"Lucidas" ( English Lycidas ) is a poem of the 17th century English poet John Milton , written in 1637 in the genre of pastoral elegy .
| Lucidas | |
|---|---|
| Lycidas | |
| Genre | poem , elegy |
| Author | John Milton |
| Original language | English |
| Date of writing | 1637 |
| Date of first publication | 1638 |
Content
Name Lucidas
- “Again, ivy, and myrtle, and evergreen laurel,
- Again from your leafy branches
- Shoots, fragile as long as
- Ruthlessly i will
- Tear off with your rough hand.
- Cruelty is, no doubt, but she
- Our misfortune is an excuse -
- Dead Lucidas. Before the deadline, the world lost
- The one who has no equal between people.
- How not to sing about it, since chants
- Between us, everyone studied with him?
- So let him who is on the crest of a swell
- It sways now in a wet tomb,
- The wind brings the bitter cry of friends!
- ...
- Again from your leafy branches
The name Lucidas is derived from the ancient Greek name Lycides. This name is often found in ancient sources. Herodotus in the IX book of his “ History ” mentions an Athenian adviser in Salamis named Lycides.
And Murikhid appeared before the council of the [Athenians] and set out the commission of Mardonius. One of the advisers, Likid, argued that it would be better not to reject the proposals of Murikhid, but to submit it to the national assembly. But Likides gave such an opinion is unknown, because he was bribed by Mardonius, or because he considered him really correct. The Athenians, having heard such advice, became indignant (advisers - no less than the people who were impatiently waiting on the street) and immediately surrounded Likida and stoned him. They released the Hellespontian Murikhid unscathed. In Salamis, meanwhile, confusion arose over Lycides; Athenian women, learning about the incident, inciting signs and taking one another along the way, came to Likida's dwelling and stoned his wife and children.
Later, the name Likid appears in other ancient authors. In Theocritus (Idyll, VII), he appears as a poet-goat, in Virgil (" Bukoliki ", IX) as a Greek shepherd. Ovid ( Metamorphoses , XII) mentions a centaur named Lycides.
Creation and Publishing
In August 1637, Milton's university friend Edward King drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Wales in the Irish Sea. King's friends decided to release a collection dedicated to his memory. John Milton wrote for the collection the elegy "Lucidas". The collection was published in 1638 at the Cambridge Printing House, Milton's elegy was signed in it by the initials JM Unlike most of the poems that were published in this collection in Latin and Ancient Greek, Milton's elegy was published in English.
In 1645, the elegy was reprinted under the full name of Milton in his first poetic collection. A short prosaic introduction was added to it.
Artistic Features and Significance
The work is a small poem written in the genre of pastoral elegy , consisting of 197 lines and unevenly rhymed. Following the traditions of ancient Greek, ancient Roman, early medieval literature and literature of the early Renaissance, Milton captures a loved one with the help of pastoral poetry. Milton describes King as an unselfish friend and allegorically accuses God of punishing the young man unfairly, ending his career prematurely, which contrasted sharply with the selfish and depraved activities of most English ministers and bishops [1] .
In the elegy, Milton gives subtle descriptions of idealized rural life, but the mood itself is deeper and reveals patriotic passions lurking in the poet's soul; The fanaticism of the Puritan revolutionary is strangely interwoven here with melancholic poetry in the spirit of Petrarch. Anikst defines this elegy as a poem about the high purpose of the poet and the fragility of man in the face of the elements [2] .
Translations into Russian
The Russian translation of the elegy was made by Yuri Korneev and published in 1976 in Milton's volume in the series “ Library of World Literature ”:
- Milton J. Paradise Lost. Poems. Samson the fighter. - M .: Fiction, 1976. - 575 p. - ( World Literature Library ). - 303,000 copies.
Notes
Comments
- ↑ A fragment of the text is presented for the purpose of familiarization and for the recognition of the song. The text is protected by copyright laws and cannot be published in its entirety.
Sources
- ↑ Womack, 1997 , p. 119-136.
- ↑ Anikst, 1976 , p. 17.
Literature
Critical Text Editions
- The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton / Ed. Douglas Bush. - Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965.
- Milton, John. The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton / Ed. William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen Fallon. - New York: The Modern Library, 2007.
Articles and Monographs
- Womack, Mark. On the Value of Lycidas // Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 . - 1997. - S. 119-136.
- Anikst A.A. John Milton // John Milton . Lost heaven. Poems. Samson the fighter. - M .: Fiction, 1976. - S. 5-24. - 575 s. - ( World Literature Library ).
- Samarin R. M. Creativity of John Milton. - M .: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1964 .-- 485 p.
- Gorbunov A.N. Three Great Poets of England: Donne, Milton, Wordsworth. - M .: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2012 .-- 320 p. - 500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-211-06168-2 .