Stomping on the Throat

Russians love clichés derived from poetry. After all, as Yevgeny Yevtushenko once wrote, “поэт в России больше, чем поэт” (“a poet in Russia is more than a poet”). Public speeches, newspaper articles and even private speech are full of poetic phrases.

But, what is a cliché for a Russian, is a Chinese puzzle for even an educated foreign reader. Poetic clichés, complicated by word plays are often used in newspaper headlines, but frequently they are paraphrased or cut up in such a way that the unitiated will have a hard time tracing the etymology, much less grasping the hidden cultural meaning.

Examples abound. On the day this column was written, September 6, a headline in Sevodnya newspaper declared: “Перо вновь приравняли к штыку” (“The plume once again has been equated with the bayonet”). This is in fact a wordplay on a famous quote by the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky: Я хочу, чтоб к штыку приравняли перо (I want the plume to be equated with the bayonet) – the poet was simply saying he wanted the poet’s pen to become a powerful weapon. This quote has suffered from overuse, but it still works. The article cited above was criticising the government’s intention to make “top secret” the line item in the state budget providing for mass media subsidies. The only other top secret line item in the budget is for the “state arms program,” so the ironic Mayakovsky-related word play hit the mark.

Mayakovsky’s art is an endless source of clichés, word plays and headlines. This is because, quite often to the detriment of his own gift as a lyricist, Mayakovsky was compelled to write propaganda poems, full of slogans. He voiced regret for this, confessing that he often had to наступать на горло собственной песне (“stomp on the throat of one’s own song”). This line, in turn, became a cliché in its own right. It is very en vogue to say that one “has to stomp on the throat of one’s song” in any situation – say, when a husband has to keep silent in a conversation between friends, so as to let his wife speak.

Another Mayakovsky cliché that pops up often in the press is близнецы-братья (twin brothers). It comes from Mayakovsky’s poem dedicated to Lenin, where he said “Lenin and the party are twin brothers.” Now that Lenin (and communism) are dead, the cliché is used every now and then, always with a healthy layer of sarcasm. For example, if you say that the rival media magnates Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Bere-zovsky are “in fact, on closer examination, really twin brothers,” you will make a very strong point.

The poet Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-1877) lived and died well before the 1917 revolution. But he nonetheless had a few words to say in defense of revolutionary ideals. One such quote was his к топору зовите Русь (call on Russia to take up the axe), i.e. incite it to revolt. Another is поэтом можешь ты не быть, но гражданином быть обязан (You don’t have to be a poet, but you are obliged to be a citizen). In other words, you may lack poetic talent, but you have to take a social position in your work. This quote has been paraphrased ad infinitum, particularly by replacing the words “poet” and “citizen” with others. For example, a recent story on male-female relations bore the headline: Мужчиной можешь ты не быть, но джентльменом быть обязан (You don’t have to be a man, but you are obliged to be gentleman).

A third oft-used Nekrasov quote is more ironic: Жаль только жить в эту пору прекрасную уж не придётся ни мне, ни тебе (Sadly, neither you nor I will live to see those wonderful times). He meant the era of social equity, of course, but now one can say this in any situation, especially whenever someone paints too bright a picture of the future.

What about Alexander Blok? His poetry is also fertile ground for headlines and quotes turned into clichés. In Russia’s present political context, two come to mind:. The first is: И невозможное возможно (And the impossible is possible), a line which helps one hold on to hope in difficult times. Second, and even more suitable for the new era here, is И вечный бой! Покой нам только снится (And the battle never ends, we can only dream of rest). The second half of the quote – покой нам только снится – has been widely used in everything from epigraphs to headlines to the titles of books.

Of course, Pushkinian clichés abound in Russian. His work is full of many quotable, love-inspired phrases, e.g. Чем меньше женщину мы любим, тем легче нравимся мы ей (The less we love a woman, the easier it is for her to like us). For, unlike Mayakovsky, Pushkin was concerned more with plumes than bayonets. Of course, that did not stop revolutionaries from coopting his poetic creations. His famous Из искры возгорится пламя (The flame rises from the spark) was printed on the masthead of Lenin’s revolutionary newspaper, Iskra (Spark).

One might be tempted to try to explain the political twists and turns of the last decade with Fyodor Tyutchev’s famous line, Умом Россию не понять (One cannot fathom Russia with the mind). But nowadays this would only come across as a banal truism – the phrase has been overused by journalists both domestic and foreign. Perhaps a more appropriate poetic evaluation would be one offered by Sergei Yesenin: большое видится на расстоянии (big things are best viewed at a distance). In other words, the passage of time will help us better appreciate the big changes we have been through.

As Blok wrote (in The Scythians): Да, скифы мы. Да, азиаты мы... (Yes, we are Scythians, Yes, we are Asians) – to which we owe our вечный бой. And yet, one can hope that someday we Scythians/Russians will be able to have a suitably boring life, free of runs on the banks, underpass explosions and the like.

We don’t have to be cynical, but we do have to be honest: at times, one can’t help fearing that “neither you nor I will live to see those wonderful times.”