There were many of us on the boat; Some strained the sail, others pressed together, powerful oars deep into the depths. In silence, bow down on the helm, our clever helmsman. In silence the heavy boat steered; And I, full of carefree faith, I sang to the swimmers... Suddenly the bosom of the waves was crushed by a noisy whirlwind... Both the feeder and the swimmer died! - Only I, the mysterious singer, thrown ashore by a thunderstorm, I sing the old hymns And my wet robe Dry land in the sun under a rock.
The verse “Arion” was written on the third day after the anniversary of the execution of the Decembrists.
Pushkin based the poem on the famous ancient myth about the ancient Greek poet and singer, who possessed such a high art of singing and playing the lyre that when, fleeing from the shipmen who were encroaching on his life, he threw himself into the sea, a dolphin that swam up took him on its back and carried him out unharmed to the shore.
Pushkin decisively changed the situation of the ancient legend. Pushkin's singer on the canoe is surrounded by friends, not hostile shipmen.
The heroes of the poem are swimmers who set off on a journey. Everyone on the ship has their own job: “some strained the sail, others pushed powerful oars deep into the depths…” The shipmen overcome obstacles together, they are led by a “clever helmsman,” and the hero, “full of careless faith,” sings to them, confident that his talent, his songs help swimmers in their difficult work. The lyrical hero, trusting, open, free, is certainly very close to the author. Pushkin also “sang, full of carefree faith,” not knowing about the impending uprising, about the plans of its leaders, not knowing what kind of “voyage” his friends were preparing.
The central event of the poem is the “noisy whirlwind” that crashed the ship, taking the lives of both the helmsman and the swimmers. This is a metaphorical image of the Decembrist uprising and its defeat. For Pushkin, the events of 1825 were a tragedy, a storm, a shipwreck. Just like the poet, Arion escaped death in the storm; he was “thrown ashore by a thunderstorm.” But this accident did not break the hero, did not force him to renounce his friends. “I sing the same hymns” - these words contain both loyalty to the Decembrists and loyalty to one’s convictions, faith in justice.
To be an underground poet was much more fitting for Pushkin than to be a pillar of officialdom. Konstantin Somov. Portrait of A.S. Pushkin. 1899. State Museum of A.S. Pushkin
There were many of us on the boat;
Others strained the sail,
Others unanimously resisted
The oars are powerful deep into the depths. In silence
Leaning on the steering wheel, our helmsman is smart
The heavy boat sailed in silence;
And I am full of careless faith -
I sang to the swimmers... Suddenly the bosom of the waves
A noisy whirlwind crushed on the fly...
Both the feeder and the swimmer died! –
Only me, the mysterious singer,
thrown ashore by a thunderstorm,
I sing the same hymns
And my wet robe
I dry myself in the sun under a rock.
Poem by A.S. Pushkin with the name "Arion" - 1826.
I don’t know how things stand with this now, but when I was a schoolboy (in the 1970s), we were forced to memorize this poem and recite it in front of the class: each student in turn came to the board and recited it.
Its meaning was explained as follows: this is an allegory: “we are on the boat” - the Decembrists; “a storm that came” - the Nikolaev reaction; “I sing the same hymns” - I remain faithful to the ideals of Decembrism.
2. In fact, the story about Arion in the original is significantly different than what was reported by A. Pushkin.
Here, for example, is what Herodotus says about this (for ease of reading, I divided his text into paragraphs):
"23. (...) Arion from Methymna was carried out of the sea by Tenar on a dolphin. He was an incomparable lyre player of his time, and, as far as I know, he was the first to compose a dithyramb, gave it a name and trained a choir for production in Corinth.
24. This Arion spent most of his life with Periander and then decided to sail to Italy and Sicelia. There he acquired great wealth, then wished to return back to Corinth.
He set off from Tarentum and, since he trusted no one more than the Corinthians, hired a ship from Corinthian sailors. And the shipmen decided [an evil deed]: to throw Arion into the sea on the open sea and take possession of his treasures.
Arion, having guessed their intention, began to beg to spare his life, offering to give up all his treasures. However, he failed to soften the shipmen. They ordered Arion either to take his own life in order to be buried in the ground, or to immediately throw himself into the sea.
In such a desperate situation, Arion nevertheless begged the shipmen (since this was their decision) to at least allow him to sing in full singer’s attire, standing on the rowers’ bench. He promised that, having sung his song, he would take his own life. Then the shipmen moved from the stern to the middle of the ship, rejoicing that they were about to hear the best singer in the world. Arion, dressed in the full attire of a singer, took the cithara and, standing at the stern, performed a solemn song. Having finished the song, he, in all his finery, rushed into the sea.
Meanwhile, the shipmen sailed to Corinth, and Arion, as they say, was picked up on the back of a dolphin and carried to Tenar. Arion went ashore and, in his singer’s outfit, went to Corinth. Upon arrival there, he told everything that had happened to him. Periander did not believe the story and ordered Arion to be taken into custody and not released anywhere, and to closely monitor the shipmen.
When they arrived in Corinth, Periander called them to him and asked what they knew about Arion. The shipmen replied that Arion was alive and well somewhere in Italy and they left him in Tarentum in complete safety.
Then Arion suddenly appeared in the very clothes in which he threw himself into the sea. The amazed shipmen could no longer deny their guilt, since they had been exposed.
This is what the Corinthians and Lesbians say. And on Tenar there is a small copper statue - a sacrificial gift from Arion - depicting a man on a dolphin.”
That is, either, if we continue to interpret Pushkin’s poem allegorically, it turns out that Pushkin meant something directly opposite to what the authors of the textbooks claimed: the Decembrists, it turns out, were robbers for him, in whom he, the “mysterious singer,” trusted; they tried to destroy him; but God saved him, and here he is still singing songs, and they are being led to a fair execution - that’s how it turns out!
Or one can - however, also to the horror of Pushkin scholars - assume that Pushkin in fact simply knew this story rather unsteadily, he only remembered that someone was sailing somewhere and then drowned, so...
So I guess.
3. Meanwhile, Arion himself, despite such amazing incidents that happened to him, is not a mythical character at all, but a completely real person.
According to the Brockhaus Encyclopedia, Arion’s especially great merits were in the development of the dithyramb genre, which is “a special type of ancient Greek lyric poetry that developed in connection with the Bacchic cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, named one of the epithets of this deity and reflecting the features of the god of wine, unbridled fun and spiritual suffering.
In accordance with the nature of the cult to which he primarily belonged, D., in the flowering time of his development, represented a harmonious combination of poetry, music, dance movements, and facial expressions; the text itself combined elements of lyricism, epic and drama, for there was a story about the adventures of the hero, lyrical outpourings about the events narrated, and a dramatic dialogue between the performers of the story.
The solemnity of the tone, which consisted in the selection of exquisite words and bold phrases, corresponded to the original purpose of D. - it serves as an expression of the festive mood of the admirers of Dionysus, which easily turned into a state of frenzy, uncontrollable joy or grief.
Thanks to the versatility of the content and the ease with which D.’s music, which dominated the text, adapted to new tastes and concepts, this type of lyricism, well known to Cicero and Horace, froze only with the death of the cult of which it was a part.”
4. The same Brockhaus reports about the role of Arion in the development of the dithyramb:
“The literary history of D. begins with the experiences of Arion, a native of Lesbos, rich in vineyards, who arrived in Corinth to the court of Periander (628–585) from southern Italy, where the memory of the Greek. Heroes were celebrated with great solemnity.
From that time on, poems were compiled by poets in compliance with the characteristic features in the poetic composition, in the selection of expressions and in musical accompaniment, and were assigned for the so-called mimic performance. Cyclic choirs on certain holidays of Dionysus, around the altar; The dithyrambic instrument was the flute.
D. The choir subsequently consisted of 50 people.
Arion was responsible for compiling choirs of satyrs, the closest companions of the deity, called goats (tragoi), hence the term trag-odia - song of goats, satyrs, as well as the extension of D. to other heroes and gods, although this latter was also attributed to the later poet, Las ; finally, the beginnings of tragedy should be dated to Arion in the sense that in D. the lyrical parts began to regularly alternate with the story of the luminary of the chorus (exarcwn) about the adventures of the hero.
In any case, D. plays an important role in the history of theater tragedy: he not only developed poetic forms suitable for ancient drama, but also prepared its stage setting to a large extent.”
5. It would also be best to cite here some other praise of Arion himself - I don’t have one.
I couldn’t find it either on the Internet or in the “Anthology of Ancient Literature” I borrowed from the library—it’s not there.
6. But the “Dictionary of Antiquity” explains why I could not find the praises of Arion himself. Explains it very simply and clearly:
“Nothing has survived from A.’s writings.”
7. As for Pushkin and his poem “Arion”, in my opinion, the poem is so-so. A scrappy sketch, and nothing more. Why they choose something like this from Pushkin to study in school, and not – – –, is difficult to understand.
But this is good.
It’s good because the school pushes any poetry into the students by force, of course<ближайший приличный синоним этого неологизма «искакашничает». – «НГ-EL»>, as soon as possible, and this is why I take such sketches from Pushkin, and not “The Wanderer” or something else like that - and it’s good: let<ближайший синоним «какашничают». – «НГ-EL»>.
This is not a pity!
8. Of course, it would be even better if Pushkin were banned altogether - for pornography, Russophobia, etc.
To be an underground poet, passed on from mouth to mouth, is, of course, much more fitting for Pushkin - like any other poet, for that matter - than to be a pillar of officialdom.
Well, yes, of course, unfortunately, -
Just a wonderful dream!
They, the bitches, almost completely managed to expropriate Pushkin from us, a fact.
To the best of our ability, we will carry out restitution in this essay.
"Arion" Alexander Pushkin
There were many of us on the boat;
Others strained the sail,
Others unanimously resisted
The oars are powerful in the depths. In silence
Lean on the steering wheel, our helmsman is smart
The heavy boat sailed in silence;
And I am full of careless faith, -
I sang to the swimmers... Suddenly the bosom of the waves
A noisy whirlwind crushed on the fly...
Both the feeder and the swimmer died! —
Only me, the mysterious singer,
thrown ashore by a thunderstorm,
I sing the same hymns
And my wet robe
I dry myself in the sun under a rock.
Analysis of Pushkin's poem "Arion"
The Decembrist uprising in 1825 forced Alexander Pushkin to rethink the role of poetry in public life. The author came to the conclusion that poems can become quite a powerful weapon in the hands of a poet if they contain a certain meaning. Thanks to this realization, in 1827 he wrote the poem “Arion,” dedicated to the Decembrists and telling about the events of two years ago.
Narrating the uprising, Pushkin resorted to the allegory technique, which was very common in those days.. The author took as the basis for his poetic narrative the ancient Greek myth of Arion - a famous singer who earned his living by traveling and performing lyrical ballads in front of noble audiences. According to legend, after one of his public performances, Arion was presented with a chest with countless treasures, with which the singer decided to go to the island of Corinth. However, the sailors, having learned about the contents of the chest, decided to drown Arion in the sea and take possession of his wealth. When the poet was thrown overboard, a dolphin picked him up and thereby saved the life of Arion, who then told the public his sad and amazing story.
Identifying himself with the ancient Greek singer, Pushkin deviated somewhat from the mythical plot in the poem “Arion”. According to his version, he was one of the members of the ship's crew, friendly and united by a common goal. “There were many of us on the boat,” this is how the poem begins, and its first phrase is an unambiguous hint that the crew of the ship is a secret society of future Decembrists who set off on a dangerous journey through the waves of life, preparing an attempt on the life of the Tsar and a change in the social system.
Arion in this team was assigned the role of a poet who, “full of careless faith,” sang his amazing songs to the swimmers. This phrase also reveals a very subtle allegory, since Pushkin was personally acquainted with many future Decembrists, and his work inspired them to take more decisive actions to overthrow the autocracy. Talking about how subsequent events developed, the author again departs from the mythological outline of the plot, noting that “suddenly the bosom of the waves was crushed by a noisy whirlwind.” As a result of the storm, “both the helmsman and the swimmer” died, and Arion himself was “thrown ashore by a thunderstorm,” but did not despair of what happened to him. “I sing the same hymns. And I rice my wet dry land in the sun under a rock,” the poet concludes the poem “Arion” with these lines.
If we analyze the ending of this work, the parallel with the events of 1825 again suggests itself. Indeed, Pushkin turned out to be one of the few friends of the Decembrists who, by a lucky chance, were “thrown ashore” and did not participate in the conspiracy. Mass arrests did not affect the poet, although dozens of representatives of the Russian aristocracy were executed or exiled to hard labor in Siberia. There are several versions that explain what happened. However, the most likely assumption is that the Decembrists, appreciating Pushkin’s literary gift, did not risk exposing him to danger, and therefore hid the date of the supposed uprising from the poet.
As a result, the events of 1825 only indirectly affected the poet. As a close friend of the Decembrists, he nevertheless came under suspicion and, to put it figuratively, was forced to “dry the rice,” i.e. prove their non-involvement in the uprising. However, the poet did not abandon his beliefs, as he directly stated in the poem “Arion”. He only became more cautious and judicious, realizing that as a poet he could bring much more benefit to his people, awakening people’s self-awareness with his subtle and not devoid of sarcasm poems.
Osip Mandelstam
The sensitive hearing strains the sail... (1910)
The sensitive hearing strains the sail,
The widened gaze becomes empty,
And the silence floats
A silent chorus of midnight birds.
I'm as poor as nature
And as simple as heaven
And my freedom is illusory,
Like midnight birds' voices.
I see a month without breath
And the sky, deader than canvas, -
Your world, painful and strange,
I accept, emptiness!
Mandelstam Osip Emilievich - poet, prose writer, essayist.
Osip Emilievich Mandelstam (1891, Warsaw - 1938, Vladivostok, transit camp), Russian poet, prose writer. Relations with his parents were very alienated, loneliness, “homelessness” - this is how Mandelstam presented his childhood in his autobiographical prose “The Noise of Time” (1925). For Mandelstam’s social self-awareness, it was important to classify himself as a commoner, a keen sense of injustice existing in society.
Mandelstam's attitude towards Soviet power since the late 1920s. ranges from sharp rejection and denunciation to repentance before the new reality and glorification of I.V. Stalin. The most famous example of denunciation is the anti-Stalin poem “We live without feeling the country beneath us...” (1933) and the autobiographical “Fourth Prose.” The most famous attempt to take power is the poem “If only I would take coal for the highest praise...”, to which the name “” was assigned. In mid-May 1934, Mandelstam was arrested and exiled to the city of Cherdyn in the Northern Urals. He was accused of writing and reading anti-Soviet poems. From July 1934 to May 1937 he lived in Voronezh, where he created a cycle of poems, “Voronezh Notebooks,” in which an emphasis on lexical vernacular and colloquial intonations is combined with complex metaphors and sound play. The main theme is history and the place of man in it (“Poems about the Unknown Soldier”). In mid-May 1937 he returned to Moscow, but he was forbidden to live in the capital. He lived near Moscow, in Savelovo, where he wrote his last poems, then in Kalinin (now Tver). At the beginning of March 1938, Mandelstam was arrested in the Samatikha sanatorium near Moscow. A month later, he was sentenced to 5 years in the camps for counter-revolutionary activities. He died of exhaustion in a transit camp in Vladivostok.
YURSKY, SERGEY YURIEVICH, (b. 1935), actor, director, writer, poet, screenwriter. People's Artist of the Russian Federation.
There were many of us on the boat;
Others strained the sail,
Others unanimously resisted
The oars are powerful in the depths. In silence
Leaning on the steering wheel, our helmsman is smart
The heavy boat sailed in silence;
And I am full of careless faith,
I sang to the swimmers... Suddenly the bosom of the waves
A noisy whirlwind crushed on the fly...
Both the feeder and the swimmer died! —
Only me, the mysterious singer,
thrown ashore by a thunderstorm,
I sing the same hymns
And my wet robe
I dry myself in the sun under a rock.
Analysis of the poem “Arion” by Pushkin
Pushkin dedicated most of his work to the Decembrists and their failed uprising. In 1827, on the two-year anniversary of the execution of the instigators of the uprising, he wrote the poem “Arion,” in which he described the famous event in allegorical form. The poet based the work on the ancient Greek myth about the famous singer, but significantly changed its content. Thus, Pushkin sought to hide from censorship the true meaning of the poem, which only sensitive people who shared his views should have guessed.
The poem is reminiscent of the works of ancient Greek authors due to the solemn style and use of outdated words and expressions (“boat”, “bosom of waves”, “whirlwind”), used in the description of heroic deeds and exploits.
In the image of the ship's crew, Pushkin means the Decembrists. Each of them was assigned a specific role in the uprising, like the various functions of sailors (“they strained the sail”, “they rested... the oars were powerful”). The poet gives a special place to the “clever helmsman,” who is directly responsible for the course of the ship. It is unknown who exactly he had in mind, since the Decembrists did not have a common leader. N. Muravyov and P. Pestel claimed this place.
Pushkin assigns himself a modest place as a “mysterious singer.” This statement can only be partially accepted. The accusatory works of the great poet inspired many people to revolt. The secrecy of his friends and sheer luck helped him avoid arrest and trial. Pushkin was not in the capital during the uprising, otherwise he would have shared the fate of all the Decembrists.
“Noisy whirlwind” symbolizes reprisals against the rebels. The “team” of the Decembrists was destroyed: the instigators were executed, the rest were sent into Siberian exile. Pushkin, having avoided arrest, compares his rescue with an unexpected landing on the shore. He continues to sing “the old hymns,” that is, he does not renounce his convictions. But the “shipwreck” did not pass without a trace. The poet is under close attention of the authorities and censorship. Due to the constant threat of punishment, he is forced to act extremely carefully, that is, to dry the “wet robe.”
In the poem "Arion" Pushkin brilliantly used the technique of allegory. For the inexperienced reader, it appears to be simply a beautiful adaptation of an ancient plot. But for a more knowledgeable person, the poem is a strong anti-government statement. Although there are no negative assessments in it (“a noisy whirlwind” is a simple natural phenomenon), the poet’s great sympathy for the Decembrist movement and regret over its defeat are felt.
