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Mayakovsky: A Biography
Few poets have led lives as tempestuous as that of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Born in 1893 and dead by his own hand in 1930, Mayakovsky packed his thirty-six years with drama, politics, passion, and—most important—poetry. An enthusiastic supporter of the Russian Revolution and the emerging Soviet State, Mayakovsky was championed by Stalin after his death and enshrined as a quasi-official Soviet poet, a position that led to undeserved neglect among Western literary scholars even as his influence on other poets has remained powerful.
With Mayakovsky, Bengt Jangfeldt offers the first comprehensive biography of Mayakovsky, revealing a troubled man who was more dreamer than revolutionary, more political romantic than hardened Communist. Jangfeldt sets Mayakovsky’s life and works against the dramatic turbulence of his times, from the aesthetic innovations of the pre-revolutionary avant-garde to the rigidity of Socialist Realism and the destruction of World War I to the violence—and hope—of the Russian Revolution, through the tightening grip of Stalinist terror and the growing disillusion with Russian communism that eventually led the poet to take his life.
Through it all is threaded Mayakovsky’s celebrated love affair with Lili Brik and the moving relationship with Lili’s husband, Osip, along with a brilliant depiction of the larger circle of writers and artists around Mayakovsky, including Maxim Gorky, Viktor Shklovsky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Roman Jakobson. The result is a literary life viewed in the round, enabling us to understand the personal and historical furies that drove Mayakovsky and generated his still-startling poetry.
Illustrated throughout with rare images of key characters and locations, Mayakovsky is a major step in the revitalization of a crucial figure of the twentieth-century avant-garde.
With Mayakovsky, Bengt Jangfeldt offers the first comprehensive biography of Mayakovsky, revealing a troubled man who was more dreamer than revolutionary, more political romantic than hardened Communist. Jangfeldt sets Mayakovsky’s life and works against the dramatic turbulence of his times, from the aesthetic innovations of the pre-revolutionary avant-garde to the rigidity of Socialist Realism and the destruction of World War I to the violence—and hope—of the Russian Revolution, through the tightening grip of Stalinist terror and the growing disillusion with Russian communism that eventually led the poet to take his life.
Through it all is threaded Mayakovsky’s celebrated love affair with Lili Brik and the moving relationship with Lili’s husband, Osip, along with a brilliant depiction of the larger circle of writers and artists around Mayakovsky, including Maxim Gorky, Viktor Shklovsky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Roman Jakobson. The result is a literary life viewed in the round, enabling us to understand the personal and historical furies that drove Mayakovsky and generated his still-startling poetry.
Illustrated throughout with rare images of key characters and locations, Mayakovsky is a major step in the revitalization of a crucial figure of the twentieth-century avant-garde.
616 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
13 people are currently reading
371 people want to read
About the author
Bengt Jangfeldt
55 books14 followersBengt Åke Jangfeldt, född 22 november 1948 i Stockholm, är en svensk författare och översättare från ryska, professor vid institutionen för slaviska studier, Stockholms universitet.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
January 27, 2021
Apparently this is the first non-Soviet biography of the Iron Poet. The slated approach is one oiled with gossip. The author plumbs the diaries and letters of those involved and then posits inferences. It is far from conclusive, but it is entertaining. Mayakovsky lived most of his adult life in an open relationship with a married couple, Osip and Lilya Brik. The couple were both settlers in this brave new life of the mind. Bohemian to radical degree, this unit also served as a refuge of sorts, especially for the hulking temperamental and yet sensitive Mayakovsky. The author goes to great length to demonstrate that Lilya was the love of Mayakovsky's life. It is important to consider that after Mayakovky's suicide in 1930 there were myriad reasons for airbrushing one's journals and disposing of uncomfortable correspondence. The age of the show trials had begun in experimentation and was soon to blossom in The Great Terror.
What remains inconclusive is to what degree the Brik's were in accordance with the organs of state security. They frequently went abroad and adopted the most bourgeois attitudes while in Berlin or Paris. Their circle of friends includes Roman Jakobson, Viktor Shklovsky and other artists such as Rodchenko, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Eisenstein. There is evidence to suggest they were working in some capacity for the GPU. Mayakovsky himself pledges to work in the very compliance junta which has been hectoring him. One if free to ponder personal loyalty and aesthetic integrity. This became paramount especially as the flagship of Futurism crashes on the rocks of the five-year plans.
This is a dazzling account.
4.5 stars. The deduction was for the lack of footnotes. The endnotes lack vigor.
What remains inconclusive is to what degree the Brik's were in accordance with the organs of state security. They frequently went abroad and adopted the most bourgeois attitudes while in Berlin or Paris. Their circle of friends includes Roman Jakobson, Viktor Shklovsky and other artists such as Rodchenko, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Eisenstein. There is evidence to suggest they were working in some capacity for the GPU. Mayakovsky himself pledges to work in the very compliance junta which has been hectoring him. One if free to ponder personal loyalty and aesthetic integrity. This became paramount especially as the flagship of Futurism crashes on the rocks of the five-year plans.
This is a dazzling account.
4.5 stars. The deduction was for the lack of footnotes. The endnotes lack vigor.
December 25, 2016
یک بار برای یک نفر نوشتم "اعتبار یک جمله عاشقانه از طرف تو، با نقطهی انتهای جمله تموم میشه. این باشکوهه؟ بله."ا
من رو یاد خاطرات خودم میندازه (مثل هر کتابی شبیه به این) نه به جهت اتفاقات مشابه، که به لحاظ احساسات و تناقضات مشابه. این که فقط و فقط روابط انسانی هستند که به کلمات وزن میدهند یا اونها رو بیاعتبار میکنند. و ما جز کلمات چه سرمایهی دیگری داریم؟
من رو یاد خاطرات خودم میندازه (مثل هر کتابی شبیه به این) نه به جهت اتفاقات مشابه، که به لحاظ احساسات و تناقضات مشابه. این که فقط و فقط روابط انسانی هستند که به کلمات وزن میدهند یا اونها رو بیاعتبار میکنند. و ما جز کلمات چه سرمایهی دیگری داریم؟
November 14, 2017
As "definitive" as you can get, this should satisfy fans of M. Having access (some firsthand) to scads of sources and interviews, Jangfeldt lays out the self-destructive trajectory of one of the 20th century's greatest poets. There's, obviously, a big emphasis here on his tangled, unassailable relationship with the Briks and it tends to stray sometimes into what feels like a bio of Lili or Elsa--but recovers itself nicely.
Jangfeldt weaves M into his time, the Revolution, his relations with Lenin, Trotsky and others, RAPP, and all the various "socialist" art trends of the time. M's poetry runs right alongside everything, is included throughout and you get a nice view into the tortured life the poor guy led, his political ups and downs, his poor decision-making skills when it came to both political and cultural survival, and his multitudinous love affairs.
Never a bad thing either: there are shitloads of fascinating images and photos, many of which (including the one of the dead M) I'd never seen before.
Jangfeldt weaves M into his time, the Revolution, his relations with Lenin, Trotsky and others, RAPP, and all the various "socialist" art trends of the time. M's poetry runs right alongside everything, is included throughout and you get a nice view into the tortured life the poor guy led, his political ups and downs, his poor decision-making skills when it came to both political and cultural survival, and his multitudinous love affairs.
Never a bad thing either: there are shitloads of fascinating images and photos, many of which (including the one of the dead M) I'd never seen before.
August 14, 2018
Безотрадность и безысходность
August 3, 2010
My favourite biography of all time is probably Boy George's "Take It Like A Man". The second might be "Mohammad Ali", by Thomas Hauser. But, this is a contender to beat them both. Never before have I read a biography that is both extremely well-researched and subtly written, where I think it usually is a matter of either/or.
The intellectual cultural climate in 1920s Russia was a very explosive time, when several small groups of young, agitated Russians questioned, destroyed and leaped from the old climate in a political atmosphere where even God was refused and denied. The Russian futurists craved something else than the everyday porridge that stated that Rembrandt's paintings, Mozart's music and The Bible in writing were the epitome of art, and in the process wanted to reinvent themselves completely by questioning these standards and themselves. Among all of the Russian poets, Mayakovsky's texts seemingly stand solitary and often absolutely brilliant, not only floating far beyond his country-people, but all previous poets across the globe.
Jangfeldt goes far by being fluent in Russian. As such, he has himself translated (with aid) Mayakovsky 's poetry into Swedish, and has since decades personally interviewed people who knew Mayakovsky and has written several works on him. He's accessed previously censored state files on Mayakovsky and drawn his own conclusions on many events throughout Mayakovsky's life, painstakingly delivering a very subtle, simply put, yet desirably complex picture of a man plagued and blessed through extreme throes in all aspects of his life.
Mayakovsky's abilities to reinvent language and stake his own claim through all types of media - poetry, plays, copy, slogans, and letters - are featured here. The same is said for his somewhat nonsensical political statements, but you can't have it all, can you?
From his life as a young boy in the middle of Russian nowhere, to an aspiring career as an artist to developing an interest in poetry, his humble beginnings gently explode as he reaches adolescence and then grows into a manboy, forever trapped as a seventeen-year-old, according to Viktor Sjklovsky. Thing is, I think Mayakovsky never allowed himself to grow stale, which is a mantra he often repeated in different forms, not least in his eccentric relationship with Lili and Osip Brik.
Mayakovsky loved a few things in life, and went beyond every barrier to live those things in every aspect, at times threatening to destroy the people around him in the process. Still, he prevailed in a way, even though his ending is the saddest part of his tale.
This book is worth purchasing in any available language, and will be re-read repeatedly by myself throughout life. It's not heavy, it's not light, but is very well-written, long and so fantastically delivered that it feels short, despite its near-600-pages. Nothing stopped it, and there is no filler; most of what's in this book - which did happen, I sometimes had to remind myself during my reading - is so jagged and at the same time polished, it felt like having a really brilliant, laid-back yet intellectual conversation with somebody who's had a long journey, teaching me a few things in the process.
To quote Mayakovsky: "I love!"
The intellectual cultural climate in 1920s Russia was a very explosive time, when several small groups of young, agitated Russians questioned, destroyed and leaped from the old climate in a political atmosphere where even God was refused and denied. The Russian futurists craved something else than the everyday porridge that stated that Rembrandt's paintings, Mozart's music and The Bible in writing were the epitome of art, and in the process wanted to reinvent themselves completely by questioning these standards and themselves. Among all of the Russian poets, Mayakovsky's texts seemingly stand solitary and often absolutely brilliant, not only floating far beyond his country-people, but all previous poets across the globe.
Jangfeldt goes far by being fluent in Russian. As such, he has himself translated (with aid) Mayakovsky 's poetry into Swedish, and has since decades personally interviewed people who knew Mayakovsky and has written several works on him. He's accessed previously censored state files on Mayakovsky and drawn his own conclusions on many events throughout Mayakovsky's life, painstakingly delivering a very subtle, simply put, yet desirably complex picture of a man plagued and blessed through extreme throes in all aspects of his life.
Mayakovsky's abilities to reinvent language and stake his own claim through all types of media - poetry, plays, copy, slogans, and letters - are featured here. The same is said for his somewhat nonsensical political statements, but you can't have it all, can you?
From his life as a young boy in the middle of Russian nowhere, to an aspiring career as an artist to developing an interest in poetry, his humble beginnings gently explode as he reaches adolescence and then grows into a manboy, forever trapped as a seventeen-year-old, according to Viktor Sjklovsky. Thing is, I think Mayakovsky never allowed himself to grow stale, which is a mantra he often repeated in different forms, not least in his eccentric relationship with Lili and Osip Brik.
Mayakovsky loved a few things in life, and went beyond every barrier to live those things in every aspect, at times threatening to destroy the people around him in the process. Still, he prevailed in a way, even though his ending is the saddest part of his tale.
This book is worth purchasing in any available language, and will be re-read repeatedly by myself throughout life. It's not heavy, it's not light, but is very well-written, long and so fantastically delivered that it feels short, despite its near-600-pages. Nothing stopped it, and there is no filler; most of what's in this book - which did happen, I sometimes had to remind myself during my reading - is so jagged and at the same time polished, it felt like having a really brilliant, laid-back yet intellectual conversation with somebody who's had a long journey, teaching me a few things in the process.
To quote Mayakovsky: "I love!"
July 23, 2017
قسمت زندگینامهاش تکراری بود خیلی
فقط نامههای مایاکوفسکی بامزهاند. نامههای لیلی مهمل و روزمره و بیارزشن ازهرلحاظ
از لحاظ ترجمه و نگارش و ویرایش هم کتاب مخروکه است
مثلاً شاهکار مترجم: جنگل بوآ دو بولونی رو نوشته بویس-دِ-بولوگنه یعنی حرف به حرف و واج به واج دال رو آوانویسی کرده؛ هاه.
فقط نامههای مایاکوفسکی بامزهاند. نامههای لیلی مهمل و روزمره و بیارزشن ازهرلحاظ
از لحاظ ترجمه و نگارش و ویرایش هم کتاب مخروکه است
مثلاً شاهکار مترجم: جنگل بوآ دو بولونی رو نوشته بویس-دِ-بولوگنه یعنی حرف به حرف و واج به واج دال رو آوانویسی کرده؛ هاه.
June 30, 2019
Vladimir Majakovskij var under lång tid den mest uppburna poeten i Sovjetunionen. Sedan sin fattiga uppväxt i tzarryssland en hängiven kommunist som aldrig lätt sinna tvivel om revolutionens utveckling stå i vägen för en hängivet inför projektet att bygga en ny värld. Att denna nya väld behövde en lika ny litteratur var för honom en självklart. Att denna litteratur skulle vara lika annorlunda från den gamla som kommunism från kapitalism behövde inte ens skrivas ut.
Utöver detta var hans personliga liv minst sagt uppseendeväckande. Han levde i en kärleks triad med Lilya Yuryevna, och dennes man Ospi Brink. Som en av de främsta företrädarna för den nya konstnärliga avantgardismen så föl han i onåd hos Lenin (Lenin var notoriskt konservativ i konstfrågor) men blev uppburen av Stalin, både innan och efter sitt självmord. Med andra ord, det finns gott om stoff för en gripande biografi i denna exentriska poets levnadshistoria.
Och kanske är det här Bengt Jangefeldts svårighet ligger när har skall lägga fram sitt arbete. Det finns så mycket spännande händelser att att avhandla. Författarens kärlek och beundran för Majakovskijs poesi går inte att betvivla. Problemet är bara att en bra biografi kräver att författaren ställer sig över det myller av händelser som ett liv utgör och placerar in dem i ett större sammanhang. Inte bara i en tid, utan låter det biografiska subjektets liv och gärning kristallisera en historia som ledde fram till ett liv, och hur det livet kommer att påverka oss idag.
Det finns fyra viktiga linjer i Majakovskijs biografi, som letar sig fram längs hans liv, utgör det, flyter ibland i hopp men lika ofta isär. Poesin. Politiken. Det skandalösa levernet, det fria kärleken. Den eviga oppositionen först mot tsarens scensur, sedan mot ett framväxande konstbyråkratiskt maskineri. Alla dessa linjer kan beskrivas ytligt för billiga poänger och för att göra personens liv sensationellt, eller djuplodande, i sin historisk kontext med en vilja att förstå hur en person är en del av och skapar ett större sammanhang. I samtliga exempel väljer tyvärr Jangfeldt en sensationalistik ytlig läsning.
Låt mig ta några exempel. Majakovskij är idag främst ihågkommen som poet, en del av den bredare futuristiska rörelsen, som var ett genombrott i skapandet av den moderna konsten inom alla områden. Men om en läser förlegade biografi får en inte reda på det. Vist, ordet nämns vi några tillfällen. Och visa samarbetspartner. Men futurismen reduceras till någon form av allmän modernism när den väll diskuteras. Inte nog med att den konstriktning som Majakovskij idag ses som den främsta företrädaren för knappt behandlas, alla tidigare och parallella litteraturriktningar ignoreras helt med två undantag, den proletära realismen som var den officiella litteraturen fram emot 30-talet reduceras till stalinistisk. Och den tidigare avantgardism som Anna Achmatova den andra klart lysande poetiska stjärnan var en del av, symbolismen, beskrivs i föregående som ”traditionell rysk poesi”. Nonsens.
Politiken. vi får i förbigående i ett av de tidiga kapitlen reda på att Majakovskij var den del av det socialdemokratiska partiet i Ryssland och efter dess splittring valde han att ansluta sig till den Boljevikerna fraktionen. Detta är intressant, spännande, hur kommer det sig? Hur så poetens politiska engagemang ut? Vad drev honom ditt hän? Det får vi inte reda på. Hela Majakovskijs politiska gärning beskrivs antingen som anarkistisk (inte bara nonsens, utan nonsens på styltor) eller i bästa som en naiv identifikation med en revolution han inte förstår, i värsta fall som en födkrok.
De andra linjerna i livet som skall skildras får en lika ytlig behandling. Det inte inte så att Jangfeldt får saker och ting fel, utan snarare att han saknar förståelse för den sociala, politiska och konstnärliga miljö poeten rörde sig i. Resultatet blir att den genomsnittliga biografin om krigskommissarien Leon Trotsky ger en djupare inblick i både de poetiska strömningarna som influerade Majakovskij samt det kulturpolitiska klimatet han verkade inom. Det är ett pinsamt betyg för en pinsamt ytlig biografi.
Utöver detta var hans personliga liv minst sagt uppseendeväckande. Han levde i en kärleks triad med Lilya Yuryevna, och dennes man Ospi Brink. Som en av de främsta företrädarna för den nya konstnärliga avantgardismen så föl han i onåd hos Lenin (Lenin var notoriskt konservativ i konstfrågor) men blev uppburen av Stalin, både innan och efter sitt självmord. Med andra ord, det finns gott om stoff för en gripande biografi i denna exentriska poets levnadshistoria.
Och kanske är det här Bengt Jangefeldts svårighet ligger när har skall lägga fram sitt arbete. Det finns så mycket spännande händelser att att avhandla. Författarens kärlek och beundran för Majakovskijs poesi går inte att betvivla. Problemet är bara att en bra biografi kräver att författaren ställer sig över det myller av händelser som ett liv utgör och placerar in dem i ett större sammanhang. Inte bara i en tid, utan låter det biografiska subjektets liv och gärning kristallisera en historia som ledde fram till ett liv, och hur det livet kommer att påverka oss idag.
Det finns fyra viktiga linjer i Majakovskijs biografi, som letar sig fram längs hans liv, utgör det, flyter ibland i hopp men lika ofta isär. Poesin. Politiken. Det skandalösa levernet, det fria kärleken. Den eviga oppositionen först mot tsarens scensur, sedan mot ett framväxande konstbyråkratiskt maskineri. Alla dessa linjer kan beskrivas ytligt för billiga poänger och för att göra personens liv sensationellt, eller djuplodande, i sin historisk kontext med en vilja att förstå hur en person är en del av och skapar ett större sammanhang. I samtliga exempel väljer tyvärr Jangfeldt en sensationalistik ytlig läsning.
Låt mig ta några exempel. Majakovskij är idag främst ihågkommen som poet, en del av den bredare futuristiska rörelsen, som var ett genombrott i skapandet av den moderna konsten inom alla områden. Men om en läser förlegade biografi får en inte reda på det. Vist, ordet nämns vi några tillfällen. Och visa samarbetspartner. Men futurismen reduceras till någon form av allmän modernism när den väll diskuteras. Inte nog med att den konstriktning som Majakovskij idag ses som den främsta företrädaren för knappt behandlas, alla tidigare och parallella litteraturriktningar ignoreras helt med två undantag, den proletära realismen som var den officiella litteraturen fram emot 30-talet reduceras till stalinistisk. Och den tidigare avantgardism som Anna Achmatova den andra klart lysande poetiska stjärnan var en del av, symbolismen, beskrivs i föregående som ”traditionell rysk poesi”. Nonsens.
Politiken. vi får i förbigående i ett av de tidiga kapitlen reda på att Majakovskij var den del av det socialdemokratiska partiet i Ryssland och efter dess splittring valde han att ansluta sig till den Boljevikerna fraktionen. Detta är intressant, spännande, hur kommer det sig? Hur så poetens politiska engagemang ut? Vad drev honom ditt hän? Det får vi inte reda på. Hela Majakovskijs politiska gärning beskrivs antingen som anarkistisk (inte bara nonsens, utan nonsens på styltor) eller i bästa som en naiv identifikation med en revolution han inte förstår, i värsta fall som en födkrok.
De andra linjerna i livet som skall skildras får en lika ytlig behandling. Det inte inte så att Jangfeldt får saker och ting fel, utan snarare att han saknar förståelse för den sociala, politiska och konstnärliga miljö poeten rörde sig i. Resultatet blir att den genomsnittliga biografin om krigskommissarien Leon Trotsky ger en djupare inblick i både de poetiska strömningarna som influerade Majakovskij samt det kulturpolitiska klimatet han verkade inom. Det är ett pinsamt betyg för en pinsamt ytlig biografi.
January 28, 2025
är nog lite nördig och har kanske läst lite för många biografer. Den här är ändå en av de bättre, så vacker och välskriven. Och även om utgången av Majakovskijs liv är välkänd, kom finalen likväl som något av en chock - så väl lyckas Jangfeldt väva berättelsen om Majakovskijs förunderliga liv, en ständig rörelse framåt, oavbrutet intressant och tankeväckande. Ett liv delvis i upphöjdhet, som den främste nationalpoeten, dock i en totalitär stat, med de begränsningar det medförde - det perspektivet står också ständigt i fokus, inte minst med tanke på hur noggrant Jangfeldt navigerar i persongalleriet, och med olika personers mandat och möjligheter. Det här var den typ av bok man önskar aldrig ska ta slut.
September 28, 2025
grazie per avermi completamente salvato la tesi mr. jangfeldt
February 15, 2018
My first acquaintance with Mayakovsky happened in the early 1980-es, in a typical Soviet-time high school. In the Soviet Union, Mayakovsky was idolized as the greatest proletarian poet, whose only goal in life and in work was "to glorify his Soviet motherland and struggle against the world capitalism". After learning a few pro-communist verses by heart, I developed a stable mental image of Mayakovsky as a man-slash-monument: solid, hard, impregnable, like a piece of rock. My classmates, no doubt, developed a similar image, and since then, I never had a slightest intention to read more of his verses or learn more about the poet... until recently, when I happened to run across B.Jangfeldt's biography of Mayakovsky.
I had heard some talk about Vladimir Mayakovsky's personal life being quite complex, and, as a person who loves reading I had read some stories describing episodes of Mayakovsky's life in various Internet journals, but they are still full of the Soviet-time propaganda, which makes me think that they were negligently copy-pasted from deceitful and biased Soviet-time press.
The author of this new biography has definitely done a huge amount of work of studying every document, every letter or research available in international archives, and his approach was not biased a bit for the simple reason that the author is Swedish, not Russian. Bengt Jangfeldt checked every fact and did a diligent research of the materials which he could find, and then put them together into a captivating, exciting and suspenseful, yet very logical story of a life. He has given us, people of the former Soviet Union, a new Mayakovsky. His Mayakovsky is a real person; finally, for the very first time (at least in my life) Mayakovsky is a man with his passions and weaknesses. To me, he is no longer a piece of rock that produced pro-communist rhymes. Thanks to Bengt Jangfeldt's thorough and consistent narration, the poet's life is shown in the complex dynamics of his personality. I have learned about the reasons of Mayakovsky's inner struggle, I understood the depth of his passions, the intricacies of his personal life, and the destructive contradictions of his character, which led him to that fatal shot that took his life. Can a biographical book do more than this? I don't think so. The author did his best, and he did exactly as much as had to be done.
I would like to thank the author for the courage of doing this immense research, and for doing it so well that it made me revise my attitude to Mayakovsky as a poet and as a person.
I had heard some talk about Vladimir Mayakovsky's personal life being quite complex, and, as a person who loves reading I had read some stories describing episodes of Mayakovsky's life in various Internet journals, but they are still full of the Soviet-time propaganda, which makes me think that they were negligently copy-pasted from deceitful and biased Soviet-time press.
The author of this new biography has definitely done a huge amount of work of studying every document, every letter or research available in international archives, and his approach was not biased a bit for the simple reason that the author is Swedish, not Russian. Bengt Jangfeldt checked every fact and did a diligent research of the materials which he could find, and then put them together into a captivating, exciting and suspenseful, yet very logical story of a life. He has given us, people of the former Soviet Union, a new Mayakovsky. His Mayakovsky is a real person; finally, for the very first time (at least in my life) Mayakovsky is a man with his passions and weaknesses. To me, he is no longer a piece of rock that produced pro-communist rhymes. Thanks to Bengt Jangfeldt's thorough and consistent narration, the poet's life is shown in the complex dynamics of his personality. I have learned about the reasons of Mayakovsky's inner struggle, I understood the depth of his passions, the intricacies of his personal life, and the destructive contradictions of his character, which led him to that fatal shot that took his life. Can a biographical book do more than this? I don't think so. The author did his best, and he did exactly as much as had to be done.
I would like to thank the author for the courage of doing this immense research, and for doing it so well that it made me revise my attitude to Mayakovsky as a poet and as a person.
October 29, 2016
Классическая биография, последовательная, гармоничная, тщательно исследованная. Богатый исторический контекст.
Изюминка — использование неопубликованных источников: писем и воспоминаний Лили Брик, записей бесед с ней, воспоминаний других близких Маяковскому людей, а также документов из архива британской госбезопасности.
Цитаты:
“Возможно, что если б не Ося, я любила бы Володю не так сильно, — вспоминала Лили. — Я не могла не любить Володю, если его так сильно любил Ося. Ося говорил, что для него Володя не человек, а событие. Володя во многом перестроил Осино мышление"
...
Я хочу быть понят моей страной,
а не буду понят, —
что ж,
по родной стране
пройду стороной,
как проходит
косой дождь.
Примечательны сомнения Маяковского в том, что его поэзии найдется место в новом обществе, но не менее примечателен тот факт, что впоследствии он эти строки вычеркнул. Сделал он это по совету Осипа, считавшего, что “поэт, цель всей работы которого, цель жизни — быть во что бы то ни стало услышанным и понятым своей страной”, не может написать такое. Хотя Маяковскому нравились эти строки, он согласился их убрать, тем самым сняв контрастное взаимодействие амбивалентных чувств, столь свойственное его лучшим произведениям. (Та же противоречивость, впрочем, отражается и в набросках, где в пятой строке поэт колеблется между диаметрально противоположными эпитетами — “родной” и “чужой” страной.)
...
К такому же неординарному шпионскому жанру можно отнести две экспедиции в Тибет, организованные ОГПУ в 1926 и 1928 годах с целью найти мифическую Шамбалу, чьи жители, по легенде, обладали способностью к телепатии. Экспедиции формально возглавлял художник и теософ Николай Рерих, но основным действующим лицом был прекрасно ориентировавшийся в восточной мистике Блюмкин, который выступал под видом то монгольского офицера, то ламы — в зависимости от характера выполняемого поручения.
Изюминка — использование неопубликованных источников: писем и воспоминаний Лили Брик, записей бесед с ней, воспоминаний других близких Маяковскому людей, а также документов из архива британской госбезопасности.
Цитаты:
“Возможно, что если б не Ося, я любила бы Володю не так сильно, — вспоминала Лили. — Я не могла не любить Володю, если его так сильно любил Ося. Ося говорил, что для него Володя не человек, а событие. Володя во многом перестроил Осино мышление"
...
Я хочу быть понят моей страной,
а не буду понят, —
что ж,
по родной стране
пройду стороной,
как проходит
косой дождь.
Примечательны сомнения Маяковского в том, что его поэзии найдется место в новом обществе, но не менее примечателен тот факт, что впоследствии он эти строки вычеркнул. Сделал он это по совету Осипа, считавшего, что “поэт, цель всей работы которого, цель жизни — быть во что бы то ни стало услышанным и понятым своей страной”, не может написать такое. Хотя Маяковскому нравились эти строки, он согласился их убрать, тем самым сняв контрастное взаимодействие амбивалентных чувств, столь свойственное его лучшим произведениям. (Та же противоречивость, впрочем, отражается и в набросках, где в пятой строке поэт колеблется между диаметрально противоположными эпитетами — “родной” и “чужой” страной.)
...
К такому же неординарному шпионскому жанру можно отнести две экспедиции в Тибет, организованные ОГПУ в 1926 и 1928 годах с целью найти мифическую Шамбалу, чьи жители, по легенде, обладали способностью к телепатии. Экспедиции формально возглавлял художник и теософ Николай Рерих, но основным действующим лицом был прекрасно ориентировавшийся в восточной мистике Блюмкин, который выступал под видом то монгольского офицера, то ламы — в зависимости от характера выполняемого поручения.
July 1, 2018
کم نیستند کتابهایی که تعریفهای زیادی دربارهشان شنیدهایم و وقتی به سراغشان میرویم صرفا بهخاطر ترجمه از خواندنشان بیزار میشویم.
ترجمهی این کتاب البته بیزارکننده نبود. اما قطعا ناامیدکننده بود.
کتاب پر از است اسامی روسی که وقتی به فارسی نوشته شده واقعا تلاش زیادی میخواهد تا بتوانی تلفظشان کنی اما بلافاصله با نگاه کردن به اسم لاتین که در توضیحات آمده تلفظ درست اسم را متوجه میشوی.
در زبان فرانسوی «اسپانیا» اینطور نوشته میشود:
Espagne
و مترجم این کلمه رو «اسپاگنه» ترجمه کرده! یعنی مترجم انگار مثل فردی که تازه با حروف الفبای لاتین آشنا شده کلمات را حرف به حرف ترجمه کرده است! وقتی کلمهای مثل اسپانیا که در متن همان جملاتی که بهکار بده شده متوجهتان میکند منظور واقعا همان اسپانیاست! اینطور ترجمه شود، چرا باید امیدوار بود که خب در کل کتاب خوبی را خواندهایم؟
نکنید عزیزان. تمرین کنید برای بهترشدن ترجمههایتان اما اینطور، با یک کتاب تمرین نکنید.
ترجمهی این کتاب البته بیزارکننده نبود. اما قطعا ناامیدکننده بود.
کتاب پر از است اسامی روسی که وقتی به فارسی نوشته شده واقعا تلاش زیادی میخواهد تا بتوانی تلفظشان کنی اما بلافاصله با نگاه کردن به اسم لاتین که در توضیحات آمده تلفظ درست اسم را متوجه میشوی.
در زبان فرانسوی «اسپانیا» اینطور نوشته میشود:
Espagne
و مترجم این کلمه رو «اسپاگنه» ترجمه کرده! یعنی مترجم انگار مثل فردی که تازه با حروف الفبای لاتین آشنا شده کلمات را حرف به حرف ترجمه کرده است! وقتی کلمهای مثل اسپانیا که در متن همان جملاتی که بهکار بده شده متوجهتان میکند منظور واقعا همان اسپانیاست! اینطور ترجمه شود، چرا باید امیدوار بود که خب در کل کتاب خوبی را خواندهایم؟
نکنید عزیزان. تمرین کنید برای بهترشدن ترجمههایتان اما اینطور، با یک کتاب تمرین نکنید.
March 22, 2017
The first non-Soviet biography of the Revolutionary Poet whose outsized life and loves encompassed the turbulence of the early 20th century. His poetry and poster art had swung in and out of favor even before his suicide at the age of 37. Futurist poetry was only an aspiration of this natural lyricist, and his mental and emotional struggles are captured in word and image in this excellent account. I still don't warm to his poetry, but my heart aches for the tragic times he lived through.
“My poem
will thrust itself forward
through the centuries
and stand there heavy,
rough
and clear as glass…”
Mayakovsky “At the top of my voice” p.493
“My poem
will thrust itself forward
through the centuries
and stand there heavy,
rough
and clear as glass…”
Mayakovsky “At the top of my voice” p.493
November 30, 2017
5/5: Jedna najlepszch biografii, jakie czytałam. Jeżeli nie najlepsza. Nie jest jednowymiarowa. Nie gloryfikuje Majakowskiego, ale i nie osądza - czytelnik sam może sobie wyrobić zdanie o jednym z najważniejszych poetów awangardowych na świecie i jego postawy wobec "rewolucji i reakcji". Polecam. Wszystkim. Niezależnie od sympatii politycznych i tego czy zachwyca ich Matejko i Sienkiewicz, czy raczej Pasternak i Malewicz.
November 13, 2016
وجه مشترک آنها با "انسان های نوین چرنیشفسکی در تلاش آنها در مبارزه است.مبارزه در حسادت و دیگر اصطلاحات "جامعه سنتی" و در احترام به فرد و به رسمیت شناختن استقلال و عدم وابستگی که خود شرط لازم عشق و دوستی است.پر واضح است که "آزادی " هزینه بالایی از نوع حسادت و دیگر شکنجه های روحی می طلبید. "
March 17, 2017
Замечательная биография, последовательная, интересная. Автор использовал, как известные источники, так и не публиковавшиеся ранее (письма и дневниковые записи Лили Брик).
April 2, 2021
«تلخ این است که روسیه سرزمینیست که بخشی از تاریخ ادبیات آن در بایگانی پلیس نوشته میشود.»
کتاب ناتمام ترجمه شده و نویسنده و ناشر هیچ اشارهای به ناتمامی ترجمه نکردند. فهمیدم نامههای شخصی را باید شخصی نگه داشت، معمولا نامهها برای خواننده، کسی که خارج از دورِ نگارنده و گیرنده است هیچ حاصلی در بر ندارد.
کتاب ناتمام ترجمه شده و نویسنده و ناشر هیچ اشارهای به ناتمامی ترجمه نکردند. فهمیدم نامههای شخصی را باید شخصی نگه داشت، معمولا نامهها برای خواننده، کسی که خارج از دورِ نگارنده و گیرنده است هیچ حاصلی در بر ندارد.
July 8, 2019
Incredibly insightful and engrossing from not only a literary but historical perspective; there's an equal appreciation for Mayakovsky the poet as well as Mayakovsky the man.
April 13, 2022
Länge sen jag läste. Plöjde allt gymnasiebiblioteket hade om och av Majakovskij.
May 22, 2023
Couldn't be bothered to finish it. Read 1/3.
April 27, 2024
An incredibly detailed biography which really allows you to feel how it was to live in those brutal times and paints Mayakovsky as an exceptionally sensitive, beautiful, albeit flawed person.
May 20, 2023
Lo" Quali poeti, oltre a noi, si erano meritati un simile stato di guerra?Dieci poliziotti per ogni poesia letta"
" Essere borghese
Non è avere un capitale,
Scialacquare monete d'oro.
È il calcagno dei morti
Premuto sulla gola dei giovani,
È la bocca tappata da zolle di grasso."
Molto interessante conoscere i mutamenti politici e sociali e le vittime tra poeti e scrittori che hanno mietuto ( Blok, Gumiliev)
M. Veniva descritto come un rozzo gigante, senza denti, vestiva una logoro blusa gialla, impotente.
" Avete scambiato l'amore con il tè?
L'amore con delle calze rattoppate?
"Molte vite vennero infrante dal peso crescente delle contraddizioni"
Menage a trois, l'insostenibile tirannia di Lili,il gioco i pensieri suicidi, le contraddizioni,il partito, la Russia. Foto, poesie, poeti.
C'è tutto in questa biografia
" Ho sempre avuto l'impressione che l'innato talento di M.un giorno sarebbe esploso,che sarebbe stato costretto a fare esplodere quegli strati di stupidaggini chimicamente pure (...)che lui volontariamente si era tirato addosso nel corso di questo decennio fino a diventare irriconoscibile"
Questa frase sintetizza alla perfezione, le contraddizioni del poeta.
Soggiogato dal tuo bisogno d'amore e riconoscimento,spesso è stato allineato al sistema, al partito (Svalutazione morale)e questo ha fatto che all'interno della sua produzione si debba cercare con cura cosa è valido e sincero e cosa scritto su commissione.
Il quadro che esce da questa biografia non è particolarmente lusinghiero e lui come D.come sostiene Nori non sarebbe stato piacevole da conoscere, sempre Nori dichiara di preferigli di gran lunga Cheblenikov e la sua antagonista stilistica Achmantova.
" Essere borghese
Non è avere un capitale,
Scialacquare monete d'oro.
È il calcagno dei morti
Premuto sulla gola dei giovani,
È la bocca tappata da zolle di grasso."
Molto interessante conoscere i mutamenti politici e sociali e le vittime tra poeti e scrittori che hanno mietuto ( Blok, Gumiliev)
M. Veniva descritto come un rozzo gigante, senza denti, vestiva una logoro blusa gialla, impotente.
" Avete scambiato l'amore con il tè?
L'amore con delle calze rattoppate?
"Molte vite vennero infrante dal peso crescente delle contraddizioni"
Menage a trois, l'insostenibile tirannia di Lili,il gioco i pensieri suicidi, le contraddizioni,il partito, la Russia. Foto, poesie, poeti.
C'è tutto in questa biografia
" Ho sempre avuto l'impressione che l'innato talento di M.un giorno sarebbe esploso,che sarebbe stato costretto a fare esplodere quegli strati di stupidaggini chimicamente pure (...)che lui volontariamente si era tirato addosso nel corso di questo decennio fino a diventare irriconoscibile"
Questa frase sintetizza alla perfezione, le contraddizioni del poeta.
Soggiogato dal tuo bisogno d'amore e riconoscimento,spesso è stato allineato al sistema, al partito (Svalutazione morale)e questo ha fatto che all'interno della sua produzione si debba cercare con cura cosa è valido e sincero e cosa scritto su commissione.
Il quadro che esce da questa biografia non è particolarmente lusinghiero e lui come D.come sostiene Nori non sarebbe stato piacevole da conoscere, sempre Nori dichiara di preferigli di gran lunga Cheblenikov e la sua antagonista stilistica Achmantova.
January 7, 2015
Mayakovsky: A Biography by Bengt Jangfeldt brings to life with intimate and not so intimate details the exploits and context of Vladimir Mayakovsky's living, work and vision. Jangfeldt edited a previous book on Mayakovsky, "Love is the Heart of Everything: Correspondence Between Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lili Brik, 1915-1930," compiling love letters and other communication between Mayakovsky and the love of his live, Lily Brik. In his new biography, Jangfeldt reframes this central relationship at the heart of Mayakovsky's trials and tribulations, adding almost daily events in Mayakovsky's "marriage cartel" to Lily Brik and her husband Osip Brik.Mayakovsky and his futurist ilk were ice-breaking ships. From the collective manifesto, A Slap in the Face of Public Taste to his work cohering Mayakovsky went on national and international tours to read and perform his poetry and engage in political and cultural discussions and dialogues with other like-minded bohemians, cultural workers, artists and other class conscious workers. Mayakovsky debated the issues of his day with poetry, at times making outrageous claims that over time were not so outrageous.
The Big Poet
Vladimir Mayakovsky was a big poet -- physically, poetically, political, literally -- who conjugated in his person and writing all the revolutionary explosives imaginable. Loved and hated almost equally by contemporaries, who in equal parts over-estimated and under-estimated his poetics and politics, unappreciated by the politics-alone acumen of the main world's communist, Lenin; loved(and introduced, according to Boris Pasternak, "like potatoes during the reign of Catherine the Great") by the most infamous Stalin who forced contemporary critics, writers and poets to revere Mayakovsky. Put the cheery of suicide on top and violá, Mayakovsky became a beautiful contradiction still willing to serve everyone's revolution, not just the October Revolution, on his own even in death.
A revolutionary and poet by turns, while still a teenager, Mayakovsky was a member of the Bolshevik wing of the Social Democratic Party (forerunner of the Russian and then Soviet Communist Party). For his organizing work, hounded by police agents, Mayakovsky was imprisoned, suffering solitary confinement. After being released from prison Mayakovsky pursued his original dream of becoming a painter. Mayakovsky did not last long in art school, not for lack of talent. He was expelled from art school for his politics as wells as for his artistic directions. Mayakovsky was also writing poems and met a fellow futurist who upon hearing him share a poem declared him a mighty world-class poet and from there on introduced him as Mayakovsky, poet.
The Russian futurists were only related to the Italian futurists (Marinetti, in particular) by their devotion to the new, the shiny machines -- or the idea of newfound speed of industrial dominant societies. The Russian futurists were arrogant and bold enough to want to throw overboard all previous cultural achievements in the arts and literature, which they linked to the disasters of emerging capitalism in Russia.
November 15, 2018
Vraiment une super biographie que je recommande, en plus super bien illustrée (en tout cas dans sa version française). Même la typo est adaptée au ton futuriste & avant-gardiste pour suivre le thème.
La plongée dans la trajectoire personnelle de cet homme, dans ses idées et son oeuvre mais aussi dans le contexte de l'époque mérite vraiment la lecture de ce livre.
C'est un livre que je m'étais mis de côté depuis des années dans la liste des livres que je voulais lire et j'avais de gros attentes: je n'ai vraiment pas été déçu.
La plongée dans la trajectoire personnelle de cet homme, dans ses idées et son oeuvre mais aussi dans le contexte de l'époque mérite vraiment la lecture de ce livre.
C'est un livre que je m'étais mis de côté depuis des années dans la liste des livres que je voulais lire et j'avais de gros attentes: je n'ai vraiment pas été déçu.
December 3, 2017
Förvisso ett gediget forskningsarbete, men för tung och torr för denna nöjesläsare.
July 26, 2016
Frábær ævisaga Majakovskís. Síðustu kaflarnir um sjálfsmorð hans eru sérlega áhrifamiklir.
May 12, 2019
یک عاشقانه ی ناآرام
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