the most famous literary magazines.

We are well acquainted with the aged Derzhavin from Pushkin's story about the lyceum exam on January 8, 1815: " He sat with his head on his hand. His face was meaningless; cloudy eyes; lips pendulous; his portrait, where he is shown in a cap and a dressing gown, is very similar ..., however, "he dozed until the exam in Russian literature began. Then he perked up, his eyes sparkled; he has changed all over"The last time Derzhavin took up the slate was exactly one and a half years after that lyceum visit, and we can easily imagine how he revived again, transformed on July 6, 1816 ...

Let's go through the last lines of Derzhavin, probably not yet brought to full perfection, but, no doubt, brilliant.

There is no title. But, according to people close to Derzhavin, the poet was going to name the verses "To perishability."

"The river of time in its striving..."

Since ancient times, the image "river of life", "river of time" has been constantly used; in Derzhavin's office hung a kind of picture-table "The River of Times, or the Emblematic Image of World History."

The long strip is a "map" of the past five thousand years; from top to bottom there are branches of an endless river with the names: "Egypt", "Babylon", "Greece"; then almost all of them merge into "Rome". Various "European streams" originate from "Rome" - French, English, German ... next to Russian. At the right edge of the "map" is the most direct channel: the achievements of science, literature, art. Here are the names of Homer and Newton, the largest discoveries are listed. At the bottom edge of the map, where the year is 1800 (and then the time has not yet elapsed for the publisher), the last names and events of the cultural world. Smallpox vaccination; Lavoisier; discovery of Ceres (an asteroid); Derzhavin...

It was looking at this picture-table that the poet folded his last lines. And at the same time, they echo one of the early verses that brought the thirty-seven-year-old poet great fame:

The "verb of times" is the chime of the clock, which echoes in the same line: "metal ringing."

In the last verses - a different, more majestic, calm image, "the river of times"; it does not require instantaneous rhyme and, without haste, moves "in" its striving "...

Fourteen years after the death of Derzhavin, Pushkin, arrested in Boldin with cholera, would have to fulfill the request of a visiting neighbor, retired lieutenant Dmitry Alekseevich Ostafyev, to write something in an album. It is impossible to refuse, especially since shortly before that, Ostafyev received an autograph from the poet's uncle, Vasily Lvovich; and Alexander Sergeevich does what he often did in such cases: he enters into the album a poem that is not his own, but is especially appropriate among the cholera, which is inclined to carry away many "in its striving." Not having Derzhavin's writings at hand, Pushkin wrote from memory and made two mistakes, both of which are curious. The second case is discussed ahead, the owner of Boldin wrote down the very first line: "The river of times in its course."

Pushkin, with his craving for simplicity and precision, prefers a clear and realistic "flow" to a more abstract, vague "striving". When the young Pushkin recited Zhukovsky's poems from memory and, moreover, forgot or involuntarily changed a word, Zhukovsky understood that this place was unsuccessful and needed to be redone. However, Derzhavin is Derzhavin. According to Pushkin, "flow" is better; but Derzhavin is a poet of the 18th century, inclined to a lofty, measured style, and here “aspiration” is more appropriate. Moreover, thanks to this word in the first line there is a roaring combination three times " re": re ka in re men... st re melting ... It is, of course, no accident that it turns out later (although we will say right away that it is unlikely that Derzhavin recalculated the number " re"and deliberately constructed such sound combinations - this is how the verse went, intuition prompted).

Parting with the first line, we note in parting that the river corresponded to the ancient concepts of the speed of time: it is true that the 18th century was in a great hurry towards the end, but still could not change that sense of the pace of events that Derzhavin had been accustomed to from the young 1750s, 60s, seventies...

The river of time, and meanwhile in 1818 the same young poet, whom old Derzhavin managed to bless when going to the coffin, writes (about another poet, Batyushkov):

Fascinated by Pushkin's poems, Vyazemsky wrote to Zhukovsky: "In the smoke of centuries!" This expression is a city. I would give everything movable and immovable for him. What a beast! We need to put him in a yellow house: otherwise this rabid tomboy will seize us all, us and our fathers. Do you know that Derzhavin would be afraid of the "smoke of centuries"? Nothing else to say about".

To us today, at the end of the 20th century, Vyazemsky's admiration is somewhat strange: "the smoke of centuries" and other similar definitions of rapidly rushing time have become quite familiar, even stereotyped. However, almost every template has, probably, a very noble origin: it was once a fresh image, which was somewhat erased from frequent use ... smoke (Derzhavin "would have been frightened"), and Pushkin's gaze at the swiftly, furiously, ghostly as smoke rushing time, a gaze no longer gravitating towards the XVIII. but rather, to our, XX century.

The river of times, the smoke of centuries - two "time concepts"...

Valid Privy Councilor, former secretary of the empress, governor, minister of justice and holder of many Russian orders, Derzhavin knew a lot about kingdoms and tsars. In addition, he was interested in history, although in his era it was much smaller and "cozier" than now.

If one were to ask an old man who was drawing signs on a slate board, is the past great, what is the abyss of oblivion, what is eternity behind him, the poet would say approximately as eighteen-year-old Alexander Gorchakov, one of the boys who looked at Derzhavin during the lyceum, wrote down at that time exam: " History is the time of civilized human affairs, embracing the last five thousand years"The wise Buffon, shortly before, calculated, as if to an incandescent the globe had to cool down eighty thousand years...

The words "million years" have not yet been pronounced, the Egyptian hieroglyphs have not yet been read (this will be done six years after Derzhavin's death). For several decades on earth, no one will know anything about the Hittites - the great centuries-old civilization that played a significant role in the prehistory of our culture. The Indian culture of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, the ancient Sumerian cities, the Cretan-Mycenaean world, and many other countries and eras absolutely unknown to Derzhavin still lie in the "abyss of oblivion", the exact depth of which is unclear how to measure.

But what are kings and kingdoms! Derzhavin, though a courtier, though a minister, never gave a high price for them. In the 1780s, he shifted the 81st psalm so strongly into modern verse that the "biblical text" was strictly prohibited by the censors:

Now, in 1816, he repeated a long-cherished thought in a new way.

Here again those "peals" that have already sounded in the first line are heard; again a lot" R": through, lyre, pipes...

It is curious that in that Boldino album, where Derzhavin's poems were transcribed, Pushkin made a mistake for the second time, writing: "through the sounds of a lyre or a trumpet." According to Pushkin, it turned out that something remains thanks to poetry (lyre) or glory, historical memory (trumpet). Derzhavin, perhaps, wanted to say that in general, if anything in the world remains, it is thanks only to art, because the lyre and trumpet are musical instruments that obey only poets, storytellers, bards.

It seems that Pushkin felt a certain inaccuracy here, the vagueness of Derzhavin's image, and involuntarily corrected or started a dispute with the dead poet: in fact, what and thanks to what remains in the world?

Terrible sound explosion, prepared by the former " R" And " re", in the first and sixth lines... Will be devoured by a vent - zher - zhre: one root - devour, devour, priest, victim, mouth. Derzhavin was a great master of this verse roar; in the poem "Bullfinch" (about the death of Suvorov) there is a line: "Northern thunders lie in a coffin" (however, how can one not remember that in the famous, especially from Tchaikovsky's opera, poems "If cute girls could fly like birds like that, and sat on knots ... "Derzhavin deliberately did not introduce a single " R").

It remains only to say that in the last line of the last poem - "And the common fate will not leave" - ​​" R" completely disappears, but what howling vowels: o-e-o-e! Echo, a sad rumble coming from the abyss, from the mouth of Dante's hell; Let's remember Pushkin's similar sound: "A storm covers the sky with darkness" ( u-i-o-u-eo-o-e).

If the conversation has already turned to sounds, you need to touch on the question that is not clear to the end: how to pronounce last words fifth and seventh lines, with e or yo: osta e tsya - devour yo tsya or stay e tsya - devour e tsya. According to some philologists, yo at that time it was less common.

But there is no complete certainty - we do not hear ... The verses break off.

Their meaning is terrible and simple: that force that carries peoples, kingdoms and kings into the abyss, cannot at first (centuries, millennia) overcome what was created by the lyre and the trumpet, and all the same, in the end, the muzzle of eternity will swallow even the highest creation. human spirit. The abyss of oblivion, the crater of eternity... Meanwhile, twenty-one years earlier, in 1795, Gavrila Romanovich seemed to be in a different mood:

Derzhavin of the last verses argues with Derzhavin of "Monument"!

The reader of this article, perhaps, expects our full agreement not with the seventy-three, but with the fifty-two-year-old poet: everyone will be satisfied and calm down, exclaiming according to custom: " Manuscripts don't burn!(This happy Bulgakov image is now so often repeated that sometimes one wants to set fire to another manuscript: what if it doesn’t really burn!)

Let's try, however, to look at things without excessive bias and calmly analyze two theses: "Time will not be crushed by flight ..." and "It will be devoured by the vent ..." Derzhavin lived in that era when many discoveries were made that suggested the idea of ​​"transience and decay." "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" is a wonderful anonymous person who emerged from the "abyss" for only two decades, only to disappear in the turmoil and flames of 1812; however, disappear, remaining; but the unknown author in the very first lines introduces his absolutely unknown predecessor, the teacher: "Boyan, brethren..."

More and more great creations - and a number of emptiness. The Bible - but it has long been understood that the most ancient lists of the holy book are many centuries younger than the original text, and how many were lost, weeded out along the way! .. Even what remains for posterity suddenly seems random, ephemeral ...

The wise Marcus Aurelius appeared to the new time in only two handwritten lists, and one of them soon disappears. A contemporary of Alexander the Great, Menander, whose name thunders through the centuries, whose heroes in ancient times were household figures, like Tartuffe, Khlestakov in our time ... Menander is a playwright, coryphaeus, the founder of the so-called neo-Attic comedy, a master ... More than a hundred of his plays , published and republished dozens of times, would occupy a considerable place in any library today. But it was only in 1905 that a papyrus was found with the text (more or less complete) of five comedies. And already in our time, another play was discovered in Oksyrhynchus, the most famous garbage heap in the world, where unnecessary things were dumped in Ptolemaic Egypt ... Finally, Titus Livius, the king of ancient Roman historians. Only 35 books out of 142, only 25 percent of his "History of Rome from the founding of the city" have come down to our time. True, there was a rumor that in the library of Ivan the Terrible, inherited from the Byzantine emperors, there were all the volumes, but where is that library, where are those books and scrolls, which, according to the authoritative opinion of Academician M.N. Tikhomirov, perhaps dispersed from the palace assembly to remote monasteries? And what did a certain journeyman of the 18th century really see "under the Kremlin", yelling "Word and deed!" and severely beaten, since the books that he allegedly discovered were not found after? Accident.

Mark Blok, the excellent French historian who was murdered by the Fascists, had reason to doubt that we are really getting "the main things" from the past; Who can be sure that we do not judge, for example, the literature of an entire epoch by secondary works, and of material culture by more or less accidental remnants?

Derzhavin, one might say, is a pessimist: "And if anything remains..." We, optimists, seem to be able to make only one respectful objection to Gavrila Romanovich: the river of time does not flow easily, main thread, of course, from the past to the future, but no matter how strong this flow, there is also a kind of "countercurrent" - back to that Yesterday, which is inseparable from Today and Tomorrow. The author of the following "Monument" after Derzhavin knew all this well:

As long as there is at least one poet in the world, by his nature he revives the past, and how could he not resurrect Pushkin, Derzhavin!

Immortality, like infinity, has two directions.

However, let us return to our octagon again. After all, the work is not finished, and we can even assume that Derzhavin was going to write more ... If the river of time carries away peoples, kingdoms and kings, if even the sounds of a lyre and a trumpet devour eternity, then you need to create a small, cozy hearth in the "deserts of time" , having gathered around him family, friends, rejoicing in a little:

In these poems, composed a few years before his death, Derzhavin admires the singing of birds, the shepherd's horn, household conversations, morning coffee, playing bast shoes, hunting ... death and eternity: life is a moment, a person is dust, and, perhaps, only Klia (Clio), the muse of history, will keep the memory of the poet, however, most likely, only as an echo, a spirit in those parts where he lived:

The "trumpet" in this quatrain is, of course, the forerunner of the "lyre and trumpet" of the last verses.

On July 6, 1816, Derzhavin most likely wanted to express in a new way what had already been said about death as a source of special quiet worldly joy. I wanted to, but did not have time or did not want to have time ...

There are masters who surprisingly know how not to finish their compositions. Such was, for example. Pushkin, who has many wonderful poetic and prose passages, either completed or slyly thrown and retaining the charm of a half-finished stone, an unfinished statue. There is even a special term - style non-finita when the master, as it were, acts in collaboration with the imperfect, when the absence is a harmonic addition to the presence.

However, there are other cases. Sometimes the author does not finish the work because he does not have time. And then his co-author is death. I saw a painting by one artist where wrestlers were depicted; the artist died before he could finish painting their eyes, but this made the work much stronger: powerful, intertwined, eyeless figures and, moreover, the very fact of the artist's death. All this gave the image a new, special meaning.

If after the death of a person, as A. A. Akhmatova noted, all his portraits change, then, of course, poems also change. Poems dying - especially. Gavrila Romanovich on July 6, 1816, one might say, co-authored with death and eternity. On July 8, death passed through the octostich "with the hand of a master" and gave it a meaning that Derzhavin did not expect (but who knows, maybe he had a presentiment?). And what?

Let's re-read the last verses again and again: it would seem that nothing could be sadder - death, the abyss of oblivion, the devouring vent ... All this again and again brings us back to the already remembered: "the verb of times! metal ringing ..." Comes on memory and Alexander Blok:

These lines sound like Derzhavin, although Blok hardly thought about it: coffins, slabs - and that very pipe!

The most important word is "solemn". The tombstone lines are solemn. Derzhavin's last verses are undoubtedly also solemn; in addition to the usual lamentation about the transience of things, they contain a secret, solemnity.

We do not dare to impose our opinion, but we note that for the author of this article and several friends interviewed by him, in the last lines of Derzhavin there is also some kind of strange joy, no, more precisely, not joy, but some kind of light, communion with eternity.

What is the secret here? Maybe so: brilliant poems, even on the saddest topic, always contain a way out, "immortality, perhaps a pledge." If such poems are created in the world, all is not lost. And Derzhavin explains: everything passes, is carried away, rubbed, but if a poet, a person is able to embrace all this, to understand, then by this very understanding he is, as it were, eternal, immortal. And is it not about that, thirty-two years before his death, the then Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin already said:

These are the thoughts that came to mind when reading those verses that, under very special circumstances, I wrote down on a slate board great poet Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin July 6, 1816.

Literature and library science

And if anything remains Through the sounds of the lyre and the trumpet, It will devour eternity with a mouth And the common fate will not go away. The author reflects on eternity that absolutely all human deeds and aspirations will sooner or later be forgotten. The expression of the poem is created by the concentration of metaphors river of time abyss of oblivion the vent of eternity and the phonetic organization of repetition [r] determines the tense tone of the octagon; the sequence of stressed vowels in the third and penultimate lines o o e e o o. There are 2 images in the poem: images of time and eternity.

A poem by G.R. Derzhavin "The river of times in its striving ...". Perception, interpretation, evaluation. Expressive reading by heart.

History of creation

By the end of the 18th century, Derzhavin had achieved a lot: he was a senator, a minister, he argued with the tsars. But there were many ministers, senators, secretaries of state, but he was still alone - the poet Derzhavin. Somehow it turned out by itself that everyone recognized him as a genius. Of course, Derzhavin was first and foremost a courtier, a careerist. In his eyes, the order was more important than the ode. But over the years, he realized that it was in literature that the key to his immortality. And this was always desired by his proud, ambitious soul. It is no coincidence that he translated "Monument" from Latin into Russian. He thought that it was his poems that would become an eternal monument to him...

But no! Years passed, he weakened, lost his sight, and gradually the eternal and sad truth, which was inaccessible to him, young, was revealed to his gaze.

In the summer of 1816, in his beloved Zvanka, his estate in the Novgorod province, he began work on a new work. But the poet's creative plans were not destined to come true: death interrupted the work. Only a few lines have come down to us, written which is symbolic in itself on a slate board.

For reference. Slate board - a board made of black mineral, on which they write with a stylus.

Two days before his death on July 6, 1816, he drew her formula on a slate:

R eka of time in its striving

At wears all the affairs of people

AND drowns in the abyss of oblivion

H nations, kingdoms and kings.

A if anything remains

H cutting the sounds of the lyre and trumpet,

T about eternity will be devoured by the mouth

AND the common fate will not go away.

Perception, interpretation, evaluation

Philosophical work“The river of times in its striving...” is an attempt by the poet to express his view on the question of the meaning of life. Poems make you think about what will remain of the deeds of a person after his death. The author reflects on eternity, on the fact that absolutely all human deeds and aspirations will sooner or later be forgotten. Indeed, everything eventually passes. Human actions can be evil and good, noble or not so, but they are not eternal. Time passes and everything is forgotten. New people come who do not remember what was before them. Only what is now is important, because everything else simply does not matter.

There is nothing eternal on earth, therefore it makes no sense to attach too much importance to the actions and actions of a person. great importance. The fate of everything earthly is too fragile and ephemeral, everything exists only for a moment."Eternal" philosophical problems are brought by the author into the subtext of the work.

The poem is permeated with a pessimistic feeling. Its author is an elderly man, wise by years of experience, perhaps an old man, calmly and wisely looking at the worldly fuss. He has nowhere to hurry, he knows the value of life.

The expression of a poem is created by the concentration of metaphors (the river of times, the abyss of oblivion, the vent of eternity)and phonetic organization (the repetition [p] determines the tense tone of the octet line; the sequence of stressed vowels in the third and penultimate lines (o oe//eoo)).

There are 2 images in the poem: images of time and eternity. Both time and history in Derzhavin's poem have an end and do not imply either the triumph of progress or the establishment of harmony: the words carries away, drowns, devours, oblivion, abyss and the vent are close in meaning "death", "loss", "end", "non-existence". The prevalence of these signs on "all the affairs of people"

The first quatrain uses verbs imperfect form, denoting the duration of the process and the repeatability of the laws of history, continuing to operate while flowing earth time. In the second quatrain, the perfect form, which gives the verbs the meaning of the limit, serves as a kind of metaphor for the end of world history.

The image of time is compared with the image of eternity, and the plan of the present constant is replaced by the plan of the future (That eternity will be devoured by the mouth). If in everyday linguistic consciousness eternity is usually reduced to a temporal duration that has neither beginning nor end, then Derzhavin, speaking of eternity, avoids specific temporal characteristics and measurements. On the one hand, eternity is dynamic for him (will be devoured), on the other hand, in accordance with the poetic tradition of the 18th century, it approaches Chaos, which for ancient philosophers and poets was embodied in the image of the abyss.

The incomprehensibility of eternity in Derzhavin's poem is reflected in the rejection of its detailed figurative characteristics. If the image of history (time) is built on the basis of a chain of metaphors closely related to each other and is detailed (time is a river with a turbulent current, rushing to the “abyss of oblivion”), then eternity in the text has only one figurative feature devouring the vent.

The word fate turns out to be polysemantic in the last line: on the one hand, it has the meaning “fate, fate” here, on the other hand, it realizes the meaning “immutable law”,

Conclusion

In Derzhavin's poem, the motif of the court develops, which has several aspects: it is the determination of the true price of people's deeds, and summing up, and establishing the place of art in history, and the judgment of time on a person, and overcoming time itself.