Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
While we’re at it, the cakewalk – ragtime’s close relative – makes an appearance in a relatively well-known poem by Nikolai Zabolotsky, The Signs of the Zodiac Are Fading, first published in 1929: Fat-bottomed mermaidsAre flying away straight into the sky,Arms sturdy like sticks,Breasts round like…
And all plants press themselves To the glue-like window-glass And with astonishment observe The grave of people’s reason. Zabolotsky, 1933
In the 1920s, Nikolai Zabolotsky was a member of a literary group called OBERIU–perhaps the last close circle of young innovators in Russian literature. None of the major OBERIUTs, except Zabolotsky, survived the 1940s: most died in confinement. NZ, too,…
Translate a poem, word by word, into another language and see if it still makes sense. If it does, that’s a good sign for the original thing; not a necessary or sufficient condition of its goodness, but a sign of…