The fairy tale "Fly-clatter" - the fruit of the inspiration of the poet

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"The Fly-Sokotuha", a fairy tale for children, was written by Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (real name - Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov) in 1923. At first, the State Academic Council, or rather its censorship commission, suspecting the children's poet of sympathy for the village world-eaters, whose portrait she vigilantly discerned in the form of horned and rich beetles, forbade the publication of the work. Mukhin's Wedding (that was its original name) was published by the publishing house Raduga only in 1924. And the popular fairy tale, published for the sixth time, received its modern title in 1927.

Let's briefly recall a simple plot. A certain Sokotukha Fly accidentally found money in the field, decided to buy a samovar and widely celebrate her name days by inviting her class brothers - familiar insects. Suddenly, without invitation, a spider burst in and dragged the birthday girl into its spidery corner. None of the guests spoke in defense of the hostess. But, when the Tsokotukha Fly was already on the verge of death, the Komarik-hero suddenly flew in from somewhere, saved the girl from trouble by killing the villainous spider, andoffered her a hand and a heart. All the guests crawled out of their hiding places and again gathered at the festive table, but this time in honor of the cheerful wedding of Mosquito and the birthday girl.

As Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky recalled, “The Tsokotukha Fly” in August 1923 was born in one day. He was flooded with inspiration under the influence of an unexpected surge of happiness. This happened when the writer was forced to come from his dacha to hot Petrograd on business. Under the influence of emotions, the poet did not run up, but literally took off into an empty apartment and, finding some piece of paper, got a pencil, and began to quickly sketch out one line after another of funny poems about the fly's wedding, and he himself reincarnated as a groom.

"The clatter fly" was conceived a long time ago, the writer even took it for sketches ten times, but never got more than two lines. But now he effortlessly scribbled the whole piece on both sides, finding no more paper, tore off a strip of wallpaper from the wall in the corridor, and with a feeling of thoughtless happiness continued to write down the lines, as if from dictation.

In a fairy tale, two holidays are celebrated: a wedding and a name day. The poet heartily feasted on both. But as soon as the last composed lines lay down on the completely written paper, the happy unconsciousness left in an instant, and Chukovsky again found himself in an empty apartment, immensely tired and hungry, forced to leave the dacha and come to the city for trifling and painful affairs. When the mosquito began to dance in the course of the tale, the author also danced, experiencing terrible inconvenience, since he was veryit was difficult to dance and write at the same time. If someone were watching this whole picture from the side, they would be surprised to wonder what made the gray-haired 42-year-old father of the family, weighed down by daily work, rush around the apartment, stamping, spinning and bouncing, while shouting sonorous words and scribbling them into a gnarled roll of dusty used wallpaper?

He didn't realize then that such sudden periods of inspired happiness were essentially a return to childhood. This realization came later. Chukovsky believed that one cannot be a children's writer to a person who cannot from time to time part with the burden of adulthood, splash out of it, forgetting all worries, annoyances and turning into a peer of his readers, addressees of his own poems. Unfortunately, bursts of childish joy were rare in the poet's life. As a matter of fact, the fairy tale "Fly-Sokotuha" is the only work from the first to the last word written hastily, swiftly, within one day, on the wave of an unexpected tide of cloudless childish happiness.