«Я ЧАСТО ЗАБЫВАЮ, КТО Я, РЕБЕНОК ИЛИ СТАРИК…»: МЕТАФОРЫ ВОЗРАСТА В ПОЭЗИИ ВЕНИАМИНА БЛАЖЕННОГО

Abstract

The poetry of Veniamin Blazhennyj (1921—1999) created bright image of the lyrical hero: an old man, a beggar, a tramp and Eternal Boy. This image is central in the book “Co-crucifix” (1995, 2009). We explored the archives of the poet (the first notebooks of 1940-1941, the last notebook of 1999), the book of poems of last years “Mine eyes” (2005) and noted the persistence of age of the hero. The image of an old man emerged in the early poems when the poet was young, and in final years Veniamin Blazhennyj identified lyrical “I” with the old man-child. Thus, his hero retained the signs of one age for more than half a century, the other stages of life were “missing”.