Poem by S.A. Yesenin’s “I have only one game left” was written in 1923, several years before the young poet’s life was tragically cut short. It is known that after moving to Moscow, Yesenin’s creative career began to develop rapidly. He became recognizable and loved by many. But a constant longing for his native place sharpened his soul. He was looking for oblivion in the frenzied joy of the taverns. A violent temper and drunkenness became his constant companions.
“I have only one fun left,” the verse became a kind of result of the poet’s thoughts about his life. Looking back, Yesenin sees a daring life, where he scandalized and brawled, but at the same time something bright and beautiful breaks out of his soul. The poem is similar to a confession, it reflects the fear of losing faith in God and humility with the fact that not everything in life has worked out , as I dreamed. Having given up on his “bad” fame, Yesenin wants only one thing, that the end of his life be calm. The confession of a desperate person who has resigned himself to circumstances cannot leave anyone indifferent. This poem takes its rightful place in the philosophical lyrics of the most famous Russian imagist.
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There's only one thing left for me to do:
Fingers in mouth - and a cheerful whistle.
Notoriety has spread
That I am a bawdy and a brawler.
Oh! what a funny loss!
There are many funny losses in life.
I'm ashamed that I believed in God.
It’s sad for me that I don’t believe it now.
Golden, distant distances!
Everyday death burns everything.
And I was rude and scandalous
To burn brighter.
The poet's gift is to caress and scribble,
There is a fatal stamp on it.
White rose with black toad
I wanted to get married on earth.
Let them not come true, let them not come true
These thoughts of rosy days.
But if the devils were nesting in the soul -
This means that angels lived in it.
It's for this fun that it's muddy,
Going with her to another land,
I want at the last minute
Ask those who will be with me -
So that for all my grave sins,
For disbelief in grace
They put me in a Russian shirt
To die under icons.
Sergei Yesenin - hooligan
Both critics and readers often idealize their idols: poets and writers. But these are ordinary people with their passions, sins, weaknesses and vices, which are reflected in their work. In obscene poems, for example. Today, when classics are turned into icons, forgetting about their earthly essence, they try not to remember these poems either in school or university classrooms. In addition, profanity is prohibited by law. If things continue like this, and the State Duma continues to ban everything, then we will soon forget that in Russian literature there were such popularly beloved authors as V. Erofeev, V. Vysotsky, V. Sorokin, V. Pelevin and many others. Mayakovsky, Lermontov, Pushkin, and, of course, Sergei Yesenin, who himself called himself a hooligan, brawler and obscenity, have poems with profanity.
There's only one thing left for me to do
There's only one thing left for me to do:
Fingers in the mouth and a cheerful whistle.
Notoriety has spread
That I am a bawdy and a brawler.
Oh! what a funny loss!
There are many funny losses in life.
I'm ashamed that I believed in God.
It’s sad for me that I don’t believe it now.
Golden, distant distances!
Everyday death burns everything.
And I was rude and scandalous
To burn brighter.
The poet's gift is to caress and scribble,
There is a fatal stamp on it.
White rose with black toad
I wanted to get married on earth.
Let them not come true, let them not come true
These thoughts of rosy days.
But if the devils were nesting in the soul -
This means that angels lived in it.
It's for this fun that it's muddy,
Going with her to another land,
I want at the last minute
Ask those who will be with me -
So that for all my grave sins,
For disbelief in grace
They put me in a Russian shirt
To die under icons.
Why are you looking at those blue splashes like that?
The favorite of women, in a drunken stupor, more than once recited poems of very dubious content in public. Although I rarely wrote it down. They were born spontaneously and did not linger in the poet’s memory. However, there were still a few poems left in the drafts, where the author expressed his thoughts and emotions, resorting to taboo vocabulary.
Yesenin was seriously mentally ill, and it was to this period that almost all of his frivolous verses date back. The poet lost faith in love, in social justice, in the new system. He was confused, lost the meaning of existence, and became disillusioned with his creativity. The world around him appeared in gray tones.
This is clearly seen in the poem, full of drunken bravado and deep despair.
Harmonica rash. Boredom... Boredom
Rash, harmonica. Boredom... Boredom...
The accordionist's fingers flow like a wave.
Drink with me, you lousy bitch.
Drink with me.
They loved you, they abused you -
Unbearable.
Why are you looking at those blue splashes like that?
Or do you want to punch me in the face?
I'd like to have you stuffed in the garden,
Scare the crows.
Tormented me to the bone
From all sides.
Rash, harmonica. Rash, my frequent one.
Drink, otter, drink.
I’d rather have that busty one over there -
She's dumber.
I’m not the first among women...
Quite a few of you
But with someone like you and a bitch
Only for the first time.
The more painful it is, the louder it is,
Here and there.
I won't commit suicide
Go to hell.
To your pack of dogs
It's time to catch a cold.
Darling, I'm crying
Sorry... sorry...
Here the Ryazan rake seeks to prove to everyone, and first of all, to himself, that his chaotic life was not in vain. And although the motives for suicide are increasingly breaking through into him, Yesenin still has hope that he will be able to escape from the deep and vicious whirlpool of drunkenness and riotous life. He exclaims: “I won’t commit suicide, go to hell.”
The favorite of women in a drunken stupor has repeatedly recited poems of very dubious content in public
The wind blows from the south
The poet wrote the poem “The Wind Blows from the South” after he invited a girl to visit, who refused to continue their acquaintance, knowing about the difficult character and far from secular manners of her gentleman.
The wind blows from the south,
And the moon rose
What are you, b**ch?
Didn't come at night?
The poem is presented in an aggressive and harsh form, and its meaning is that the lyrical hero can easily find a replacement for the intractable young lady, and will be able to drag any other beauty into bed.
Sing, sing. On the damn guitar
A similar leitmotif is contained in the stanzas of the work “Sing, sing. On the damned guitar”, where the poet again returns to the theme of death.
Sing, sing. On the damn guitar
Your fingers dance in a semicircle.
I would choke in this frenzy,
My last, only friend.
Don't look at her wrists
And silk flowing from her shoulders.
I was looking for happiness in this woman,
And I accidentally found death.
I didn't know that love is an infection
I didn't know love was a plague.
Came up with a narrowed eye
The bully was driven crazy.
Sing, my friend. Remind me again
Our former violent early.
Let her kiss each other,
Young, beautiful trash.
Oh, wait. I don't scold her.
Oh, wait. I don't curse her.
Let me play about myself
Under this bass string.
The pink dome of my days is flowing.
In the heart of dreams there are golden sums.
I touched a lot of girls
He pressed a lot of women in the corner.
Yes! there is a bitter truth of the earth,
I spied with a childish eye:
Males lick in line
Bitch leaking juice.
So why should I be jealous of her?
So why should I be sick like that?
Our life is a sheet and a bed.
Our life is a kiss and a whirlwind.
Sing, sing! On a fatal scale
These hands are a fatal disaster.
You just know, fuck them
Alas, the poet’s prophecy regarding himself did not come true. The last day of December 1925 turned out to be a holiday with tears in our eyes.
The poet lost faith in love, in social justice, in the new system
On this day, Muscovites and numerous guests of the capital buried Sergei Yesenin. An hour before the solemn striking of the chimes, his best friend, poet Anatoly Mariengof, was crying in his room on Tverskoy Boulevard.
He could not understand how people who had recently walked with a mournful look behind the poet’s coffin were now preening themselves, twirling in front of the mirror, and tying their ties. And at midnight they will congratulate each other on the New Year and clink glasses of champagne.
He shared these sorrowful thoughts with his wife. His wife then said to him philosophically:
This is life, Tolya!
Live hot water bottle
All night they sat on the ottoman, looking through photographs in which there was a young, perky, mocking Sergei. They recited his magical ones by heart. Anatoly Borisovich also recalled how, before his marriage, he and Yesenin lived in Moscow, without having their own roof over their heads.
By the way, the great poet never received an apartment in the capital, despite his crazy fame. “After all, he’s spending the night somewhere now, so let him live there,” an official of the Krasnopresnensky district administration threw up his hands with irresistible logic, where, after passing through five bureaucratic authorities, a paper was received from Trotsky’s office with a proposal to provide living space to Yesenin. “How much do we have in Moscow, and why should we give everyone an apartment?”
Yesenin was saved from “homelessness” by his friends. But mostly - friends. At first, Yesenin lived with Anatoly Mariengof, huddling with friends or renting a corner for a while. Brothers in the literary workshop were separated so rarely that they gave the whole of Moscow reason to talk about intimacy with each other.
The great poet never received an apartment in the capital, despite his crazy fame
And in fact, they even had to sleep in the same bed! What are you going to do if there is nothing to heat the apartment with, and you can only write down poems while wearing warm gloves!
One day, a little-known Moscow poetess asked Sergei to help her get a job. The girl was pink-cheeked, steep-hipped, with thick, soft shoulders. The poet offered to pay her the salary of a good typist. To do this, she had to come to her friends at night, undress, lie down under the covers and leave when the bed was warm. Yesenin promised that during the procedure of undressing and dressing they would not look at the girl.
For three days the already famous poets of that time went to a warm bed. On the fourth, the young writer could not stand it and indignantly refused the easy but strange service. To the perplexed question of true gentlemen: “What’s the matter?”, she angrily exclaimed:
I didn’t hire myself to warm the sheets of the saints!
They say that Mariengof, out of friendly motives, incited Yesenin against Zinaida Reich, arousing in him unreasonable jealousy. As a result, Sergei divorced the woman he loved. Since then, his family life has not worked out.
Although Zinaida and Reich and their children are a poet. However, it is difficult to imagine Sergei Yesenin, the owner of a light walk and a lover of noisy feasts, as a respectable father of a family and a faithful husband.
Mariengof, out of friendly motives, incited Yesenin against Zinaida Reich
He walked forward through life with long strides, as if he was in a hurry to get through it as quickly as possible. Isadora Duncan even gave the poet a gold watch, but he still remained at odds with time.
Dancer Isadora Duncan
Marrying the famous French dancer Duncan was perceived by those around the poet as his desire to finally solve the housing problem. Then a caustic ditty immediately began to sound on the Moscow streets:
Tolya walks around unwashed,
And Seryozha is clean.
That's why Seryozha is sleeping
With Dunya on Prechistenka.
Meanwhile, Yesenin’s feeling, which flared up sharply before everyone’s eyes, cannot be called anything other than love.
But that heavy love in which passion prevails. Yesenin gave himself to her without hesitation, without controlling his words and actions. However, there were few words - he did not know either English or French, and Isadora did not speak Russian well. But one of her first sayings about Yesenin was “”. And when he roughly pushed her away, she joyfully exclaimed: “Russian love!”
The seductress of many European celebrities with refined tastes and manners, the behavior of the explosive Russian poet with a golden-haired head was to her heart. And he, yesterday’s provincial peasant, the conqueror of the capital’s beauties, apparently wanted to reduce this refined woman, caressed by salon life, to the level of a village girl.
It was no coincidence that he called her “Dunka” behind her back among his friends. Isadora knelt before him, but he preferred the restless life between heaven and earth to her sweet captivity.
Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan - a love story In the Duncan mansion they practically did not know what water was - they quenched their thirst with French wines, cognac and champagne. The trip with “Dunka” abroad made a grave impression on Yesenin. The complacency of the well-fed, vulgar bourgeois, and against their background, the dancer, noticeably heavier from drunkenness, before our eyes - all this depressed Yesenin. After another scandal in Paris, Isadora imprisoned her “prince” in a private madhouse. The poet spent three days with the “schizos,” fearing for his sanity every second.
He develops persecution mania. In Russia, this disease will intensify, weakening the already too sensitive nervous psyche. Alas, even close people treated the poet’s illness as a manifestation of suspiciousness, another eccentricity.
Yes, Yesenin was, in fact, suspicious, afraid of syphilis, the scourge of troubled times, and every now and then he had his blood tested. But he was really being watched - he was surrounded by secret agents of the Cheka, he was often provoked into scandals and dragged to the police. Suffice it to say that in five years five criminal cases were opened against Yesenin, and recently he was wanted!
Diagnosis: persecution mania Dzerzhinsky’s favorite, the adventurer and murderer Blumkin, was waving a revolver in front of his nose, some people in black overtook him in the dark and demanded huge money in return for peace of mind, they stole his manuscripts, beat him and robbed him repeatedly. What about friends? It was they who pushed Yesenin to. They ate and drank at his expense, being jealous, they could not forgive Yesenin for what they themselves were deprived of - genius and beauty, just that. The fact that he scattered handfuls of gold from his sonorous soul.
He will plow the earth, write poetry
Yesenin’s lifestyle and creativity were completely alien to Soviet power. She was afraid of his colossal influence on an agitated society, on young people. All her attempts to reason with and tame the poet were unsuccessful.
Then the persecution began in magazines and at public debates, humiliation with the issuance of cut fees to him. The poet, aware of the uniqueness and power of his gift, could not bear this. His psyche was completely shaken; in the last year Yesenin experienced visual hallucinations.
What did he think shortly before his death, hiding in a Moscow clinic for the mentally ill from Themis, blinded by the Bolsheviks?
He was surrounded by secret agents of the Cheka, he was often provoked into scandals and dragged to the police
Even there he was besieged by countless creditors. And what lies ahead - poverty, because Yesenin still sent money to the village, supported his sisters, but where to lay his head? Not on prison bunks! Return to the village? Did Mayakovsky write: “he will plow the land, write poetry”?
No, Yesenin was poisoned by both fame and metropolitan life, and the poverty and greed of the peasants led him to despair. Although in Moscow he was gnawed by a terrible loneliness, aggravated by the close and idle attention of a public greedy for sensations. From this loneliness such painful forebodings were born:
I'm scared - because the soul is passing,
Like youth and like love.
He has already said goodbye to love and youth, is it really still necessary to part with his soul forever? Perhaps one of the main tragedies of Yesenin’s life is the loss of faith. He had no outside support, and he was losing confidence in his own abilities, being both mentally and physically ill by the age of 30.
Galina Benislavskaya - death
And yet there was support from the outside, but in December 1925 it also gave way. For five years, Galina Benislavskaya relentlessly followed Yesenin. His executor, keeper of the poet's manuscripts and cherished thoughts, she forgave him all his betrayals. And she always allowed the homeless poet to come to her, moreover, she looked for him all over Moscow when he disappeared from time to time. She pulled him out of the whirlpool of tavern life, for which Yesenin’s “friends” once nearly killed her.
But Benislavskaya could not forgive him for his marriage - already the fourth! - to Sophia, the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy (this marriage also ended in failure). That’s why Galina didn’t want to come to the sick poet in the clinic for a very important conversation. Perhaps she would have been able to protect her beloved Seryozha from a terrible act in the cold winter of 1925.
He has already said goodbye to love and youth; is he really yet to part with his soul?
After Yesenin’s death, a wave of suicides swept across Russia. But Galya wanted to live - in order to write the truth about her relationship with the great poet, in order to collect and prepare for publication all of Yesenin’s vast creative heritage. A year later this work was completed.
Then Benislavskaya came to Vagankovo, smoked a pack of cigarettes, wrote a farewell note on it and... She had to play Russian roulette to the bitter end, since there was only one bullet in the cylinder of her revolver. Near the Yesenin hill there are now two graves of the people closest to him: his mother and Galina.
VIDEO: Sergei Yesenin reads. Confession of a hooligan
But, like any creative person, Sergei Alexandrovich went through his own difficult and sometimes thorny path, which, obviously, influenced all of his work. What happened in Yesenin’s life that his lines still penetrate to the very heart? How did the poet begin his journey and how did it end? In order to answer all these questions, it is necessary to pay attention to the facts from the poet’s biography.
I have one more fun left...
There's only one thing left for me to do:Fingers in mouth - and a cheerful whistle.
Notoriety has spread
That I am a bawdy and a brawler.
Oh! what a funny loss!
There are many funny losses in life.
I'm ashamed that I believed in God.
It’s sad for me that I don’t believe it now.
Golden, distant distances!
Everyday death burns everything.
And I was rude and scandalous
To burn brighter.
The poet's gift is to caress and scribble,
There is a fatal stamp on it.
White rose with black toad
I wanted to get married on earth.
Let them not come true, let them not come true
These thoughts of rosy days.
But if the devils were nesting in the soul -
This means that angels lived in it.
It's for this fun that it's muddy,
Going with her to another land,
I want at the last minute
Ask those who will be with me -
So that for all my grave sins,
For disbelief in grace
They put me in a Russian shirt
To die under icons.
1923
One of the most popular poems by Sergei Yesenin, “I have only one game left,” is completely permeated with the poet’s mental torment. It is here that he talks about his failures in life, it is here that it is shown how he fell and rose. It is interesting that in this poem the poet justifies his constant drunkenness - he just wanted to “burn”, stand out from the crowd and be remembered by everyone around him.
The work is also permeated with boundless love for his own country, for its culture and life, but at the same time the poet says that he no longer believes in anything - complete disappointment, melancholy and sadness. Nevertheless, despite everything that happened in his life, despite all the festivities and rebellions, the poet declares that after his death he wants to remain faithful to his country - to die in a Russian shirt, surrounded by loved ones.
It is difficult to say what exactly was going on in the poet’s soul at the time of writing the work. One thing is obvious - already at that time he had a presentiment of his imminent death. Moreover, the year the work was written coincided with the most difficult period in the poet’s life, in which there were repressions, persecution, misunderstanding of the authorities, betrayal of influential patrons and rebellion against generally accepted morality.
Biography of Sergei Yesenin
Like most poets, Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was born into a very simple family, which was no different from the rest of the villagers. The family lived in the village of Konstantinovo, and on October 3, 1895, little Seryozha was born. It so happened that the future poet was raised not by his mother, but by the older generation - his beloved grandmother and grandfather. Sergei’s mother was forced to leave the village to earn money, because there was no decent and paid work in the village in those years. Even in early childhood, Sergei, under the guidance of his grandmother, became interested in poetry - the old woman knew a huge number of songs and poems, which was how she entertained the younger generation on quiet, dark evenings.
At some point, the poet, like his mother, realized that there were no prospects in the village, and already in 1912 he left his native village and, with chest pain, set off to conquer the capital. It is not surprising that the capital received the young and ambitious Sergei well - here he almost immediately got a paid job as a proofreader in a local printing house and received a unique opportunity for his time to read everything that came to hand and even what was practically unavailable. For a long time, Sergei strived to study and work, swallowing knowledge in batches. At the same time, he was an active participant in a literary organization, which often hosted thematic events that were interesting to Sergei.
It is not surprising that a monotonous and routine life did not suit Yesenin at all - already in 1914 the poet abandoned everything that surrounded him and decided to devote himself entirely to writing poems. In the same year, the poet goes to Petrograd - it is here that all literary life is in full swing, the entire elite gathers and the most large-scale creative events take place. Yesenin immediately becomes one of the most famous personalities in the poetic world, easily finding language with the movement of new peasant poets, who accept him into their circles.
He did not have the chance to roam around in Petrograd, because Sergei was drafted into the army, where his service was surprisingly easy thanks to his special talents - here he read poetry to the empress herself and her entire family. It is not surprising that the arrogant poet, who created for himself a special image of a hooligan and reveler, even in the company of the Great Empress, did not disdain swear words and directly declared his point of view, which simply shocked all listeners.
Yesenin's special image
Some may think that the poet was a noble reveler and spent his entire life in drinking and debauchery. In fact, biographers say that the poet’s festivities at first were nothing more than a well-planned image - the poet’s first popular poem was just hooligan, and the public happily latched on to this image. After leaving his native village, Yesenin practically did not drink alcohol and even scolded his neighbors who spent all their time drinking.
It is difficult to say how a well-thought-out image turned into real life - but every year Yesenin drank more and more, which his friends could not help but notice.
Women of Sergei Yesenin
From childhood, Sergei Alexandrovich was aware of his unusual natural beauty and used it all his life. The poet had no end to women and he took advantage of this - he played with them as he wanted and changed them like gloves. Nevertheless, the poet also had serious novels. Back in 1917, the poet met Zinaida Reich, with whom he married and had two children at once, but the poet’s move back to Moscow, to the very thick of literary life, separated the couple and Yesenin easily found a replacement for the lady of his heart.The pursuit of popularity and the move to Moscow coincided with the acquaintance of Nadezhda Volpin, who, like Reich, gave the poet a child. However, fame, which fell on the poet with more and more weight, constant nightly festivities in taverns and love for female attention, separated this couple.
Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin’s loudest and brightest romance was with the American popular dancer Isadora Duncan. This woman left a serious imprint on the poet’s life - she was the initiator of his world tour, in which, surprisingly, the poet drank a lot, partied and became rowdy. Duncan did not receive the attention she deserved, which made her very upset, and after returning from the tour the couple broke up forever without any unnecessary scandals or hysterics.
Death of a Poet
The life of the great creator did not last long and ended very tragically - on December 28, 1925, Yesenin was preparing to release his collected works, but was found hanged from a chimney in the Angleterre Hotel. Biographers are still arguing whether Yesenin’s death was a suicide, but many facts still speak of murder:The disorder in the room speaks either of the poet’s madness in his last hours, or of the presence of strangers;
The poet was clearly afraid that they would come for him;
The poet’s short stature simply could not allow him to hang himself from the high ceiling of the hotel.
Be that as it may, Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin left a noticeable mark on all Russian literature, which is why even today his popularity is growing - his poems are studied in school, films and TV series are made about him. The poet’s work has become an inspiration for many, and his life has become an example.
There's only one thing left for me to do:
Fingers in mouth - and a cheerful whistle.
Notoriety has spread
That I am a bawdy and a brawler.
Oh! what a funny loss!
There are many funny losses in life.
I'm ashamed that I believed in God.
It’s sad for me that I don’t believe it now.
Golden, distant distances!
Everyday death burns everything.
And I was rude and scandalous
To burn brighter.
The poet's gift is to caress and scribble,
There is a fatal stamp on it.
White rose with black toad
I wanted to get married on earth.
Let them not come true, let them not come true
These thoughts of rosy days.
But if the devils were nesting in the soul -
This means that angels lived in it.
It's for this fun that it's muddy,
Going with her to another land,
I want at the last minute
Ask those who will be with me -
So that for all my grave sins,
For disbelief in grace
They put me in a Russian shirt
To die under icons.
Analysis of the poem “I have only one fun left” by Yesenin
The last years of Yesenin's life were very difficult. The poet experienced difficulties in his personal life, and his conflict with the Soviet regime grew. The addiction to alcohol became an addiction, for which he was already forced to undergo treatment. Periods of lucidity alternated with severe depression. Paradoxically, at this time he creates beautiful poems. One of them is “I only have one fun left...” (1923).
Yesenin immediately declares his fame as a bawdy and brawler. His violent behavior when drunk was known throughout Moscow. “A cheerful whistle” is typical behavior for a poet who is already at a fairly mature age. But Yesenin doesn’t care at all anymore. He has crossed the line beyond which he can still stop. Having experienced a lot of suffering and failure, the poet lost hope for a better future. Comparing his notoriety to a “ridiculous loss,” he claims that he has lost much more in life.
The only thing that worries Yesenin is shame for his past faith in God. At the same time, he experiences bitterness from the fact that he has become an unbeliever. There is a deep philosophical meaning in this controversial statement. The pure and bright soul of the poet, faced with all the dirt and abomination of the world, was unable to give a worthy rebuff. Yesenin acted according to the principle: “Living with wolves means howling like a wolf.” But, having sunk to the very bottom, the poet realized that he had lost something very important, helping in life.
Yesenin claims that his crazy antics were aimed at “burning brighter.” A real poet should be visible to the whole world. His creativity is bound to ignite people's hearts. This is the only way to break through human indifference. In order to subtly feel the world around him, the poet’s soul must be full of contradictions. Along with the devils, there are certainly angels present.
Yesenin uses very vivid images to describe his highest calling - the wedding of a “white rose with a black toad.” He believes that he could not combine these completely opposite images, but he strived for this.
The poet's statements about a complete reassessment of his beliefs are known. He became the author of a number of works in which he denies patriarchy and religion and is a supporter of atheism and technological progress. But in the last lines of the poem “I only have one fun left,” it becomes clear what Yesenin hid deep in his soul, carefully kept from other people’s interference. The “hooligan’s” last wish is to die “in a Russian shirt under icons.” In this the poet sees redemption for all his sins.
“I have only one fun left...” Sergei Yesenin
There's only one thing left for me to do:
Fingers in mouth - and a cheerful whistle.
Notoriety has spread
That I am a bawdy and a brawler.Oh! what a funny loss!
There are many funny losses in life.
I'm ashamed that I believed in God.
It’s sad for me that I don’t believe it now.Golden, distant distances!
Everyday death burns everything.
And I was rude and scandalous
To burn brighter.The poet's gift is to caress and scribble,
There is a fatal stamp on it.
White rose with black toad
I wanted to get married on earth.Let them not come true, let them not come true
These thoughts of rosy days.
But if the devils were nesting in the soul -
This means that angels lived in it.It's for this fun that it's muddy,
Going with her to another land,
I want at the last minute
Ask those who will be with me -So that for all my grave sins,
For disbelief in grace
They put me in a Russian shirt
To die under icons.
Analysis of Yesenin’s poem “I have only one fun left...”
Life in Moscow radically changed Sergei Yesenin, who came to the capital as a simple village boy. However, after a few years he felt the taste of freedom and his first literary successes, acquired fashionable clothes and turned into a dandy. However, there was also the other side of the coin - a strong longing for his native village of Konstantinovo, which the young poet tried to drown out with the help of alcohol. Drunken fights, breaking dishes in restaurants, publicly insulting friends and complete strangers - all this became second nature to Yesenin. Having sobered up, he realized that he was behaving disgustingly, but he could no longer and did not want to change anything in his own life. At one of these moments of enlightenment, when the poet was undergoing treatment for alcohol addiction, his famous poem “I have only one fun left ...” was born, which today is known to many as a song included in the repertoire of various performers.
This work was written in 1923, several years before the tragic death of the poet. And between the lines you can read not only words of despair mixed with repentance, but also see that Yesenin considered his mission on this earth to be completed by that time. He really said goodbye to everything that was dear to him and prepared for death, realizing that a life consisting of continuous drunken brawls was not justified in any way. The poet is not embarrassed by the fact that he is a “bawdy and brawler”; moreover, he is indifferent to the opinions of others on this matter. Yesenin is much more concerned about saving his own soul, although he admits that he does not believe in God. Nevertheless, for a person who is ready to cross the last line, it is important to cleanse the soul of everything that has accumulated in it. Therefore, many consider this poem by Yesenin to be his dying confession, which is replete with revelations. Only now the poet repents not before the Almighty, but before ordinary people, submitting himself to the judgment of his readers and not counting on leniency at all. Explaining his behavior, the author notes: “And I was obscene and scandalous in order to burn brighter.” At the same time, the poet regrets that he never managed to “marry a white rose with a black toad... on earth.” The realization that it was impossible to change this world for the better with the help of poetry led Yesenin to despair. Tired of fighting for his ideals, he simply decided to leave everything as it was, asking his loved ones for only one thing - to put him “in a Russian shirt under the icons to die.”
