Pasternak and Severyanin: Two Editions of Vokzal

Abstract

Boris Pasternak’s early work, in particular, in the first two books of poems, Bliznets v tuchakh (Twin in the Clouds, 1914) and Poverkh bar’erov (Over the Barriers, 1916/1917), demonstrates the “traces” of Igor Severyanin’s (Igor Lotarev) style and imagery. However, in 1928, Pasternak significantly rewrote his early poems for a new book. The poet frees several poems from Severyanin’s influence but does not eliminate the elements of his older contemporary’s poetics and stylistic features. The present article shows the evolution of reminiscences from Severyanin’s texts in early and late editions of Pasternak’s Vokzal (Station, 1913, 1928). In the 1928 edition of Vokzal, Pasternak abandons some of Severyanin’s techniques presented in the 1913 edition in favor of “simplification.” Therefore, he moves away from the “artsy” vocabulary and Latin alphabet and, at the same time, adds colloquial words. Nevertheless, despite the emphasized transition to a new period in his work, Pasternak seems to retain some of his former style’s particular signs.

Keywords

• russian poetry
• russian poetry of the 20th century
• pasternak
• igor severyanin