The story of a poem about how a scattered man from Basseinaya Street lived

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

Forgetful, inattentive, eccentric people we jokingly call "distracted people from Basseinaya Street". We say the same thing to children who leave their hats or books at school, shoes in gyms, dolls, balls, cars on playgrounds… However, not all of today's little readers know this mysterious person with whom they are compared.

To the history of creation

"Here's the absent-minded from Basseynaya Street" - perhaps the most favorite poem of our grandmothers and mothers. Without it, it is just as impossible to imagine their childhood as without Cinderella, the Snow Queen, Winnie the Pooh or the Kid with Carlson. Its author is Samuil Marshak, a wonderful poet, on whose works not a single generation of Soviet children was brought up. The story about how the scattered man from Basseinaya Street lived is recognized as the most popular work of the poet. Coming to readers in 1930, the book with its funny character has sincewithstood dozens of reprints and translations into many languages. The wonderful illustrations of the artist Konashevich added to the charm of the magnificent lines. It was for them that the public imagined what the hero looks like - scattered from Basseinaya Street.

The author and his hero

People who knew Marshak closely, not without reason, argued that the author was somewhat similar to the image he invented, and he repeatedly returned to him in his work. Apparently, the poet was interested in such personalities: somewhat ridiculous, funny eccentrics, extraordinary, with their behavior violating a boring, familiar life. Samuil Yakovlevich, sometimes quite eccentric, sometimes became exactly the same as the absent-minded person from Basseinaya Street. In 1975, the Ekran creative association made a cartoon based on the poem.

From image to plot

The plot of the poem can be considered epic, as it includes both a change of events and a certain development. Based on the principle of a rhymed story, its composition has an exposition, or introduction, then an internal movement, a climax and an epilogue.

What does Marshak tell about the hero? Scattered from Basseynaya Street lives in Leningrad, most likely in a communal apartment. The neighbors are accustomed to his eccentricities and, apparently, do not pay attention to them. They only occasionally correct when the completely absent-minded person breaks the usual stereotypes. Instead of a shirt, the hero puts on trousers, and instead of a hat, he tries toput a frying pan on the top of your head, and even a coat completely "pockets" someone else's. Why is this happening, because the verse "Scattered from Basseinaya Street" is about a quite ordinary person? The thing is that the hero is overly focused on some thoughts only known to him, as Marshak himself was always tuned in to the poetic wave of creativity. And remember the jokes about chess players, professors, and representatives of other professions who are constantly immersed in a sphere that interests them! There will be untied laces, and colorful shoes, and trips to the wrong places! By the way, the scattered one himself also sets off - by train along the Leningrad-Moscow route. What came of it - you can find out by reading the work!

Exact address

One more question remains: "What kind of street in Leningrad is Basseynaya?" On which map can you read its name? Sorry: there is no such street on the modern city map. There really was such a topographic object, but only in St. Petersburg. And since 1818, the street received a different name - Nekrasova. It passes through the center of the city, from the famous Liteiny Avenue to Grechesky. Back in the 18th century, there were pools from which water was supplied to the magnificent fountains in the Summer Garden. A century later, the pools were replaced by the Greek Square. Then the street was renamed in honor of Nekrasov, because the great poet lived here for 20 years. Perhaps that is why - in memory of the famous fellow writer - Marshak settled a scattered man here …