What a night! I can't.
I can't sleep. So lunar.
It’s still as if I’m shore
Lost youth in my soul.
Friend of the cool years,
Don't call the game love
Let this moonlight be better
It flows towards me towards the headboard.
Let the distorted features
He outlines boldly, -
After all, you can’t stop loving,
How you failed to love.
You can only love once,
That's why you're a stranger to me,
That the linden trees beckon us in vain,
I plunge my feet into the snowdrifts.
Because I know and you know,
What is in this moonlight, blue
There are no flowers on these linden trees -
There is snow and frost on these linden trees.
What we fell out of love for a long time,
You are not me, but I am someone else,
And we both don't care
Play cheap love.
But still caress and hug
In the crafty passion of a kiss,
May your heart forever dream of May
And the one that I love forever.
Analysis of the poem “What a night! I can’t..." Yesenina
The last years of Yesenin’s life were marked by a deep spiritual crisis. The poet painfully searched for a way out of this difficult situation. Trying to isolate himself from his problems, he found solace in alcohol and promiscuous love affairs. S. Tolstaya, the granddaughter of the great writer, could be a real salvation for Yesenin. They met at the beginning of 1925. At first sight, Tolstaya fell madly in love with the scandalous poet, who reciprocated her feelings. Yesenin appreciated the attention and care with which the woman treated him. He hoped that with her help he could get rid of his addiction and finally find peace. But even living together and officially getting married changed little. The poet's sober and fruitful lifestyle alternated with days of heavy drinking. After one of the most terrible events in November 1925, Yesenin, under pressure from his wife and close friends, went to a psychiatric clinic for treatment. In it he wrote the poem “What a night! I can’t…”, which is dedicated to S. Tolstoy. The poet suffers from insomnia and reflects on his feelings for his wife.
Contemporaries recalled that Tolstaya idolized the poet. Many dissuaded her from marriage, pointing out that Yesenin was already incorrigible. But she hoped for the power of her love, which would bring them both happiness. In the poem, the poet addresses his last wife with very bitter and offensive words. He admits that this whole wedding thing was just a game from the very beginning. Yesenin knew how devoted the woman was to him. Therefore, he declares that she will no longer be able to stop loving him. At the same time, he considers her feeling to be unreal (“you failed to love”). The poet expresses the idea that love for a person comes “only once” in life. It is already known about his countless novels. Tolstaya was also married at the time she met Yesenin.
The poet traditionally turns to images of nature. The couple created in their imagination an illusory picture of a new spring associated with the May call of the linden trees. But “moonlight” dispelled this fantastic image, showing that there were “not flowers” on the linden trees, but only “snow and frost.” Therefore, Yesenin calls his last love “inexpensive.” Receiving the hot caresses of his wife, he still turns to the past in his soul. In the finale, the poet hints that he is still devoted to his first and only love. He probably means A. Sardanovskaya.
“What a night! I can’t..." Sergei Yesenin
What a night! I can't.
I can't sleep. So lunar.
It’s still as if I’m shore
Lost youth in my soul.Friend of the cool years,
Don't call the game love
Let this moonlight be better
It flows towards me towards the headboard.Let the distorted features
He outlines boldly, -
After all, you can’t stop loving,
How you failed to love.You can only love once,
That's why you're a stranger to me,
That the linden trees beckon us in vain,
I plunge my feet into the snowdrifts.Because I know and you know,
What is in this moonlight, blue
There are no flowers on these linden trees -
There is snow and frost on these linden trees.What we fell out of love for a long time,
You are not me, but I am someone else,
And we both don't care
Play cheap love.But still caress and hug
In the crafty passion of a kiss,
May your heart forever dream of May
And the one that I love forever.
Analysis of Yesenin’s poem “What a night!” I can't…"
In the last year of his life, Sergei Yesenin no longer hid his feelings and wrote openly about what was painful in his soul. Probably for this reason, he moved further and further away from his colleagues, who, for the sake of the new government, glorified collectivization and advocated building socialism. Yesenin was so far from all this that he repeatedly became the object of criticism. However, this did not bother him at all, because the poet had a presentiment of his imminent death. He understood that physical death certainly follows the destruction of the soul, and there is very little time left until this moment.
About a month before his death, Yesenin wrote the poem “What a night! I can’t…”, in which he mentally returned to his past and suddenly clearly realized that he could no longer change anything in his own life. He repeatedly tried to escape from himself and even got married for the third time, trying to get rid of the oppressive feeling of loneliness. However, he very soon realized that his marriage to Sofia Tolstoy was a mistake. The poem is dedicated to the relationship with this woman, in which the poet openly admits that “we fell out of love a long time ago, you are not me, but I am someone else.” He does not try to find an answer to the question of why, then, at this very moment he is next to a woman who is completely indifferent to him. But at the same time he understands that his young wife does not need him at all, and her feigned tenderness is as deceptive and false as the linden trees outside the window, on whose branches instead of fragrant flowers lies the first November snow.
“You can only love once, that’s why you’re a stranger to me,” the poet admits, but at the same time he cannot and does not want to force himself to break this vicious circle and change his own life. And Yesenin doesn’t see the point in doing this, believing that it is much simpler and more common to “play cheap love” than to try to truly love. And on this night, when the memories of his youth came flooding back to him, the poet dreams of only one thing: “Let my heart forever dream of May and the one that I love forever.”
Who is this mysterious stranger? History is silent, although there are many versions about who exactly is the secret lady of the poet’s heart. It is obvious that more than one of the ex-wives is not one of them. Researchers of Yesenin’s life and work are inclined to believe that we are talking about Anna Sardanovskaya, with whom the poet was in love in his youth, but was never able to admit it to his chosen one. Subsequently, Sardanovskaya got married and died during childbirth, which Yesenin learned about only a few years after her death.
“What a night! I can’t..." Sergei Yesenin
What a night! I can't.
I can't sleep. So lunar.
It’s still as if I’m shore
Lost youth in my soul.
Friend of the cool years,
Don't call the game love
Let this moonlight be better
It flows towards me towards the headboard.
Let the distorted features
He outlines boldly, -
After all, you can’t stop loving,
How you failed to love.
You can only love once,
That's why you're a stranger to me,
That the linden trees beckon us in vain,
I plunge my feet into the snowdrifts.
Because I know and you know,
What is in this moonlight, blue
There are no flowers on these linden trees -
There is snow and frost on these linden trees.
What we fell out of love for a long time,
You are not me, but I am someone else,
And we both don't care
Play cheap love.
But still caress and hug
In the crafty passion of a kiss,
May your heart forever dream of May
And the one that I love forever.
Analysis of Yesenin’s poem “What a night!” I can't…"
In the last year of his life, Sergei Yesenin no longer hid his feelings and wrote openly about what was painful in his soul. Probably for this reason, he moved further and further away from his colleagues, who, for the sake of the new government, glorified collectivization and advocated building socialism. Yesenin was so far from all this that he repeatedly became the object of criticism. However, this did not bother him at all, because the poet had a presentiment of his imminent death. He understood that physical death certainly follows the destruction of the soul, and there is very little time left until this moment.
About a month before his death, Yesenin wrote the poem “What a night! I can’t…”, in which he mentally returned to his past and suddenly clearly realized that he could no longer change anything in his own life. He repeatedly tried to escape from himself and even got married for the third time, trying to get rid of the oppressive feeling of loneliness. However, he very soon realized that his marriage to Sofia Tolstoy was a mistake. The poem is dedicated to the relationship with this woman, in which the poet openly admits that “we fell out of love a long time ago, you are not me, but I am someone else.” He does not try to find an answer to the question of why, then, at this very moment he is next to a woman who is completely indifferent to him. But at the same time he understands that his young wife does not need him at all, and her feigned tenderness is as deceptive and false as the linden trees outside the window, on whose branches instead of fragrant flowers lies the first November snow.
“You can only love once, that’s why you’re a stranger to me,” the poet admits, but at the same time he cannot and does not want to force himself to break this vicious circle and change his own life. And Yesenin doesn’t see the point in doing this, believing that it is much simpler and more common to “play cheap love” than to try to truly love. And on this night, when the memories of his youth came flooding back to him, the poet dreams of only one thing: “Let my heart forever dream of May and the one that I love forever.”
Who is this mysterious stranger? History is silent, although there are many versions about who exactly is the secret lady of the poet’s heart. It is obvious that more than one of the ex-wives is not one of them. Researchers of Yesenin’s life and work are inclined to believe that we are talking about Anna Sardanovskaya, with whom the poet was in love in his youth, but was never able to admit it to his chosen one. Subsequently, Sardanovskaya got married and died during childbirth, which Yesenin learned about only a few years after her death.
