Loving others is a heavy cross year. Poetic analysis "to love others is a heavy cross". Analysis of Pasternak's poem "To love others is a heavy cross"
“To love others is a heavy cross” Boris Pasternak
Loving others is a heavy cross,
And you are beautiful without convolutions,
And the charms of your secret
The solution to life is tantamount to.In the spring, the rustle of dreams is heard
And the rustle of news and truths.
You are from a family of such foundations.
Your meaning, like air, is disinterested.Easy to wake up and see
Shake verbal rubbish from the heart
And live without clogging in the future,
All this is not a big trick.
Analysis of Pasternak's poem "To love others is a heavy cross"
The personal life of Boris Pasternak was full of fleeting novels and hobbies. However, only three women were able to leave an indelible mark on the poet's soul and evoke a feeling that is commonly called true love. Boris Pastrenak married quite late, at the age of 33, and the young artist Evgenia Lurie became his first wife. Despite the fact that the spouses were crazy about each other, quarrels constantly broke out between them. The chosen one of the poet turned out to be a very hot-tempered and wayward lady. Plus, she considered it below her dignity to engage in household arrangements while another unfinished painting was waiting for her on the easel. Therefore, all household chores had to be taken over by the head of the family, who in a few years family life learned to cook, wash and clean perfectly.
Of course, Boris Pasternak and Evgenia Lurie had a lot in common, but the poet dreamed of family comfort and that there would always be a common person devoid of creative ambitions. Therefore, when in 1929 he was introduced to the wife of his friend pianist Heinrich Neuhaus, he fell in love with this modest and sweet woman literally from the first moments. During one of his visits to a friend, Boris Pasternak read several of his poems to Zinaida Neuhaus, but she honestly admitted that she did not understand anything in them. Then the poet promised that he would write especially for her in a simpler and more accessible language. At the same time, the first lines of the poem “To love others is a heavy cross” were born, which were addressed to the legal wife. Developing this theme and referring to Zinaida Neuhaus, Pasternak noted: "And you are beautiful without convolutions." The poet hinted that the subject of his hobbies is not distinguished by high intelligence. And it was precisely this that most of all attracted the author in this woman, who was an exemplary hostess and fed the poet with excellent dinners. As a result, what should have happened happened: Pasternak simply recaptured Zinaida from her lawful spouse, divorced his own wife and remarried the one who for many years became his true muse.
In this woman, the poet admired her simplicity and artlessness. Therefore, in his poem, he noted that "the charm of your secret is equivalent to the solution of life." With this phrase, the author wanted to emphasize that it is not the mind or natural attractiveness that makes a woman beautiful. Her strength lies in the ability to live according to the laws of nature and in harmony with the surrounding world. And for this, according to Pasternak, it is not at all necessary to be an erudite person who is able to support a conversation on philosophical or literary themes. It is enough just to be sincere, to be able to love and sacrifice yourself for the sake of loved one. Addressing Zinaida Neuhaus, the poet writes: "Your meaning, like air, is disinterested." This simple phrase full of admiration and admiration for a woman who does not know how to pretend, flirt and conduct secular conversations, but is pure in thoughts and deeds. Pasternak notes that it is not difficult for her to wake up in the morning and “shake the verbal rubbish out of her heart” in order to start the day from scratch, joyfully and freely, “to live without clogging in the future.” It was this amazing quality that the poet wanted to learn from his chosen one, and it was precisely this spiritual purity, poise and prudence that he admired.
At the same time, the author noted that it was not at all difficult to love such a woman, since she seemed to be created for the family. Zinaida Neuhaus became for him an ideal wife and mother, who won his heart with selfless care for loved ones and the desire to always come to the rescue in difficult times.
However, touching affection for his wife did not prevent Boris Pasternak in 1946 from experiencing love agony again and having an affair with an employee of the magazine " New world» Olga Ivanskaya. But even the news that his chosen one was expecting a child did not affect the poet's decision to keep his own family, in which he was truly happy.
In memory of Evgeny Borisovich Pasternak
Loving others is a heavy cross,
And you are beautiful without convolutions,
And the charms of your secret
The solution to life is tantamount to .
In the spring, the rustle of dreams is heard
And the rustle of news and truths.
You are from a family of such foundations.
Your meaning, like air, is disinterested.
Easy to wake up and see clearly
Shake verbal rubbish from the heart
And live without clogging in the future.
All this is not a big trick.
1931
Addressed to the new lover and future second wife of the poet, Zinaida Nikolaevna ( Eremeeva-Neuhaus-Pasternak), this poem (hereinafter - LI) largely bears the imprint of her image. As you know, Zinaida Nikolaevna immediately told Pasternak that she did not really understand his early poems; he replied that he was "ready for [her] to write easier". one
Pasternakovskayathe lyrics of the early 1930s really showed a new manner aimed at unheard of simplicity, and LI, written fundamentally "simple", develops the idea that truth lies in an ingenuous liberation from painful and unnecessary complexity. But, updating, voicing the rustle of the news, the manner remains recognizable Pasternak, initially “difficult”, and, perhaps, the main secret of LI is the combination of two opposite techniques.
1. Dictionary and grammar. Simplicity is implemented in LI primarily at the lexical level. There are no foreign words here (such as vin gai, vin triste, homo sapiens), nor barbarisms á la Northerner (such as dressing table, cocoa, blinds; the only borrowing secret, - has long been part of the everyday vocabulary), nor the terminological rarities, archaisms and dialectisms (such as bring, strong darkness, highway, shoulder blades [pea]), requiring subpage author's explanations. Even words from spiritual semantics ( cross, secret, solution, fundamentals, truths, equal to, see the light) are emphatically elementary, and deliberately simple vocabulary ( rubbish, shake) does not go beyond the colloquial norm.
Extremely simple, especially in comparison with early poems, and syntax. All sentences are simple or compound, but not compound. The peaks of "subordination" are the comparative turnover like an air and adverbial turnover without clogging pertaining to the repertoire simple sentence and expressing precisely the rejection of everything superfluous. Another complication, but again within the boundaries of simple syntax, is the use of infinitives, once in the 1st line, and then four times in the III stanza. This is also an example of combining extremes, not only simplicity and complexity, but also statics and dynamics. 2
The point is that the LI text is constructed as a system of static identities. All predicates are nominal: each consists of an omitted copula [ there is], expressing the fact of predication, and the nominal part - a noun or an adjective ( cross, beautiful, secret, equivalent, audible, easy, cunning) that carries the semantic predicate itself. Infinitive construction L jubilee [there is]cross immediately sets a compromise between the dynamic verbal beginning and the static nominal. The main lyrical verb of the poem plays the role of the subject, but it also appears in an imperfect form and in the form of an indefinite mood, functionally close to the verbal name and meaning not an action or event, but the state of the subject.
In the subsequent lines of stanza I, static and generalization are fixed, and in stanza II, a dynamizing revival begins - spring comes, everything rustles, rustles, and is renewed. However, this coming into motion is packaged in the format of a nominal predicate with a passive, imperfect participial form ( heard), and into fixed, although originally predicate nouns ( rustle, rustle, news). In the second half of the stanza the movement stops and the panchronic ones return truth.
In stanza III, the awakening motif is picked up again. The text is saturated with verbs, which, while remaining infinitives and subjects, are decisively activated. Firstly, they now appear mainly in the forms of the perfect form, denoting processes directed towards the goal and even one action ( wake up and wake up;shake out). Second, the infinitives move from their initial position (which be in love occupied in I) in the final - under a logical accent and rhyme.
But after this surge of activity, which the indefinite inclination simultaneously restrains and hypostasizes, proclaiming a new program of life 3 , calmness sets in. It is first introduced by two non-personal forms of an imperfect kind, projecting into the again panchronic future that true state, which, having been achieved ( live), will only require maintaining ( without clogging). Complete panchronic calm is marked (in the last line of the poem) by the return of an elementary simple sentence with an omitted connective.
The interweaving of simplicity and complexity is also evident in the way syntactic expansion is managed by independent sentences, without resorting to hypotaxis - the use of clauses. four
I stanza contains a three-term allied composition (with unions BUT and And), and the third sentence is equal in length to the sum of the first and second, giving the classical summation (1+1+2).
The II stanza again consists of three independent sentences, but with a mirror inversion of the length of the parts (2 + 1 + 1), and the first is formed by one predicate ( heard) with two homogeneous subjects.
In stanza III, the first sentence already captures three lines: all four infinitives are homogeneous subjects in it, and the nominal predicate is easily(contrasting in meaning to heavy from the initial string LI). This is followed by a one-line summarizing sentence (3 + 1 scheme), with its brevity echoing the simplification of syntax - the rejection of infinitive constructions.
All these expansions and contractions are carried out strictly within the framework of entire stanzas and lines - without enjambmans, which are actually frequent in Pasternak. A special "modest virtuosity" consists precisely in saturating the text with a variety of rhetorical moves, but without rhythmic-syntactic meanders and tricks. We have already considered some of its aspects: work with simple and compound sentences of different lengths, with homogeneous subjects to one predicate, with nominal predicates and infinitive subjects, with comparative and participle turns. Others, in particular, the hidden complexity/dynamics of a number of predicates, we touched only briefly and now we will dwell on them in more detail.
2. Logic, semantics. As it was said, the nominal part of the nominal predicate is a predicate, that is, some correlation of concepts. If the subject is a verb (for example, be in love), two predicates turn out to be related.
Loving others is a heavy cross which means, translated into the language of logical prose, something like this:
When someone loves a person (woman) of a certain type, this is tantamount to the fact that the lover undertakes to suffer hard (from this person / such love).
The first predicate is expressed quite directly - by a verb, albeit in a difficult, infinitive form, the second - by the construction Adjective + Noun, that is, syntactically simple, semantically and more difficult - due to the internal complexity of the phrase heavy cross, and more compact due to its idiomatic nature.
In the 2nd line, the situation seems to be simplified - the role of the subject is taken over by the personal pronoun you. But at the same time, it becomes more complicated, because to a simple nominal predicate beautiful joins definition without convolutions, which is not simple in form (a noun with a preposition) and non-standard in meaning. The formula "to be beautiful without convolutions" links two very heterogeneous predicates with each other and forms a phrase that is much more complex than the usual one. heavy cross from the 1st line . However, this bold turn is partly prepared: the pretext without explicates the negation implied in the semantics of the word other and announced by the opposing alliance BUT. 5
The next sentence is both transparent in structure and marks a new level of logical complexity. Transparency is provided by lexical synonymy ( secret - clue) and syntactic symmetry (which is slightly violated only by the "extra" pronoun your in the subject group):
Subject: charms... secret(noun + inconsistent def. in gen. n hell.) - Nominal Predicate: [ there is] is tantamount to(brief adj.) - Supplement: unraveling life(noun + inconsistent def. in gen. n hell.).
The fact that the bundle [ there is], still omitted, is spoken out loud here in the form of a full-fledged adjective is tantamount to- a compound word that divides into two roots exactly in the middle.
And thanks to its internal form, built on the idea of equality, logical equivalence, this word not only verbalizes the link, but also literally embodies it. Without such verbalization, the equation would have looked shorter, but it would have sounded heavier, more tongue-tied, in the spirit of the early Pasternak, something like *AND
charms of your secret - the key to life without effort.
All this simplifying technique does not obscure the fact that we are talking about high philosophical matters, about the essence of beauty and the meaning of life, that a predicate from the logico-mathematical dictionary is introduced into the text ( to be equivalent) and that a two-story equation is built, a kind of syllogism:
If the secret Ha (your beauty) is equal to the clue Y-a ( life), then therefore X ( your charm) = Y-y ( life), that is You = life, which was required to be proved (and in one form or another is affirmed in LI and other verses of the "Second Birth").
Not indifferent to the semantics of the poem and the second root of the compound word is tantamount to: an indication of the strength exuded by the heroine and guaranteeing a saving transition from heaviness at the beginning of stanza I to lightness at the beginning of III. 6
The variation of simple identities continues in the second half of stanza II with a more verbose turn: be from a family disagree . def. in the genus n hell. pl. h. ( fundamentals). philosophical basics(and Pasternak was engaged in philosophy in his youth) are simplified by transferring to the home plane (it’s about marriage, and the poet is generally partial to kinship names), and instead of abstract synonyms (such as number, class, set, category, not uncommon in Pasternak) appears foundation family, and exactly such, as it should, - unlike those other who were given a waiver.
The last line of stanza II, comparing meaning beloved with vital, but as if devoid of properties air, continues to develop the apophatic theme of negative virtues without convolutions and closes with an adjective disinterested, which incorporated the preposition without in the form of an attachment . 7 Structurally, the two final lines of stanza II are relatively simple - there is some syntactic lull before the take-off coming in stanza III, followed by a final calm.The final line is completely freed from predicate complexities as part of the subject - it becomes a generalized indefinite AT this is, pronoun summing up a series of homogeneous infinitives. And the simplest combination Adjective + Noun (such as the initial heavy cross), sounding unpretentious in meaning and colloquial in style.
3. Connotations.The leitmotif theme of simplicity appears in the characteristic turn of "lightness, non-heaviness, non-difficulty", sounding mutely in a series of "negative" motives, cf .:
rejection of the heavy cross;
redundancy of convolutions;
light-hearted equating the secret of feminine beauty with the solution of life;
the ephemerality of the rustle of dreams and other spring rustles;
incorporeality/disinterestedness of air;
involuntary morning awakening;
impliedproblem-free transition from physical awakening to existential insight;
purely mechanical ejection of litter and subsequent preventive protection against it;
insignificant scale of an already effort-saving cunning.
"Lightness" breathes both the deliberate simplicity of the text and some of its ambiguity. clumsy turnover without convolutions echo:
ambiguous joint easy to wake up, conceived by some readers as a Verb + Circumstance (such as wake up early, instantly, without difficulty), and not as Subject + Predicate (such as P to grow up at dawn is not difficult);
ambiguous sequence not a big trick, which can be interpreted as little trick, that is, the approval of some little tricks, while the idea is meant - and even the language formula itself Little wisdom...;
contradiction between failure from convolutions and acceptance tricks even on a purely verbal level.
However, all these roughnesses organically correspond to the defiantly improvisational style that Pasternak first practiced in complicated tongue-tied forms, and since the 1930s - in the spirit of colloquial freedom from the conventions of written speech. eight
4. Genre.The poem begins with a rhetorical rejection of certain other, which is contrasted with the traditional addressee of the poem in the 2nd person singular. h. It you and its possessive forms your, your will dominate in the first two stanzas, but will completely disappear in the generalizing third.The attitude towards generalization and going beyond narrow personal limits makes itself known already in stanza II: in its first half you is absent, and only typical spring changes appear, and in the second, although you and your meaning return, but you dissolves in a multitude of correct basics. Identity blurring you contributes to the fundamentally negative way of characterizing it: without, demon-, you-, not, not. 9 And in the III stanza there is no you in general, there are no more, just as there are no references to love, which is echoed by the predominance of the indefinite mood of verbs. The poem, as it were, enters the expanse of general truths about life, leaving behind declarations of love for a particular woman.
In this light, of particular interest is the meaning of the word other in the 1st line. I never thought about it before referential sense, and thinking now, I would attribute it to the first wife of the poet Evgenia Vladimirovna Lurie-Pasternak. 10 If this is true, then the expression other sounds, on the one hand, as a euphemism softening the awkwardness (say, it’s not about her alone), and on the other, like a rude, Soviet-type dismissive gesture ( Others are unaware...). But in the light of the generalizing rhetoric of LI as a whole, leaving in the finale from mentioning the addressee of the poem, my first reaction seems to be more adequate: it is not only about Evgenia Vladimirovna at the beginning, not only about Zinaida Nikolaevna in the middle, and not even about love at all at the end .
It can be said that LI oscillates between two genres of lyrical discourse beloved by the poet: poems about "You" - declarations of love, whether to a woman or a Christmas tree, in the format: * You - [are] so-and-so... 11, and poems about "It" - definitions of some more abstract entities in the format: *This is [is] such and such. 12 In comparison with both groups of texts, LI is extremely balanced, free from exclamations, cumbersome enumerations and anjambmans, very reasonable and axiomatic in presenting its system of equations. And connecting to this in the final infinitive series, it also gravitates towards the third typical Pasternak format: program of action in infinitives. 13
5. Phonetics.In developing Pasternak themes of the unity of the universe, varied by diverse manifestations of contact, the most important place is occupied by alliterations and paronomasias, clearly demonstrating phonetic similarity, almost identity different words, and hence the corresponding objects. It is only natural that in a poem, the leitmotif of which is the equating of various entities according to the principle “this is the same as that” 14, such a technique has found rich application. And indeed, the LI dictionary as a whole, and often individual lines, form a kind of sound continuum, where individual words come around in a variety of ways and, as it were, overflow into each other. But at the same time, the poem retains an aura of transparent clarity, so different from the improvisational chaos of the poet's early poems (cf. the characteristic line And the chaos of thickets will splatter).
For example, let's sketch a picture of alliterations of the 1st stanza:
1st line: three t, two percussion and 15 ;
2nd: two and, two R , two h ;
3rd: three t, all three percussion e, including two after R ;
4th: two ra at the beginning of words , two h, three and, of which two are drums, three n.
In the future, this trend continues, only orchestration focuses on other leading sounds: on the consonant With and vowel about in stanza II and on consonants With, R and be and vowel e in III.
But the obvious repetitions of individual sounds do not give an idea of the resulting powerful system of alliterative connections between words throughout the entire space of the text. Here are some impressive chains:
ST: cross - charms - rustle - news - truths - disinterested - you-shake - cunning;
CH: beautiful - in the spring - dreams - news - basics - wake up - verbal;
RE: cross - beautiful - charms - secret - to see clearly - henceforth.
The chains, as is easy to see, intersect and even overlap, sometimes forming powerful clusters, for example, CRST: cross - secret - disinterested. The main network of echoes is made up of more sparse overdubs, with one or two common sounds, sometimes in a different order, and sometimes with voicing / deafening, so that a feeling is created not of a catchy equalization, but of some kind of blurred unity.
An example is a series of combinations h followed by a variable consonant ( c, d, n, d, r , s): and sv ilin - ra zg adke - zhi zn and - in zd wow - about sp et - and h s hearts, after which for the first and only time in the poem h finally appears separately, without an accompanying consonant: n e for quarreling.
And the previous combination h with the nearest sound With(in from the heart) sounds like summing up the rich system of parallels between these combinations h+ consonant and numerous combinations With+ consonant.
This overflow h in With begins in rhyme I stanza, where and h viline rhymes with equals With ilene, despite the two preceding the rhyming word h-the words : ra h nasty life h nor, but based on perfect With on the and prele With ti With secret; it is effectively served at the beginning of stanza III: a pair of wake up - wake up, where in a similar morphological and phonetic context With(n ) as it goes into h (R ).
A special layer of “weaving of words” forms a pull through the entire text of sound n , interesting in terms of semantic interpretation. An abundance of references consonant n due to a number of factors:
its role as an adjective suffix ( beautiful, verbal, equal- 16 ) , what in short forms puts it at the end of the word ( heard) and therefore sometimes to the rhyme ( is tantamount to, disinterested);
its role as the main consonant of the negative particle ( without clogging, not big) and the adversative pronoun ( other);
its presence in a considerable number of full-valued words ( convolutions, life, spring, news, truths, dreams, basics, wake up).
Together, this contributes to the crystallization around n semantic halo associated with "equating adjective» (= function of nominal predicates) with negativity and with the cluster « without convolutions - life - spring - news - dreams / awakening - basics - truths - cleanliness».
It is worth emphasizing that against the background of Pasternak's early poems, this paronomastics looks rather modest. It has been carried out rather cautiously and is largely extinguished by the simplicity and transparency of other aspects of the structure.
6. Rhyme.At first glance, the rhyme structure of LI is more or less simple. Before us are three quatrains of 4 st. iambic with cross rhyming MF. Rhymes are sometimes exact ( dreams/basics;to see / henceforth), sometimes not quite ( cross/secret), often deep and rich ([ Shoro ]X dreams/[still]X fundamentals; shake out /cunning).
Deviations from this simplicity are also largely traditional for Pasternak and consist in making different rhyme pairs similar to each other, which increases the unity of the rhyme repertoire.
The rhymes of stanza I are weakly affected by this (except perhaps s/z presented in all four): they establish an almost complete initial difference between pairs, but will be retroactively involved in the process of mutual fertilization.
Rhymes of stanza II are united by common sounds With and n, and With inherited from most of the rhymes of stanza I, and n- from her even rhymes; in addition, even rhymes ( true/disinterested) inherit t from odd rhymes of stanza I ( cross/secret); inherited from stanza I and grammatical relationships within even rhymes convolutions / equivalent and true/disinterested(n. femin. r. in genus. pad. pl. / briefly adj. husband. R. units hours in them. pad .), which works on the overall symmetry of the structures and maintains the proportion the secret of charm \u003d the clue to life.
In stanza III, the common part of all rhyming words forms a cluster h /With, R, t , which picks up the rhyming material of certain rhymes from previous stanzas (cf. to see / henceforth With cross/secret, a shake out /cunning With true/disinterested).
The only block on which these rhyme rolls are put on is the rhyme on and in even - and, therefore, final - lines of all stanzas and on e in the odd lines of stanzas I and II. Rhymes on about in odd lines, II stanzas are thus a compositional turn to the side, with the return of the original scheme in the finale e-i-e-i, according to the principle thesis - antithesis - synthesis . The synthesis consists in the enrichment of the final rhymes outlined above, especially the even ones, with the sound material of the previous stanzas. Another detail that draws attention to the rhymes of the last stanza is the gradual softening t, inherited from the previous stanzas: the poem ends with a chord of four rhymes with [- be ]. 17
Long, unsettled chains of imprecise rhymes are a well-known trait Pasternak versification. 18 They can form continuous sequences or alternate with other rhymes. There are numerous cases when the same vowel (or consonant) is included in several rhyme series, forming a series of different, but “consonant”, rhymes, for example:
play - tear - epigraph - love ;
reasons - reason - lawns - horizon ;
choral - Molokan - picked up - to the clouds ;
in the face - slashing - towards the end - kissing ;
paschenkom - saving - boiling - (to) thicker .
In LI, such a free, sometimes to the point of disorderly, impulse is disciplined by the framework of a correct three-stanza composition, but the effect of free flow increases from stanza to stanza. Rhymes on and form a single imprecise chain: convolutions - equivalent - truths - disinterested - shake out - cunning; the first pair is connected with the second and andn , and the second and third i, s, t. Moreover, this chain also accumulates some elements from the first rhymes on e and thus partly crosses, at the level of consonants, with a parallel chain: cross - secret - see clearly - henceforth.
1. Anagrams?Anagrammatic interpretations of Pasternak's poems were offered repeatedly: in some lines the surname was read Bryusov, in others - Bach, third - Scriabin, fourth - the name Elena(Grapes), especially since Pasternak also has an acrostic MARINA TSVETAEVOY. I paid tribute to this in the analysis of the Neuhausian "Ballad", trying to see in the text an anagram of the name Harry. In the same place, I briefly pointed out the likelihood of a similar encryption in the “Second Ballad” (dedicated, in conjunction with the first, by Z. N. Neuhaus) to the name Zina- in lines with appropriate rhymes and alliterations ( birches and aspens - back - canvas - two sons - life is long at night...). 19
“I liked both poems terribly,” Zinaida Nikolaevna admitted. 20 It is possible that in a slightly later LI addressed to her, Pasternak used partly the same allusive rhyme (in and) and placed it in the strongest structural position. Some arguments in favor of this were, in fact, already stated above - when considering alliterative games with h , With and n and their combinations with other consonants. I will add that in the line And live without being clogged in the future, next to the verb live(referring to unraveling life) and the sequence of syllables NO FOR, that is, with a permutation, ZINA.
Unfortunately, these fascinating conjectures contradict the apparent shift of attention in the final stanza of LI from personalities to general truths, and are generally unprovable. Now, if we could find real evidence - let's say that in the home circle the poem was called nothing more than "Zina"! .. This would be the key to all the keys.
LITERATURE
Broitman S. N. 2007.Poetics of Boris Pasternak's book "My sister is life". Moscow: Progress-Tradition.
Gasparov M. L. 1997.Verse by B. Pasternak // He . Selected works. T. 3. About the verse. M.: Languages of Russian culture. pp. 502-523.
Zholkovsky A. K. 2011.Poetics of Pasternak. Invariants, structures, intertexts. M.: UFO.
Pasternak B. L. 2004. Full composition of writings. In 11 volumes / comp. and
The writing
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak is a remarkable poet and prose writer of the 20th century. He can be fully called an aesthete writer, subtly and deeply feeling beauty. He has always been a connoisseur of natural and pristine beauty, which, of course, was reflected in his work. And, as a vivid example of all of the above, I would like to pay special attention to such a poem by Pasternak as "To love others is a heavy cross ...".
The first thing that catches your eye in this work is the simplicity and lightness of the style. It is very short, consisting of only three quatrains. But in this brevity lies one of its greatest virtues. Thus, each word is, as it were, more valued, has greater weight and meaning. Analyzing the author's speech, one cannot but pay attention to the amazing naturalness of the language, simplicity and even some colloquialism. The literary and linguistic bar has been reduced to almost everyday speech, take at least such a phrase as "All this is not a big trick." Although there is also a bookish style, for example, the opening phrase of the work “To love others is a heavy cross.” And here I would like to note that this phraseological phrase contains a clear allusion to biblical motifs that are so frequent in the works of Boris Pasternak.
How can you determine the theme of this poem? It would seem that the work is an appeal of a lyrical hero to his beloved woman, admiration for her beauty:
Loving others is a heavy cross,
And you are beautiful without convolutions,
And the charms of your secret
The solution to life is tantamount to.
The question arises - what is the secret of the charm of his beloved? And then the writer gives us the answer: her beauty lies in her naturalness, simplicity (“And you are beautiful without convolutions”). The next quatrain takes us to a deeper semantic level of the work, to reflections on the essence, nature of beauty in general.
What is beauty according to Pasternak? This is natural beauty, without artificiality, without pomposity and frills. In this poem, we again encounter the so-called "theory of simplicity" of the poet, simplicity, which is the basis of life, of all things. And female beauty should not contradict, but organically fit into the overall huge and global picture of universal beauty, which all God's creatures equally possess. Beauty is the only and main truth in the poet's world:
In the spring, the rustle of dreams is heard
And the rustle of news and truths.
You are from a family of such foundations.
Your meaning, like air, is disinterested.
The last line of this quatrain is especially symbolic. How profoundly metaphorical is the expression "selfless air"! Thinking about it, you understand that nature is actually disinterested, it gives us the opportunity to breathe and, accordingly, live without asking for anything in return. So beauty, according to Pasternak, should be disinterested, like air, it is something that belongs to everyone equally.
In this poem, the poet delimits two worlds - the world of natural beauty and the world of people, everyday squabbles, "verbal rubbish" and petty thoughts. The image of spring as a time of rebirth and rebirth is symbolic: “In spring, the rustle of dreams and the rustle of news and truths are heard.” And the lyrical heroine herself is like spring, she is “from the family of such foundations”, she is like a fresh breath of the wind, she is a guide from one world to another, the world of beauty and naturalness. In this world there is only room for feelings and truths. Getting into it, it would seem, is easy:
Easy to wake up and see
Shake verbal rubbish from the heart
And live without clogging in the future,
All this is not a big trick.
Beauty is the key to this new and beautiful life, but is everyone able to see true beauty in simple and artless things?.. Is it possible for each of us to “wake up and see clearly”…
It should be noted the features of the author's presentation of the lyrical hero and the lyrical heroine of this poem. They seem to remain behind the scenes, they are unclear and vague. And each of us can involuntarily imagine himself and his beloved in the place of the heroes. Thus, the poem becomes personally meaningful.
Referring to the composition of the poem, it can be noted that the author chose a fairly easy-to-perceive meter (iambic tetrameter), which once again confirms his intention to emphasize the simplicity and uncomplicated form, which recedes before the content. This is also proved by the fact that the work is not overloaded with artificially created paths. Its beauty and charm is in its naturalness. Although it is impossible not to notice the presence of alliteration. “Rustle of dreams”, “rustling of news and truths” - in these words, the frequent repetition of hissing and whistling sounds creates an atmosphere of peace, silence, tranquility and mystery. After all, you can only talk about the main thing the way Pasternak does it - quietly, in a whisper ... After all, this is a secret.
Finishing my reflection, I involuntarily want to paraphrase the author himself: reading other poems is a heavy cross, but this is really “beautiful without convolutions”.
Loving others is a heavy cross,
And you are beautiful without convolutions,
And the charms of your secret
The solution to life is tantamount to.
In the spring, the rustle of dreams is heard
And the rustle of news and truths.
You are from a family of such foundations.
Your meaning, like air, is disinterested.
Easy to wake up and see
Shake verbal rubbish from the heart
And live without clogging in the future,
All this is not a big trick.
Analysis of the poem "To love others is a heavy cross" by Pasternak
B. Pasternak's work always reflected his personal feelings and experiences. He devoted many works to his love relationships. One of them is the poem "To love others is a heavy cross." Pasternak was married to E. Lurie, but his marriage could not be called happy. The poet's wife was an artist and wanted to devote her whole life to art. She practically did not do housework, putting him on her husband's shoulders. In 1929, Pasternak met his friend's wife, Z. Neuhaus. He saw in this woman an ideal example of the mistress of the family hearth. Literally immediately after they met, the poet dedicated a poem to her.
The author compares his love for his wife with carrying a "heavy cross". Art activities once brought them together, but it turned out that this was not enough for family life. E. Lurie, for the sake of writing a new picture, neglected her direct female duties. Pasternak had to cook and wash himself. He realized that two gifted people are unlikely to be able to create an ordinary cozy family.
The author contrasts his new acquaintance with his wife, and immediately points out her main advantage - "you are beautiful without convolutions." He hints that E. Lurie is well educated, you can talk with her on equal terms about the most complex philosophical topics. But "learned" conversations will not bring happiness in family life. Z. Neuhaus almost immediately admitted to the poet that she did not understand anything in his poems. Pasternak was touched by this simplicity and gullibility. He realized that a woman should be valued not at all for having a great mind and education. Love is a great mystery that cannot be based on the laws of reason.
The poet sees the secret of the charm of Z. Neuhaus in the simplicity and disinterestedness of her life. Only such a woman is able to create a calm family atmosphere and bring happiness to her husband. Pasternak is ready to descend from transcendental creative heights for her sake. He really promised Z. Neuhaus that he would part with vague and obscure symbols and begin to write poems in a simple and accessible language (“verbal rubbish ... shake out”). After all, this is “not a big trick”, but the long-awaited family happiness will be the reward for it.
Pasternak was able to recapture his friend's wife. In the future, the couple still experienced family troubles, but Z. Neuhaus greatly influenced the poet and his work.
