Sergei Yesenin
Encyclopedia
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (sometimes spelled as Esenin; ; – 27 December 1925) was a Russia
n lyrical poet. He was one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century but committed suicide at the age of 30. He had married five times and had a total of four children by three different women (two of them wives at the time).
Province (Губерния, Gubernia) of the Russian Empire
to a peasant
family. He spent most of his childhood with his grandparents, who essentially reared him. He began to write poetry at the age of nine.
In 1912, Yesenin moved to Moscow, where he supported himself working as a proofreader in a printing company. The following year he enrolled in Moscow State University
as an external student and studied there for a year and a half. His early poetry was inspired by Russian folklore
. In 1915, he moved to St. Petersburg
, where he became acquainted with fellow-poets Alexander Blok
, Sergey Gorodetsky, Nikolai Klyuev
and Andrei Bely
. It was in St. Petersburg that he became well known in literature circles. Blok was especially helpful in promoting Yesenin's early career as a poet. Yesenin said that Bely gave him the meaning of form while Blok and Klyuev taught him lyricism.
Later that year, he moved to St Petersburg, where he met Klyuev. For the next two years, they were close friends, living together most of the time. Some modern researchers suppose that Klyuev was the addressee of Yesenin's love letters. From 1916 to 1917, Yesenin was drafted into military duty, but soon after the October Revolution
of 1917, Russia exited World War I. Believing that the revolution would bring a better life, Yesenin briefly supported it, but soon became disillusioned. He sometimes criticised the Bolshevik
rule in such poems as The Stern October Has Deceived Me.
In August 1917 Yesenin married for a second time to an actress, Zinaida Raikh (later the wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold
). They had two children, a daughter Tatyana
and a son Konstantin. The parents quarreled and lived separately for some time prior to their divorce in 1921. Tatyana became a notable writer, and Konstantin Yesenin would become a well-known soccer statistician.
In September 1918, Yesenin founded his own publishing house called "Трудовая Артель Художников Слова" (the "Labor Company of the Artists of the Word")
In the fall of 1921, while visiting the studio of painter Georgi Yakulov, Yesenin met the Paris-based American dancer Isadora Duncan
, a woman 18 years his senior. She knew only a dozen words in Russian, and he spoke no foreign languages. They married on May 2, 1922. Yesenin accompanied his celebrity wife on a tour of Europe and the United States, but his alcoholism
got out of control. Often drunk, Yesenin had violent rages in which he destroyed hotel rooms and caused disturbances in restaurants. This behavior received much publicity in the international press. His marriage to Duncan was brief and in May 1923, he returned to Moscow. He almost immediately became involved with the actress Augusta Miklashevskaya. He is rumoured to have married her in a civil ceremony, although he had not obtained a divorce from Duncan.
The same year he had a son by the poet Nadezhda Volpin. Sergei Yesenin never knew his son by Volpin, but Alexander Esenin-Volpin
grew up to become a poet. He was also a prominent activist in the Soviet Union
's dissident
movement of the 1960s with Andrei Sakharov
and others. After moving to the United States, Yesenin-Volpin became a mathematician
.
.
She attempted to get him help but he suffered a complete mental breakdown
and was hospitalised for a month. Two days after his release, he allegedly cut his wrist and wrote a farewell poem in his own blood, then the following day hanged himself from the heating pipes on the ceiling of his room in the Hotel Angleterre. He was 30 years old.
Sergei Yesenin is interred in Moscow's Vagankovskoye Cemetery. His grave is marked by a white marble sculpture.
The Ryazan State University
is named in his honour.
and Nikita Khrushchev
. Nikolai Bukharin
's criticism of Yesenin contributed significantly to the banning. Only in 1966 were most of his works republished. Today Yesenin's poems are taught to Russian schoolchildren; many have been set to music and recorded as popular songs. The early death, unsympathetic views by some of the literary elite, adoration by ordinary people, and sensational behavior, all contributed to the enduring and near mythical popular image of the Russian poet.
Sergei Yesenin's final poem was a major inspiration for the Bring Me the Horizon
song "It Was Written In Blood" on their album Suicide Season
.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n lyrical poet. He was one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century but committed suicide at the age of 30. He had married five times and had a total of four children by three different women (two of them wives at the time).
Early life
Sergei Yesenin was born in Konstantinovo in the RyazanRyazan
Ryazan is a city and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Oka River southeast of Moscow. Population: The strategic bomber base Dyagilevo is just west of the city, and the air base of Alexandrovo is to the southeast as is the Ryazan Turlatovo Airport...
Province (Губерния, Gubernia) of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
to a peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
family. He spent most of his childhood with his grandparents, who essentially reared him. He began to write poetry at the age of nine.
In 1912, Yesenin moved to Moscow, where he supported himself working as a proofreader in a printing company. The following year he enrolled in Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
as an external student and studied there for a year and a half. His early poetry was inspired by Russian folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
. In 1915, he moved to St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, where he became acquainted with fellow-poets Alexander Blok
Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...
, Sergey Gorodetsky, Nikolai Klyuev
Nikolai Klyuev
Nikolai Alekseevich Klyuev , was a notable Russian poet...
and Andrei Bely
Andrei Bely
Andrei Bely was the pseudonym of Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev , a Russian novelist, poet, theorist, and literary critic. His novel Petersburg was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the four greatest novels of the 20th century.-Biography:...
. It was in St. Petersburg that he became well known in literature circles. Blok was especially helpful in promoting Yesenin's early career as a poet. Yesenin said that Bely gave him the meaning of form while Blok and Klyuev taught him lyricism.
Career
In 1916, Yesenin published his first book of poems, Ritual for the Dead (Radunitsa). Through his collections of poignant poetry about love and the simple life, he became one of the most popular poets of the day. His first marriage was in 1913 to Anna Izryadnova, a co-worker from the publishing house, with whom he had a son, Yuri.Later that year, he moved to St Petersburg, where he met Klyuev. For the next two years, they were close friends, living together most of the time. Some modern researchers suppose that Klyuev was the addressee of Yesenin's love letters. From 1916 to 1917, Yesenin was drafted into military duty, but soon after the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
of 1917, Russia exited World War I. Believing that the revolution would bring a better life, Yesenin briefly supported it, but soon became disillusioned. He sometimes criticised the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
rule in such poems as The Stern October Has Deceived Me.
In August 1917 Yesenin married for a second time to an actress, Zinaida Raikh (later the wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
). They had two children, a daughter Tatyana
Tatyana Yesenina
Tatyana Sergeevna Yesenina May 29, 1918 - May 6, 1992, was a Russian writer and the daughter of Sergei Yesenin and his second wife Zinaida Raikh.-Biography:...
and a son Konstantin. The parents quarreled and lived separately for some time prior to their divorce in 1921. Tatyana became a notable writer, and Konstantin Yesenin would become a well-known soccer statistician.
In September 1918, Yesenin founded his own publishing house called "Трудовая Артель Художников Слова" (the "Labor Company of the Artists of the Word")
In the fall of 1921, while visiting the studio of painter Georgi Yakulov, Yesenin met the Paris-based American dancer Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
, a woman 18 years his senior. She knew only a dozen words in Russian, and he spoke no foreign languages. They married on May 2, 1922. Yesenin accompanied his celebrity wife on a tour of Europe and the United States, but his alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
got out of control. Often drunk, Yesenin had violent rages in which he destroyed hotel rooms and caused disturbances in restaurants. This behavior received much publicity in the international press. His marriage to Duncan was brief and in May 1923, he returned to Moscow. He almost immediately became involved with the actress Augusta Miklashevskaya. He is rumoured to have married her in a civil ceremony, although he had not obtained a divorce from Duncan.
The same year he had a son by the poet Nadezhda Volpin. Sergei Yesenin never knew his son by Volpin, but Alexander Esenin-Volpin
Alexander Esenin-Volpin
Alexander Sergeyevich Esenin-Volpin is a prominent Russian-American poet and mathematician.Born on May 12, 1924 in the former Soviet Union, he was a notable dissident, political prisoner, poet, and mathematician...
grew up to become a poet. He was also a prominent activist in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
movement of the 1960s with Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
and others. After moving to the United States, Yesenin-Volpin became a mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
.
Later years and death
The last two years of Yesenin's life were filled with constant erratic and drunken behavior, but he also created some of his most famous poems. In 1925 Yesenin met and married his fifth wife, Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya, a granddaughter of Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
.
She attempted to get him help but he suffered a complete mental breakdown
Mental breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
and was hospitalised for a month. Two days after his release, he allegedly cut his wrist and wrote a farewell poem in his own blood, then the following day hanged himself from the heating pipes on the ceiling of his room in the Hotel Angleterre. He was 30 years old.
Sergei Yesenin is interred in Moscow's Vagankovskoye Cemetery. His grave is marked by a white marble sculpture.
The Ryazan State University
Ryazan State University
The Ryazan State University named for S. A. Yesenin is a university in Ryazan, Ryazan Oblast, Russia. It was founded in 1915. It bears the name of Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, who grew up in the region.-History:...
is named in his honour.
Cultural impact
Although he was one of Russia's most popular poets and had been given an elaborate funeral by the State, most of his writings were banned by the Kremlin during the reigns of Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
. Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
's criticism of Yesenin contributed significantly to the banning. Only in 1966 were most of his works republished. Today Yesenin's poems are taught to Russian schoolchildren; many have been set to music and recorded as popular songs. The early death, unsympathetic views by some of the literary elite, adoration by ordinary people, and sensational behavior, all contributed to the enduring and near mythical popular image of the Russian poet.
In popular culture
In 2005 Russian studio Pro-Cinema Production produced a TV mini-series "Есенин" about the life of the poet. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456776/Sergei Yesenin's final poem was a major inspiration for the Bring Me the Horizon
Bring Me the Horizon
Bring Me the Horizon are a British metalcore band from Sheffield, Yorkshire, who formed in 2004. Bring Me the Horizon constits of Oliver Sykes as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist Lee Malia, rhythm guitarist Jona Weinhofen, bassist Matt Kean and drummer Matt Nicholls...
song "It Was Written In Blood" on their album Suicide Season
Suicide Season
Suicide Season is the second studio album by English metalcore band Bring Me the Horizon, released on 29 September 2008 through Visible Noise in the United Kingdom and Europe. Visible Noise has the band signed for the World, and are doing licensing deals for Australia, Japan and the USA...
.
Works
- The Scarlet of the Dawn (1910)
- The high waters have licked (1910)
- The Birch Tree (1913)
- Autumn (1914)
- I'll glance in the field (1917)
- I left the native home (1918)
- Hooligan (1919)
- Hooligan's Confession (1920) (Italian translation sung by Angelo BranduardiAngelo BranduardiAngelo Branduardi , is an Italian folk singer and composer who scored relevant success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.- Biography :...
) - I am the last poet of the village (1920)
- Prayer for the First Forty Days of the Dead (1920)
- I don't pity, don't call, don't cry (1921)
- Pugachev (1921)
- Land of ScoundrelsLand of Scoundrels (poem)Land of Scoundrels or Strana Negodyayev is a poem by Russian poet Sergei Yesenin completed in 1923. It depicts a conflict between freedom-loving anarchist rebel named Nomakh and Bolshevik commissar Rassvetov who dreams of forcefully modernized Russia...
(1923) - One joy I have left (1923)
- A Letter to Mother (1924)
- Tavern Moscow (1924)
- Confessions of a Hooligan (1924),
- Desolate and Pale Moonlight (1925)
- The Black Man (1925)
- To Kachalov's Dog (1925)
- Goodbye, my friend, goodbye (1925) (His farewell poem)
| Original in Russian До свиданья, друг мой, до свиданья. Милый мой, ты у меня в груди. Предназначенное расставанье Обещает встречу впереди. До свиданья, друг мой, без руки, без слова, Не грусти и не печаль бровей,- В этой жизни умирать не ново, Но и жить, конечно, не новей. |
English Translation Goodbye, my friend, goodbye My love, you are in my heart. It was preordained we should part And be reunited by and by. Goodbye: no handshake to endure. Let's have no sadness — furrowed brow. There's nothing new in dying now Though living is no newer. |
External links
Collection of Sergey Yesenin's Poems in English:- Sergey Yesenin. Selected Poems in English with parallel Russian texts Alternative Bilingual (Russian-English) Version.
- Yesenin poems in English @ vagalecs.narod.ru
- Yesenin Sergey. Sergey Yesenin. Collection of Poems. Bilingual Version (Russian-English) at zhurnal.lib.ru
- The Fugue Aesthetics of J.H. Stotts: Esenin, Footnotes for a Triptych at blogspot.com (Bio and English translation)
- http://samlib.ru/editors/w/wagapow_a_s/yesenin-bio.shtml Sergey Yesenin's Autobiography.(English translation)]
- Poetry (English translation)
- Biography, photos and poetry (Russian)
- Yesenin's poetry (Russian)
- Yesenin's museum in Viazma (Russian)
- Alexander Novikov sings songs based on Yesenin's poetry (10 songs in WMA format
- Translation of "The Birch" by Leo Yankevich
- The Black Man (the animation film on a poem) by Alexander Popugaev