Bobyshev, Dmitry Vasilievich

Dmitry Bobyshev (real name Meshcheryakov) was born on April 11, 1936 in Ukraine in Mariupol . Father - Vyacheslav Meshcheryakov, architect. His mother, Zinaida Ivanovna Pavlova, a learned chemist, lived in Leningrad and left for her relatives before the birth of her first child, after which she returned to Leningrad. Since childhood, he lived in Leningrad . During the blockade, parents remained in the city, Dmitry's father died. After the war, his mother remarried and was adopted by his stepfather, Vasily Konstantinovich Bobyshev, giving him his last name.

In 1959 he graduated from the Leningrad Technological Institute , 10 years worked as an engineer for chemical equipment, then as an editor on television.

Engaged in poetry since the mid-1950s, an active participant in the Leningrad underground literary process of the 60s and 70s. Published in samizdat (including in the journal of Alexander Ginzburg "Syntax"). In the early 1960s, together with Joseph Brodsky , Anatoly Naiman , Evgeny Rein Bobyshev was in the immediate circle of Anna Akhmatova . In particular, the poetess dedicated one of her poems to Bobyshev (The Fifth Rose).

In 1979 he emigrated from the USSR. In the same year, in Paris , the first book of Bobyshev's poems - “Gap” was published. Currently lives and works in the USA - in the city of Urbana-Champaign , Illinois . Professor at the University of Illinois, teaches Russian language and literature. C 1983 - US citizen

He is the author of ten books of poems, a number of poetic translations (modern American poetry), as well as volumes of the memoirs prose “I am here (human text)” ( 2003 ), “Self-portrait in faces (human text, book 2)” (2008), and “I in netah "(2014). The author-compiler of the section “The Third Wave” in the “Dictionary of Poets of the Russian Abroad” (St. Petersburg, 1999). He is a member of the editorial board of the magazines Slovo / Word (New York) and Emigrant Lyre (Belgium).

  Dm  B — woo

 You were called Soleil или or Teahouse
 And what else could you be? ..
 But it became so extraordinary
 I don’t want to forget you.

 You ghostly shone with light
 Recalling the Garden of Eden
 Being a Petrarch sonnet
 Could, and the best of sonatas.

 And those others are all four
 Withered at an o'clock, wilted at night
 Well you shone in this world
 To mysteriously help me.

 You will be a living reproach to me
 And the sweetest dream in reality ...
 You Forbidden Nicotor
 But I will not name excess.

 And we will wet your lips
 And bless my house
 You were like love ... But, by the way,
 It's not about love at all.

 _____
 ¹ Soleil - sun (Fr.) 

Bobyshev’s poetry competes with Brodsky’s poetry rooted in a century and a half of Russian poetic tradition, but Bobyshev chooses more radical manifestations of this tradition: the odic splendor of the 18th century and the futuristic search for self-sufficient meanings in the sound of the word. These trends are reinforced in Bobyshev’s post-departure work, when they are given new food new realities, vocabulary and place names not previously run in Russian verse:

And to Minehahu, and then to Kikapu,

in Pivuoki, in Chatanugu with Chuchey,

to Chuvachnaya - the one along the ford - the path:

by rasta bars

(From the poem “Urban Life,” the title of which directly refers to Derzhavin ’s poem “Eugene. Zvan's Life.”)

In Bobyshev’s poems, we are talking about the revival of Russia to spiritual life, and the revival of the traditions of Russian art, and the restoration of the roots, without which - the unconsciousness of the nation. Timelessness. It is that spiritual abyss from which the poet’s lines appeal to the Creator. This is the poetry of a turning point from the spiritual death of society to the revival of its self-awareness.

And in the depths of being where we will go

this necessary exclamation: “Man, perish!”

Let the demon tremble in me

But the prodigal son has already made his way,

into paternal blackening blue!

The prodigal son is a crushed national spirit, these are synonyms in this case. Also, the revival of the country is the result of the revival of each individual. Never - from society to man, only from man - to society. The revival of the creativity of one poet, each poet (artist, artist ...) is the condition and reason for the revival of national culture.

From the depths of the earth, air, water,

raking and deepening blue

let the pulse grow in me today

to the fiery and spiritual depths.

In poetics, this position is expressed by the fact that the poet does not accept “stubborn” thoughts and words. Everything is in motion, shaky, elusive, like the sensitive foliage of an alder about which Bobyshev wrote at the beginning of his career: “but there is an alienation of perfection in it”. This alienation, inevitably ensuing, when something is finished, done, frozen, now the poet cannot stand it. A wave of the sea becomes his symbol of eternal variability. The “Waves” cycle is all built on the same principle: a spiritual or material phenomenon is compared with a wave in each poem of the cycle. The unity of the cycle lies in affirming the correctness of all shakiness, uncertainty, which is much more accurate than the frozen “alienation of perfection”.

Who lived by the waves didn’t know

how is the communion of things going

to the rhythm? How does the shaft start?

Here is a rush and a span and a failure ...

He baptizes himself and immediately baptizes him.

How many times has he taken a swimmer

into these gentle and powerful ticks!

Rhythm is the basis of essence, of the world, the regularity of movement. He is the beginning of the beginnings. Peace is non-existence. The rhythm is inherent in everything from the running of the planets to the chords of the piano, from the structure of the cell, to the structure of the tongue, from song and prayer to the operation of the motor, from the vibrations of the electron to the architectonics of the flower. Symmetry is also a rhythm. There is no life outside the rhythm, there is not even dead matter! Rhythm is the personification of creation, the cosmos as opposed to chaos, structure as opposed to entropy (which is the spirit of non-existence).

Order will not reveal perfection,

But in a truly rhythmic work

giving birth to a womanhood ...

The poet brings in one wave, as a symbol of rhythm, love, as the highest creative power of a person, creativity itself, as such - “but what song will you sing ...” The basis is a wave, unsteady oscillation, variability according to the laws of rhythm. And what we do not know, sometimes what we do, is therefore logical.

Does not know the wave of its depths -

she cares what is thinly whipped

half-and-half, half-and-half ...

Beauty ovals, avalanches

shattered tons of monolith;

wave to wave is a prayer

where the syllable is divine, the meaning is elusive.

Understanding these patterns is the first step in understanding the essence of life in the abyss into which Russia fell. And the rebirth begins with the small. In the affirmation of these truths, in the reflection of these processes, there is the philosophical meaning of Bobyshev's poetry.

Bobyshev’s poems deal with spiritual experiences, visions, and spiritual experiences. This is the poetry of philosophical searches, and in search of meaning and beauty, the Divine in the earthly, in the comprehension of the material world, there is always a transcendental world.

- V. Cossack

Bobyshev is one of the most remarkable poets of his generation.

He was introduced into the literature by A. A. Akhmatov, who dedicated the poem "The Fifth Rose" to him.

Bobyshev's poetry is metaphysical. Even his earliest poems resemble psalms dedicated to the “affectionate and formidable” God. In them he seeks heaven in the earth, and for him man is not only “substance plus deity”, but also “smart, living particle”

- Handbook of Russian literature. Edited by Victor Terrace. Ed. Yale University (USA), 1985.

Bobyshev is one of the brightest poets of the Leningrad constellation; his move to the West in 1979 was preceded by a collection of poems "Gap", published in Paris. Since then, his most impressive work has been The Russian Tertsins (1977-1978), begun in Leningrad and completed in Milwaukee.

- J.S. Smith

His poems became stronger, more convincing, his creative personality became more distinct. Creative maturity has come ... The creative search for the poet continues. He does not stand still.

- Vadim Shefner ^[1]

• Gap: Poems. - Paris : YMCA-press, 1979., 238 p. [1] l. Portr.
• Beasts of St. Anthony: Bestiary. - Il. Mikhail Shemyakin . - New York : Apollon Foundation, 1989. 50 p. - il.
• Russian tertsins and other poems. - SPb. : World Word, 1992. - 112 p.: With portr. on the back of the cover. The artist. Igor Tulipov. - 2500 copies.
• The completeness of everything. - SPb .: Aquarius, 1992 .-- 144 p., 3500 copies. ISBN 5-87852-004-4
• Angels and powers. - New York: Word-Word, 1997.
• I'm here. Human text. - M .: Vagrius , 2003 .-- 400 p. ISBN 5-9560-0026-0 (Per.)
• Dating Words: Selected Poems. - M.: New Literary Review, 2003.
• Heat Bush. - Paris: Editions de Montmartre, 2003.
• Ode to Aeronautics: Poems of recent years. - M.: Time , 2007 .-- 104 s. ISBN 978-5-9691-0238-5
• Self portrait in faces. Human text, the second book. - M .: Time , 2008. ISBN 978-5-9691-0357-3
• The feeling of vastness. - Frankfurt: Literary European, 2017.

• Cossack V. Lexicon of Russian literature of the XX century = Lexikon der russischen Literatur ab 1917 / [trans. with him.]. - M .: RIC "Culture", 1996. - XVIII, 491, [1] p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-8334-0019-8 .
• Aryev, Andrey. The Searcher (Poetry of Dmitry Bobyshev) // Petersburg poetry in persons: essays / Ivanov, Boris, comp. - Moscow: New Literary Review, 2011 .-- S. 139-157. - 392 p. - ISBN 9785867937980 .
• Klotz, Jacob. Conversation with Dmitry Bobyshev // Poets in New York. - Moscow: New Literary Review, 2016 .-- S. 189-213. - 688 p. - ISBN 9785444805657 .

• Dmitry Bobyshev in the " Journal Hall "
• Dmitry Bobyshev in the international poetic almanac "45th parallel
• Dmitry Bobyshev in the magazine "SEVEN ARTS"
• Dmitry Bobyshev on the site " A new map of Russian literature "
• Dmitry Bobyshev on the site "Unofficial Poetry"
• Dmitry Bobyshev's page on the Babylon website
• Images of Dmitry Bobyshev on the website “Persons of Russian Literature”
• Evgeny Ternovsky Review of the novel-trilogy of Dmitry Bobyshev "Human Text". "New Journal No. 279, 2015
• Alexander Karpenko Bookshelf of Alexander Karpenko. Review of "Human Text" by Dmitry Bobyshev. Foreign Notes, No. 27, 2015
• Dmitry Bobyshev in the author’s telecast by Alexander Karpenko “Books and People”. Dialog TV, issue number 32
• Interview 2016.
• Personal site of Dmitry Bobyshev.