Article

Name: Vitaly Ryabinin’s “Japanese watercolors”: genre and stanza experiments

Authors: E. Yu. Kulikova

Institute of Philology SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: “Exotic” themes, extremely popular in art at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, craving for “foreign,” for extraordinary travels to Africa, India, the East, determined not only the proper-ties of plot-motive complexes in literature, painting, and music but also the features of genre structure of the Silver Age works. In his microcycle “Japanese watercolors” from the poetic book “Melody-trill chords,” the poet V. Ryabinin operates with lyric genres (sonnet, romance) and stanza forms (sextins, hexameters). Stylized genres and stanzas reveal the au-thor’s technique and show classic solid forms in a new aspect. The poet uses Japanese names (“Niavari,” “Nipu,” “Kitamura”), immerses the reader into the world of Japanese words and images (“Harakiri,” “Arigato,” “Geisha,” “Sayonara,” “hasivar”), mentions geographical names (“Fujiyama,” “Sumidagawa,” “Kurisan”), and even composes the poems in the hokku (haiku) genre. These are exactly “watercolors” – the poems combining the richness of tone, dense and bright construction of space, and “black and white” graphicality of images and motives. To emphasize this protuberant solidity, “sketches” are placed in strict forms. Thus, from “drawing” to “drawing”, from text to text, the reader moves in the world of Japanese shadows created by Ryabinin. “Watercolors” are an attempt to comprehend the colors and shades of the Japanese soul by a European – sometimes in a European manner, using “Western tools.” From the oriental genres, the poet chooses only the hokku, and the rest of the poems are created in terms of European classical forms, the Japanese theme entirely penetrating the cycle of “Watercolours”.

Keywords: genre, stanza forms, Ryabinin, “Japanese watercolors”, Japan, orientalism

Bibliography:

Aydamirova I. Sh., Shak T. F. Traditsii russkogo romansa v otechestvennoy estrad- noy pesne (k postanovke problemy) [Traditions of the Russian romance in the national pop song (to the formulation of the problem)]. Cultural Studies of Russian South. 2017, no. 1 (64), pp. 88–91.

Azadovskiy K. M., D’yakonova E. M. Bal’mont i Yaponiya [Balmont and Japan]. St. Petersburg, Nestor-Istoriya, 2017, 304 р. Bondi S. M. Pushkin i russkiy gekzametr [Pushkin and the Russian hexameter]. In: Bondi S. M. O Pushkine. Stat’i i issledovaniya [On Pushkin. Articles and studies]. Moscow, Khudozh. lit., 1983, pp. 307–370.

Bryusov V. Ya. Sobr. soch.: V 7 t. T. 3: Stikhotvoreniya 1918–1924 [Collected works: in 7 vols. Vol. 3: Poems 1918–1924]. Moscow, Khudozh. lit., 1974, vol. 3, 693 p.

D’yakonova E. M. “Ya videl son, chto kazhdyy tam poet...”. Obrazy Yaponii v poezii Serebryanogo veka [“I had a dream that everyone there is a poet ...”. Images of Japan in the poetry of the Silver Age]. In: Yaponiya 2017. Ezhegodnik [Japan 2017. Yearbook]. Moscow, AIRO-XXI, 2017, pp. 283–307.

Fain. Dusha yaponskoy poezii [The soul of Japanese poetry]. Tvorchestvo: zhurnal kul’tury, iskusstva i sotsial’nogo stroitel’stva. Vladivostok, 1920, no. 5, Okt., pp. 69–71.

Gadzhieva D. A. Vostok v tvorchestve poetov i pisateley serebryanogo veka kak otrazhenie evraziyskoy mysli [East in the works of poets and writers of the Silver Age as a reflection of Eurasian thought]. DSPU JOURNAL. 2015, no. 4, pp. 62–66.

Gasparov M. L. Russkie stikhi 1890-kh – 1925-go godov v kommentariyakh [Russian poems of the 1890s–1925s in the commentaries]. Moscow, Vyssh. shk., 1993, 272 p.

Geller L. K opisaniyu ekzotizmov. Predlozheniya [To the description of exoticisms. Proposals]. Filologicheskie zapiski. 2008, no. 27, pp. 5–31.

Grabar’ I. Yaponskaya tsvetnaya gravyura na dereve [Japanese color woodcut] Moscow, Izd. kn. S. A. Shcherbatova i V. V. fon Mekk, 1903, 25 p.

Orlitskiy Yu. Tsvety chuzhogo sada (yaponskaya stikhotvornaya miniatyura na russkoy pochve) [Flowers of someone else’s garden (Japanese poetic miniature on Russian soil)]. Arion: zhurnal poezii. 1998, no. 2, pp. 62–79.

Punin N. Yaponskaya gravyura [Japanese engraving]. Apollon. 1915, no. 6–7, pp. 1–35.

Purtova T. O. Stilizatsiya khokku v lirike Bal’monta [Hokku stylization in Balmont’s lyrics]. In: Aktual’nye problemy filologii: Materialy Mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konf. molodykh uchenykh (25 aprelya 2019 g.) [Actual problems of philology: Proceedings of the International scientific-practical conference of young scientists (April 25, 2019). Ural. State Pedagogical University]. Yekaterinburg, 2019, iss. 18, pp. 99–106. Ryabinin V. Melotrel’nye akkordy: sbornik stikhotvoreniy, fel’etonov, shutok i paro- diy [Melotrelnye chords: a collection of poems, feuilletons, jokes and parodie]. Tomsk, Parovaya tip. Tomskogo soyuza kooperativov, 1918, 64 p. Voloshin M. Klodel’ v Kitae [Claudel in China]. Apollon. 1911, no. 7, pp. 43–62.