Akhmadulina Bella: poems and biography

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

Akhmadulina Bella (full name Isabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina), the largest lyric poet of the Soviet and post-Soviet period, was born in Moscow on April 10, 1937 in an intelligent family. Father, Akhmadulin Akhat Valeevich, was a deputy minister, and his mother, Nadezhda Makarovna Akhmadulina, worked as a translator. The girl grew up in a creative atmosphere, famous writers and poets often visited the house, and little Bella listened with unchildish interest to the conversations of adults about art, theater premieres, new books, about everything that Moscow lived in the fifties of the last century.

Future poetess

Bella Akhmadulina's poetic gift manifested itself in childhood, she easily rhymed everything that came into her head, and at the age of 12 the girl began to write down her poems in a notebook. When she was 15 years old, the well-known literary critic D. Bykov read the poems of the young poetess. In his figurative expression, Bella "felt her way of poetry."

After graduating from school, Bella Akhmadulina, whose biography then opened her main page, applied forfaculty of journalism, but failed the exam. In response to a question about the content of the editorial of the latest issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Bella shrugged her shoulders and stated that she did not read the newspaper.

Akhmadulina's titles

Bella Akhmadulina's life was filled with Russian poetry to the brim, she published many collections that the whole country read, she was a member of the Writers' Union of the Russian Federation, she participated in the work of the Russian PEN Center chaired by Andrey Bitov, in which Akhmadulina was a vice - President together with Andrey Voznesensky. Also, the poetess was a member of the public committee at the Museum named after A. S. Pushkin on Prechistenka. She was an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Literature. He is a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, as well as the State Prize of the Soviet Union.

Poetess and censors

Akhmadulina Bella became a recognized poetess even before graduating from the Literary Institute (she received her diploma in 1960). At the age of 18, Bella actively participated in the protest movement for justice; she, like many Soviet writers and poets, was not satisfied with the strict censorship of the Press Committee. In 1957, Akhmadulina was criticized in Komsomolskaya Pravda, to which she responded with new poems. A confrontation began with literary officials, party structures and the administration of the institute where Bella studied. And when she publicly refused to participate in the persecution of Boris Pasternak, she was expelled from the Literary Institute (the formal reason was notpassed test in Marxism-Leninism). However, Akhmadulina was soon reinstated, as the incident threatened to go international.

Treasure of Russian poetry

A year before graduating from the institute, in 1959, the poetess wrote her first poem, which brought her world fame, "Along my street that year …". After the first success of Akhmadulin, Bella continued to work as usual, creating real masterpieces. The poetess adhered to the old-fashioned style in her poems, although she revealed the most modern themes. Bella Akhmadulina's poems are bright, memorable, poignant, as Joseph Brodsky said, Bella is "a treasure of Russian poetry".

Akhmadulina did not recognize the word "poetess", demanded that she be called "poet". When the "poet" Bella Akhmadulina visited Georgia in 1970, she fell in love with this country, leaving, she left part of her soul in Tbilisi. Later, already being a well-known translator, she translated into Russian the works of Irakli Abashidze, Galaktion Tabidze, the 19th-century romantic poet Nikolai Baratashvili.

The poetess also wrote in prose, she wrote a series of essays about contemporary poets, as well as about Pushkin and Lermontov. The work of Bella Akhmadulina was reflected in the bestseller "Autograph of the Century", 2006, in which a whole chapter is devoted to her. And abroad, volumes of literary studies were dedicated to the poetess.

Akhmadulina's style

Bella Akhmadulina's poems are replete with metaphors that, like a diamond placer, adorn andbrighten the lines. The poetess translates the most ordinary narration into a bizarre interweaving of allegories, and phrases acquire a shade of archaism, and simple phrases become pearls of elegant style. Such is Bella Akhmadulina, poet.

Bella was a member of the "sixties" circle, she rotated among the most famous poets of that time: Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrey Voznesensky. Their performances at Moscow University, the Polytechnic Museum, Luzhniki gathered huge audiences. At that time, people were not just open to new impressions, they were "open" to the fresh wind of change, waiting for changes for the better, hoping. Therefore, the poems of poets, and not least Bella Akhmadulina, became latent criticism of the totalitarian system.

Public Speaking

Bella Akhmadulina, whose biography raised questions among party leaders, became the first Soviet poetess who spoke about simple things in a high poetic style. Her performances on stage became the improvisation of the master. The indescribable manner of reading, confidential intonations, Bella's artistry had a bewitching effect on the audience. There was a ringing silence in the hall, and only the penetrating voice of the poetess read poems written in a high "calm", which, nevertheless, was understood by everyone. The tension was semi-conscious, later Bella said: "… like walking on the edge of a rope …"

Choice

Bella instinctively moved away from the ordinary, fled from the present,sought solitude in her work. The first collection of the poetess, en titled "String", was published in 1962. The book shows Akhmadulina's desire to find herself in Russian poetry. It is tense, there are many roads, but I want to find the only true one, my own path. And Bella found him, it was in the mid-60s that she ceased to be a "knight at the crossroads", and then that high poetic style, manner and music of the verse was formed, which distinguish all the work of Bella Akhmadulina.

Sublime lyrics, accuracy of metaphor, freedom in the construction of verse - all this became "Akhmadulina's poetry". One interesting feature can be traced in her work: the poetess communicates with the soul of the subject. Rain, trees in the garden, a candle on the table, someone's portrait - everything has spiritual signs in Bella Akhmadulina's poetry. One can feel her desire to give a name to the object and enter into a dialogue with it.

Past and present in the work of Akhmadulina

Bella Akhmadulina's poems seem to be playing with time, the poetess is trying to subjugate space, leaving her thoughts in the 19th century, the era of chivalry and nobility, aristocracy and generosity. There, in the past, Bella finds her place, lives on lost values and longs to return them to her present. An example of this is "Antique Shop Adventure", "Country Romance", "My Family Tree".

All her life Bella Akhmadulina followed the principle of "friendliness", it was important for her to "give thanks", to sing just a little, because notthere is this smallness - everything is great. Therefore, Bella Akhmadulina spoke about love as if her lover had heard her, but in fact she was addressing a passerby, a reader, or the most ordinary person. Her lyrics are permeated with participation, compassion and love for unfortunate people, miserable, orphaned creatures in human form.

Poetess Akhmadulina experienced the effects of criticism in two directions: official, which accused her of mannerisms and trickery, and liberal criticism, which allowed "art" in poetry. Both those and other well-wishers were a product of the system, and Bella ignored them. At the same time, the poetess never wrote poems on topics of public importance and social overtones. Her lyrics were lyrical and nothing else, although a weaver or a milkmaid could be made lyrical. And I would have done if not for the socialist competition between them, which the party bodies insisted on.

Private life

There were rumors about Bella Akhmadulina as a femme fatale. And indeed, everyone who talked with her for at least five minutes fell in love with her. Men felt her inaccessibility, and this only kindled passion. Bella's first legal husband was Yevgeny Yevtushenko, with whom she studied at the Literary Institute. The family life of the two poets took place in quarrels and reconciliations, walks around Moscow and gifting each other with poems. Yevtushenko and Akhmadulina lived together for three years.

The second husband of the poetess was Yuri Nagibin, a writer. Nagibin's love was such that during Bella's performance on stage, hecould not sit, stood up against the wall and held on so as not to fall from an inexplicable weakness in his legs. At that time, Bella was at the peak of her extravagance. “Angel, beauty, goddess,” Rimma Kazakova said about her friend Akhmadulina. The marriage with Nagibin lasted eight years. The farewell was painful, Bella even wrote poetry about it.

Akhmadulina also had novels, she met with Vasily Shukshin, even starred in his film "Such a guy lives", playing a journalist. For some time she lived with Eldar Kuliev, the son of the famous writer Kaysyn Kuliev. The marriage was civil, but nevertheless, the couple had a daughter, Lisa, in 1973.

Then, in 1974, Bella met Boris Messerer, a stage designer, who became her third and last husband, with whom the poetess lived for more than thirty-five years. Somehow, it just so happened that the practical Boris Messerer undertook to manage the affairs of his absent-minded wife. He put in order her poems, written on anything, including napkins. Bella was grateful to her husband for this. The life and work of Bella Akhmadulina were under reliable protection. The wife of the poetess guarded the treasure of both his own and the whole Russian land.

Death of Akhmadulina

In October 2010, Akhmadulina Bella felt unwell, her oncological disease worsened. The poetess was hospitalized in the Botkin hospital, where she was operated on. There was an improvement, and Akhmadulina was discharged home. However, she passed away four days later.

Funeral Servicepassed in the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, in the presence of relatives and friends. Then, in the Central House of Writers, all those whom she called "my venerable readers" during her lifetime, and these are many thousands of people, said goodbye to the poetess. Bella Akhmadulina was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.