Nikolay Zabolotsky
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Nikolay Zabolotsky - (Russian: Николай Алексеевич Заболоцкий) (May 7, 1903-October 14, 1958) a Russian poet, children's writer and translator. He was a Russian Modernist and a founder of the OBERIU.
[edit] Life and Influences
Nikolay Alekseevich Zabolotsky was born near Kazan in 1903. His early life was spent in Sernur (now in Mari El Republic) and Urzhum (now in Kirov Oblast). In 1920, Zabolotsky leaves his family and moves to Moscow, enrolling simultaneously in the medicine and philology faculties of Moscow University. A year later, he goes on to Saint Petersburg (then known as Petrograd), to enroll in the Pedagogical Institute. He is determined, however, in his desire to become a poet. During this formative period, Zabolotsky is strongly influenced by the Futurist works of Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov, as well as lyrical poems of Blok and Esenin and the art of Filonov and Chagall.
At about the same time, Zabolotsky meets his future wife, E.V. Klykova. He also becomes one of the founders (along with D.I. Kharms and others) of OBERIU, or "Association of Real Art" (Russian Объединение реального искусства) and begins to be published.
Falling victim to Stalin's purges, Zabolotsky is sent to Siberia in 1938. Rehabilitated in 1946 thanks to Aleksandr Fadeev. Upon his return to Moscow in 1948, Zabolotsky turns to translator's work, including a translation of The Tale of Igor's Campaign. He is, however, soon drawn to poetry again, while also maintaining his career as translator. Translating mainly Georgian poets, Zabolotsky travels often to Georgia. During the last few years of life, he is beset by illness, and from 1956, he spends much of the rest of his life in the town of Tarusa, recovering from a heart attack. A second heart attack, in Moscow, claims his life on October 14, 1958.
[edit] Work
Zabolotsky is noted for a number of drastic stylistic shifts throughout his life, going from ironic modernism to lyricism, and later in life becoming almost a classicist poet.
Zabolotsky's first book of poetry, Columns (1929), is a series of grotesque vignettes on NEP life, and includes Merknut znaki zodiaka, a famous absurdist lullaby, a musical rendition of which hit the Russian pop charts in 2005. From social concerns, he moves to elegies to nature, which have been described as pantheistic. After his second book of poetry - Second Book (1937) follows a period of silence corresponding to his exile in Siberia. His poetry upon his return bears a strong classicist bent, being most often compared to the work of Tyutchev.
As a translator, Zabolotsky is most notable from his translations of medieval classics, such as Rustaveli's epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin, as well as the more modern Georgian poets, Vazha-Pshavela, Orbeliani, Gurmanishvili.
